In recent years investors, regulators, lawmakers and other stakeholders have all been pushing for broader representation of women on boards. Progress has been made, but it’s not easy. As one headline in Fortune noted last year, ‘Women hold a record number of corporate board seats. The bad news: it’s barely over 25 percent, and it’s slowing down.’ Progress also remains a challenge beyond the numbers of board seats women fill.
Dr Tiffany Trzebiatowski, assistant professor in the management academic department at Colorado State University, says women face a ‘double bind’ when it comes to fulfilling their potential in the boardroom: they are subject to traditional expectations to be ‘warm’ while also operating as competent leaders. They can face backlash if they don’t walk a tightrope based on other people’s gender-norm preconceptions.
Trzebiatowski has been studying this double bind and how women directors cope with it. She and her colleagues interviewed more than 40 female directors and uncovered six participation tactics women use to mitigate these stereotypical concerns, achieve greater participation and add value without triggering a backlash.
In this episode of Corporate Secretary’s Governance Matters podcast, Trzebiatowski talks to host Jeff Cossette about these tactics, directors’ thoughts on how and when to use them and how corporate secretaries can help. Find out more by downloading the episode.
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