Winning the gender diversity battle

An ability to talk about the business case for diversity isn’t sufficient for CEOs to really drive the kinds of behavioural change needed to increase the number of women at senior levels, according to new research by KPMG and King’s College London.  Instead CEOs need to be brave, and talk from their hearts as well as their heads.

 In one of the first major studies on the role of the CEO in driving change on diversity and inclusion, Dr Elisabeth Kelan’s research analyses how CEOs of global organisations explain the need for action on gender to themselves and to others, and the kinds of leadership behaviours they use to help make change happen.

CEOs put the lack of women at senior levels in organisations down to a number of factors.  The most frequently cited explanation relates to what Kelan calls ‘management failure’ – the longstanding shortcomings in systems, processes and people necessary to progress gender parity.   

However, CEOs also believe that women themselves seek roles which enable them to balance work with caring responsibilities.  Whilst that may be true of many women, it’s certainly not true of all, and the research shows how despite the best of intentions some CEOs may risk stereotyping the domestic responsibilities of women – and what they bring to the workforce.

CEOs are often influenced to push for gender parity by having strong women in their family, or for other personal reasons. Many CEOs downplay their personal motivations for diversity, talking instead about commercial and business benefits.  In practice the research found the most effective way for CEOs to encourage change is to talk from the heart as well as from the head about why greater gender diversity at the top of organisations is good for business.

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