Even If Clinton Beats Trump, The U.S. Lags Globally In Female Leadership

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July 28, 2016 is a date that will go down in U.S. history as the first time that a woman accepted the nomination for president of the United States of America. This is a powerful achievement for those who believe that American women should have better leadership representation. In Hillary Clinton’s own words, “we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet.”

But although it is reasonable to congratulate ourselves over an important milestone toward gender balance, when we consider this milestone within a global context, it is clear that the U.S. is not a leader and, in fact, has a lot of catching up to do.

83 Other Countries Have Already Chosen A Woman As Leader

Let’s start by considering the women who have led or are currently leading countries around the world. Today, there are 20 countries whose head of state (e.g., president) or head of government (e.g., prime minister) is a woman: Austria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Croatia, Germany, Liberia, Lithuania, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Norway, Poland, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Note that this list excludes female monarchs.

An interesting pattern emerges if we examine historical data about these global women leaders. In particular, the accompanying chart shows, in 10-year intervals between 1936 and 2015, how many women were appointed or elected as head of state or head of government.

Number of women elected or appointed as head of state or head of government (Credit: chart by P. Gaudiano using data from Wikipedia).

The trend is clear and promising, showing rapidly accelerating growth. However, this chart also shows that the U.S. is quite a latecomer to the game. In 1940 Khertek Amyrbitovna Anchimaa-Toka was the first woman to be selected as head of state, though it wasn’t until the second half of the 1960s when more than one country had a woman leader at the same time: India (Indira Gandhi, as prime minster), China (Soong Ching-ling, as acting co-chairperson), Israel (Golda Meir, as prime minister) and Ceylon / Sri Lanka (Sirimavo Bandaranaike, as prime minister).

Since then, the number of women being appointed or elected has increased significantly decade-over-decade. Between 1940 and today, 138 different women have served as head of state or head of government in 83 different countries. A few of the countries from this list no longer exist as independent sovereignties, but considering that 196 countries are recognized today, this means that roughly 40% of all countries in the last 70 years have had a female leader.

Based on the steep rise shown in the chart, it is likely that if Hillary Clinton is not elected in 2016, by the time the U.S. has another opportunity to elect a woman as president, close to half of all countries in the world will already have done so.

The U.S. Ranks 96th In Terms Of Women In Parliamentary Positions

Not only is our government behind in executive leadership, but even at the parliamentary level (i.e., House of Representatives and Senate) the U.S. lags many other countries: as documented by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the U.S. ranks 96th worldwide in terms of the percentage of women holding parliamentary seats, with only 84 women out of 434 Representatives, or 19.4%. The Senate has a nearly identical make-up, with 20 women out of 100 (20%). Among the 95 countries doing better than the U.S. we find 35 European countries, 25 African countries, 16 Asian countries, 9 North American countries, 8 South American countries and 2 Oceanian countries. The list includes countries that are not considered hotbeds of gender balance, such as Afghanistan (#50), the United Arab Emirates (#74) and Saudi Arabia (#91).

These are just some of the sobering statistics showing that, when it comes to supporting women in high-level political positions, the U.S. is lagging behind many countries around the world. More importantly, it is clear that our political structures do not come close to reflecting the gender distribution they are supposed to represent.

The Impact Of Political Leadership On Corporate Leadership

Why does this matter for corporate leadership? Just as there is evidence that the behavior and attitudes of corporate leaders influence the behavior of all their employees, we cannot help but believe that the behavior of our political leaders serves as an example to all U.S. based organizations – from government agencies to corporations and non-profits. Having a woman as president may open the door to more women in government. In fact, Ms. Clinton has indicated she will aim for 50/50 gender balance in her cabinet. The hope is that, in turn, this will trickle down to all sectors of our society, including of course corporate governance.

Regardless of political inclination, there is reason to believe that electing a woman as President would bode well for the advancement of women in the workplace. Conversely, failing to do so may delay or hamper further progress toward gender balance in corporate America.

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