Why U.S. Urgently Needs Leadership Gender Parity: How Power Up Conference Gets You There

Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead at the 2023 Power Up Conference and Concert.

If women vying for top spots at work are overlooked at many U.S. workplaces claiming they are too emotional, why then did the new movie about a young girl experiencing emotions of anxiety, envy and embarrassment just become the largest global box office hit with $1 billion in ticket sales?

Perhaps it’s because the story of Riley experiencing a breadth of emotions in the new Disney animated sequel, “Inside Out 2”, is fictional. But it may be resonating with females of all ages and particularly leaders who say the biased perception of their emotionalism is a barrier to the C-suite in real life.

This is why connecting to other women who recognize and promote their innate power and power of their colleagues is a key factor in the learning and collaboration at Take The Lead’s Power Up Concert & Conference August 25-26 in Washington, D.C.

With the theme, “Together We Lead,” the fourth annual Power Up Conference on Women’s Equality Day, offers speakers, presenters, panelists and advisors who will strategize with attendees and participants on specifically how to reach gender and racial parity in leadership sooner rather than later.

“The @Takeleadwomen fourth annual #PowerUpConference offers speakers, presenters, panelists and advisors strategizing on how to reach gender and racial #parity in #leadership.”

Register here for Power Up Conference  

In its 10th year of working toward the mission of parity in leadership for women across all sectors by 2025, Take The Lead has a bold track record of successfully creating spaces for leadership excellence through events, trainings, consultation, industry-specific cohorts, content, plus individual and organizational programming and resources.

This year’s conference goals “to build your career, your business, your wealth, with joy not burnout; to engage men in the work for gender equality and to get the public policies that impact your life,” are especially relevant, says Gloria Feldt, Take The Lead’s co-founder and president.

Recognizing the systemic and ingrained patterns that need to be changed and changing them with action and specific collaborative strategies is the goal.    

Persistent tropes, stereotypes and bias against women in the workplace contribute to the lack of gender parity in leadership at work, IMD reports.

“Persistent tropes, stereotypes and #bias against women in the workplace contribute to the lack of #genderparity in leadership at work, @IMD_Bschool reports.”

A 2023 study of female leadership in Fortune 500 companies shows it “topped 10% for the first time in the list’s 68-year history. But men still made up 83% of the 533 executive officers within the corporations listed in the S&P 100,” IMD reports. 

The assignation of women as more emotional and less competent also backfires when those identifying as women speak up about the disparity in treatment, payment and roles.

When “challenging them can mark her as difficult or aggressive,” IMD reports, women sometimes retreat from objecting to objectification and become burned out.

Read more in Take The Lead on flipping bias talk

Burnout from discrimination is why many prefer remote work, particularly post-COVID. “Many women of color were especially hesitant to return to the office because of their experiences of isolation and discrimination there,” according to IMD.

“#Burnout from discrimination is why many prefer #remotework, particularly post-COVID.”

Read more from Gloria Feldt on women in health

These factors create a stunning health gap women endure that is tied to a lack of parity at work. A new study from Sun Life Canada says that “60 per cent of working women said that issues around reproductive health, menstruation, and menopause could affect their career advancement abilities. Some of the respondents even say that without the proper health support, they have to ‘step back, step down, and step away’ from their careers.”

The study also revealed that four out of 10 (40 per cent) of working women have already made some career-limiting decisions due to health issues or to take care of their families. Meanwhile, 10 per cent of working women have left or are planning to leave their jobs because of menopausal symptoms.

Returning to speak this year at the Power Up Conference is Dr. Sophia Yen, MD., the CEO and co-founder of Pandia Health, the world’s only women-founded, women-led, doctor-founded, doctor-led birth control and hormonal resource delivery company for women of all ages.

A reproductive rights activist, founder of three non-profits, mother of two daughters, clinical associate professor at Stanford Medical School in pediatrics in the division of adolescent medicine and champion of female health, Yen returns to this year’s Power Up conference because her mission is simple: healthcare access for women at all stages of their lives.

“Dr. Yen, co-founder of @PandiaHealth, returns to this year’s #PowerUpConference because her mission is simple: #healthcare access for women at all stages of their lives. ”

Pandia Health states its mission as, “We started Pandia in the spirit of making women's healthcare personalized and easy to access. We continue because this the standard of care we want for our daughters, our friends, and ourselves.”

Read more in Take The Lead on Dr. Sophia Yen

While the necessity for closing access gaps to healthcare for women is essential, it is one factor of a global gap in equity. In the new 2024 global gender gap report from the World Economic Forum, covering 146 economies, “no country has yet achieved full gender parity, (and) the top nine countries (Iceland, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Nicaragua, Germany, Namibia and Ireland) have closed at least 80% of their gap.”

Northern America ranks 2nd including Canada and the U.S. as a region, but as a country, the United States ranks 43rd. In other comparisons, the U.S. holds at #22 for  economic opportunity and #77 for Health & Survival.

“As a country, the United States ranks 43rd in the @WEF 2024 global #gendergap report.”

The WEF reports, “Ranked again as number one, Iceland (1st, 93.5%) has now been leading the index for a decade and a half. It remains the sole economy in the index to have closed over 90% of its gender gap.”

Corporations, enterprises, companies and organizations in the U.S. must do more to promote and enhance gender fairness and equality. Take The Lead is taking on this mission.

“Corporations, enterprises, companies and organizations in the U.S. must do more to promote and enhance gender fairness and equality. #genderequity”

In 2024, LinkedIn data “shows that women’s workforce representation remains below men’s across nearly every industry and economy, with women accounting for 42% of the global workforce and 31.7% of senior leaders. Top-level positions remain narrowly accessible for women, globally speaking, illustrated by the global ‘drop to the top’: in 2024, the ascent from entry level to the C-suite is steeped in a 21.5 percentage-point difference in representation.”

LinkedIn reports, ”While women are close to occupying nearly half of entry-level positions, they fall short of representing just one-quarter of C-suite roles. Hailed in past editions as a promising trend, women’s hiring into leadership began to deteriorate, from 37.5% to 36.9% in 2023, and continued dropping in early 2024 to 36.4%, below 2021 levels.”

This trend is disheartening, but not permanent.

According to LinkedIn, “The higher women’s representation in the workforce is, the greater the resilience to retrenchment during economic downturns.”

Erasing fictional tropes and embracing the capability of all employees in the workforce leads to a creative and cooperative workplace. According to IMD, “Diverse perspectives drive innovation. So, when women are excluded from key decision-making, research and development can stagnate.” 

“Erasing fictional tropes and embracing the capability of all employees in the #workforce leads to a creative and cooperative workplace. #genderdiversity”

The report continues, “Fostering gender diversity, equity, and inclusion results in increased employee engagement and better employee retention. When companies fully invest in their employees, they can spend less time hiring and training and more time innovating.”