Women often outperform men on key leadership measures, particularly collaboration, relationships and crisis management, yet barriers still block their route to senior roles. David Buchanan and Steve Macaulay examine the evidence and set out what HR and L&D can do to strengthen the leadership pipeline and stop wasting valuable talent.
Recent studies have found that women make better leaders than men. This is a compelling reason, beyond equality and diversity, for appointing women to senior management positions. In this article, we explore the evidence and the practical implications for HR/L&D.
There were only eight female CEOs in FTSE 100 companies in 2021. By 2025, this had risen to nine. Hardly significant progress. In the United States, only 11% of the Fortune 500 companies have a female CEO. And of roughly 200 countries in the world, only 29 have a female head of state.
If capable individuals cannot aspire to senior position, this is a sign of wasted talent
This is often seen as an equality and diversity problem. However, if capable individuals cannot aspire to senior position, this is a sign of wasted talent. Women are as capable and ambitious as men, they just don’t get the same chances.
What does the research tell us?
One recent review of the evidence identifies three reasons why women, when given the opportunity, make more effective leaders than men:
- Women score higher than men on the people (or so-called “soft”) dimensions of leadership: relating, self-awareness, authenticity, and systems awareness. They connect with others better and build relationships that contribute to organisational performance
- Women leaders are more likely to work with collaborators to develop their vision and achieve their goals. Male leaders spend more time trying to avoid risks and downsides instead of focusing on the vision
- Women build stronger connections, care for, mentor, and develop others, and show concern for the community
A major survey found that organisations where at least 30% of leadership roles are held by women are twelve times more likely to be in the top 20 for financial performance.
A second review of studies of female leaders reached similar conclusions:
- Women are more communal in their behaviour: they build relationships, and are considerate, cooperative, selfless, and sociable
- Men are more agentic in their behaviour: they take charge, and are goal oriented, assertive, confident, decisive, and influential
- When women emphasise agentic traits, they are judged negatively, but this doesn’t apply to men; dominant women are seen as less promotable unless they perform better than their male colleagues
- Where the need for coordination is high, teams led by women are more cohesive, cooperative and participative than teams led by men
Leadership can be defined as getting things done through others. One of the common threads in the evidence concerning female leaders is their ability to build constructive, considerate, collaborative, supportive relationships. These capabilities matter in a turbulent, unpredictable, crisis-prone business environment.
Of course, men can do these things, too. And we can all think of female leaders who don’t fit this profile. Clearly these are capabilities that all leaders should display to some degree, depending on the context. And these issues need to be addressed in leadership development programmes. But on the whole, women just seem to do it better.
Performance in a crisis
Female leaders also seem to outperform men in a crisis. In a study of over 350 women and 450 men, women were rated more positively than male colleagues in ten areas because they:
- Take initiative
- Learn new skills
- Inspire and motivate others
- Develop others
- Build relationships
- Display high integrity and honesty
- Communicate powerfully and widely
- Encourage collaboration and teamwork
- Champion change
- Make decisions
It seems that, in a crisis, female leaders in particular show confidence in their plans, greater awareness of the fears that others may have, and concern for their wellbeing. Understanding the stress, anxiety, and frustration of others in a crisis is something that all leaders should do.
The barriers
The 2025 Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey argues that women seeking career progression face an ‘uneven playing field’ with fewer opportunities than men. Their survey of 9,500 employees in 124 North American companies identified three blocks:
- Lack of sponsorship
Those who have sponsors in senior roles are promoted at twice the rate of those who do not, but women are less likely to have sponsors than men
- Lack of advocacy
Women lack managers to recommend them for promotion, challenging assignments, and projects that support their career goals
- Lack of targeted development
Men are more likely than women to be offered the chance to take part in leadership training at critical stages in their careers.
There are of course other reasons for the lack of women in senior corporate roles. The US-led backlash against diversity has encouraged many companies to halt or dilute programmes that support women and ethnic minorities. There is a perception that a male CEO is a ‘safe choice’ in the current unpredictable climate. And women aren’t given the roles, experience, and skills that head-hunters look for when filling top jobs.
The crappy NPTs
One of our relatives is a senior programme manager working in France on a six-figure salary. To her great annoyance, she was recently asked to organise the company’s Christmas Party. Linda Babcock, co-author of The No Club, tells the story of a friend who had a male colleague who turned up for meetings without a pad and pen. He asked her to take notes and email them to him. She became his personal assistant – until she gave him some stationery.
Planning office parties, making coffee, arranging sandwiches, committee work, taking notes, making travel arrangements, arranging meetings, helping new hires. These are tasks which almost anyone can do and called ‘non-promotable tasks’ (NPTs). They are of course important, but they won’t boost your career if you take them on. Men typically avoid these ‘crappy tasks’ and expect women to do them. Babcock says that women should say ‘no’ more often. HR must map NPTs and support women in taking that stance.
It is a management problem if necessary, routine work is not widely and fairly shared. It is a bigger management problem if those with valuable expertise spend time on office housework.
Securing the pipeline
The challenge for HR/L&D is to build a strong pipeline of future senior management talent, female and male. This involves a number of steps:
- Ensure that women are also given stretch assignments and visible leadership roles that involve profit-and-loss responsibility in early and mid-career
- Monitor recruitment and promotion decisions for stereotype-based bias
- Design tailored leadership development and personal coaching programmes
- Promote work-life balance and flexible working in senior roles
- Support female leadership networks and mentoring
- Establish sponsorship programmes to support female and male leaders
If you are an ambitious mid-career woman looking to advance there are a number of things you can do in that aim, such as accepting assignments, taking on roles, attending development programmes, finding a coach and more. Developing relationships in valuable networks, nurture a suitable sponsor or sponsors and cultivating personal work-life balance are all great ways of finding support.
The people development prerogative
HR and L&D teams are on a mission to help. Give women the same support and resources mentioned above that are available to men throughout their careers. Implement development and systems which mean that women are not isolated and fighting challenges on their own.
This isn’t novel or difficult or costly. But it will be effective.
Steve Macaulay is an Associate at Cranfield Executive Development. He can be contacted at: s.macaulay@cranfield.ac.uk
David Buchanan is Emeritus Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Cranfield University School of Management. He can be contacted at: david.buchanan@cranfield.ac.uk
