By Melanie Berringer
Women are not seen as leaders in our society. After all women still make up only twenty percent of Congress and three percent of management in Fortune 500 companies. One sector where the management issue is especially stark is in non-profits. Women make up seventy percent of the workforce in non-profits, but they only make up forty percent of the management. This is a problem. In a female dominated work force, men are still being chosen to lead, leaving women underrepresented. This is symptomatic of a larger issue in our society; women are not seen as leaders.
It is often said that women are much more empowered than we used to be. We now have the vote, freedom over our bodies, and are equally represented in higher education. These facts are said in order to prove how far we have come.
It is true, great strides have been made in women’s equality, and for that we should feel grateful, but it’s important to remember that we still have a ways to go. We need to promote female leaders; in elected office, in education, and in management. It’s not enough that we have more women in Congress than ever before, we have to keep pushing until it’s equal.
We have some amazing female leaders right now. Women like Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Hillary Clinton have all been inspiring role models and we need to continue to support them, but we also need to strive to find and support female leaders all around us. We also need to support male leaders who are sensitive to issues of equality. Most importantly we all need to remember that while we are making great strides in gender equality, we must continue to push for more, until women are seen as equal to men as leaders as well.