The Secret to Getting More Women in Leadership: Men

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WOMEN’S AND MEN’S EARNINGS IS ON AVERAGE 18 CENTS PER DOLLAR earned, and even more than that for women of color. After years in which women have constituted about half of the college-educated workforce, this significant, unchanging pay gap and the lack of representation of women in the upper echelons of senior management are troubling. In fact, only a surprisingly tiny 7.8 percent of CEOs at S&P 500 companies were female at the close of 2020. Why is it taking so long to shatter the proverbial glass ceiling once and for all? This is the question asked by Harvard Business School professors Colleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg in their new book GLASS HALF-BROKEN: SHATTERING THE BARRIERS THAT STILL HOLD WOMEN BACK AT WORK (Harvard Business Review Press, April). They discuss institutional reasons limiting women’s advancement and what can be done to eradicate them. In this excerpt from their book, Ammerman and Groysberg tackle how men can be a major part of the solution.

Allies on the Sidelines

IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE #METOO MOVEMENT, THE status of women in the workplace has taken on renewed importance and urgency. Yet even as we saw massively increased awareness translate into organizational change in business, we also began to hear worried musings from women and men in a variety of industries.