Think of a genius.

Chances are you just pictured a man, not a woman. If you did, you are among the majority of people who associate brilliance more easily with men than women. Studies have shown that femininity is inversely associated with brilliance. This 'Brilliance Bias" starts at a very young age. When asked to draw a scientist, the majority of young children will draw a man, and by the age of fourteen, children are drawing four times as many male scientists as female scientists. With the introduction of blind auditions in the 1970s, the proportion of women in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra went from zero to close to 50%. From arts to sciences, the brilliance bias is pervasive, and the corporate world is no different. Faith in the "blindness" of the meritocracy continues to be a stubborn barrier for women's advancement into leadership roles in the economy.

Jennifer Reynolds
Jennifer Reynolds Jennifer Reynolds

Despite the fact that women have represented over 50% of university graduates among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries for more than 30 years, women still represent less than 5% of CEOs. Similarly, women hold a mere 5% of board chair roles. Why should we focus on those two roles in particular? The CEO and Chair of the board play the most influential roles in our economy. The strategy and goals for the business, the agenda of the board, and the culture of the organization are largely defined by the individuals who hold those two pivotal roles in an organization. Women hold a mere 5% of the most influential roles in our economy, yet we represent close to half of the workforce and more than half of the population.

Volumes of research by credible organizations like Credit Suisse, McKinsey, and Catalyst have demonstrated higher levels of gender diversity in leadership result in stronger financial performance. Diversity in leadership leads to stronger companies and a more competitive economy. Capitalizing on 100 percent of the talent pool for leadership should be a top priority for every board and management team. But to fix the meritocracy and ensure that women are just as likely as men to make it to senior leadership roles, companies need to have a plan to get there.

A policy for increasing gender diversity in the boardroom and the executive suite should be expected of every board by all stakeholders, from shareholders to employees, to the government. More importantly, targets with transparent reporting and links to executive compensation will be critical to moving from platitudes to results.

Too often, I hear the comment that "it takes time" to build the pipeline for leadership. There just haven't been enough women in the pipeline for long enough to move the dial on the "face" of economic leadership. I graduated from university about 30 years ago with a class of more than 50% women, as did all graduates of that generation. The pipeline of educated, innovative, ambitious, and capable female leaders is present in abundance. Our brilliance is just masked by our gender.

In my role as CEO of Women Corporate Directors Foundation (WCD), I have the privilege of being surrounded by hundreds of successful female corporate leaders daily. Women who have climbed the corporate ladder, held executive leadership roles, run businesses, and now hold corporate director board roles around the globe. Yet despite the presence of a vast talent pool of female corporate business leaders, women hold a mere 19% of corporate director seats globally, and the current rate of progress would not see parity reached until the latter half of this century.

Christine LaGarde, President of the ECB, recently commented on the need for leaders who are prepared to adapt to a world of greater complexity and uncertainty. People who can break down knowledge silos, bring together pioneering minds from different sectors, and find integrated solutions to complex problems. She also noted the need for leaders who can build bridges and find common ground where it exists. These are people who create trust, listen to others, and can connect with those unlike themselves. Characteristics which female leaders tend to possess in abundance and which can be beneficial in multiple situations – especially in times of crisis.

There is a narrative that women are better at leading in a crisis, yet it seems to assume that their leadership qualities emerge only episodically and then disappear again. The past few years have once again shone a spotlight on women's strengths as leaders. A recent multi-year study of leaders and employees from approximately 5,000 companies in close to 100 countries looked at how leaders do the hard things that come with top jobs while still remaining good human beings. In essence, it explored leaders "doing hard things in a human way." Wisdom and compassion emerged as the most potent and effective leadership qualities in difficult times. When the data was parsed by gender, 55% of the women in the study were ranked by their followers as being wise and compassionate compared to only 27% of the men. By a 2:1 margin, followers said that women leaders versus male leaders are able to do hard things in a human way.

It is time to drive the conversation further when it comes to these various topics among women. I'm proud to be part of the upcoming 2023 Global Summit, a two-day conference on June 8 and 9 in New York that covers an expansive discussion on corporate governance issues with global corporate leaders that will provide thought leadership and best practices on today's most pressing issues for boards and executive leadership teams.

In a world which is craving leadership in a time of crisis, in an economic period that calls for steady stewardship, all in the face of great environmental and societal challenges, it seems time to acknowledge and make room for new forms of "brilliance." It is long overdue that we challenge women's role in the 5% club of leadership in our economy. It is time that our children draw female scientists and CEOs when asked what genius looks like.