According to The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything, for the first time in U.S. history, women are about to become the majority of the nation’s paid worker. “Today, women are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in 63.3% of American families.”⁷ Here is a little excerpt from the report:

Look around your workplace, and calculate the percentage of women. Now look at top management. How many of those corner offices are occupied by women? For the vast majority of U.S. workplaces, the answer is 20% or less, even though women make up 48% of the total workforce. As Newsweek columnist Anna Quindlen writes in The Leadership Lid: “One of the greatest natural resources in America is going underused. And she may be sitting right at the next desk.” Seems that the glass ceiling hasn’t budged in years, no matter how many women enter the workforce. An upcoming report from The White House Project, a non-partisan organization set up to promote women in politics, finds that women occupy around 20% of leadership positions in business, journalism, politics and law firms. The rate is much lower in Fortune 500 firms and higher in non-profits (where salaries are typically low). And it’s been that way for years.”⁸

Women are still a largely untapped resource when it comes to leadership, and though the landscape is changing, it still has a long way to go. Women are not the same as men when it comes to leaders, but that may not be a bad thing. According to a yearlong study conducted by Caliper, a Princeton, New Jersey–based management consulting firm, and Aurora, a London-based organization, there are four specific statements that characterize women leaders:

1.   Women leaders are more persuasive than their male counterparts.

2.   When feeling the sting of rejection, women leaders learn from adversity and carry on with an “I’ll show you” attitude.

3.   Women leaders demonstrate an inclusive, team-building leadership style of problem solving and decision making.

4.   Women leaders are more likely to ignore rules and take risks.⁹

It may be a man’s world now, but not for long. Not only is the workplace changing due to age, it is also changing due to gender and ethnicity. As Alice said in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, this “just gets curiouser and curiouser!”¹⁰

Tips for Recruiting Women Leaders:

•   Much like the people in ethnic diversity talent pools, women have often been specially groomed for leadership in women leadership and women mentoring programs within the larger organizations and through university programs. Organizations can tap these pools to find highly qualified talent. Again, don’t neglect these talent pools just because a candidate didn’t put her hat in the ring: the best catch may be those who were won after a great hunting expedition.

•   Get serious about learning and development. Women do not need impressive Return-on-Investment numbers to be convinced that learning and development should be a core value for organizations to be successful. They want to learn themselves, and they want learning and development for others. If the organization does not incorporate learning and development into the culture, it will need to make up the difference in money or flexibility in order to lure highly talented women leaders, because if they have a choice to go with a learning organization versus a non-learning organization, guess which one they’ll choose.

•   Know that money is typically not the motivating factor for women leaders, although they definitely expect to be paid equally to their male counterparts. Money is something that women want and need, but it does not motivate women the same way it does men. Women expect it like they expect to be able to go to the bathroom when they need to: it is a necessary piece of the workplace scenario. Women are instead motivated by things like a sense of community, security, respect, relationships, and having an impact on others.

•   Establish flexible schedules, telecommuting, and a results-based work environment.

•   Create a safe work environment and sense of security for your workers.

•   Prove it. Be able to point out women leaders in the organization who have been recruited or promoted to leadership positions, receive equal pay to their male counterparts, and were chosen based on their credentials not their looks.