Will we have fewer female CEOs in the future? That is what a new study by the talent management firm Saba and WorkplaceTrends.com suggests. It found that people who identified as female and/or as a millennial lagged behind those who identified as male and/or a generation Xer in their aspiration to be a CEO.
As a woman who became a CEO for the first time at age 27 and now with 20 years of experience in nonprofits and start-ups, I was concerned and a bit disheartened by what this study suggests. While it took me a while to recognize my innate leadership abilities, my younger siblings noticed them right away. Leadership was my calling. I know there are plenty more women who are born to lead. My own daughter is already a very assertive six-year-old.
The question is not if women — millennial or otherwise —want to lead, the questions are where and why. As for where, I have found that women in the nonprofit sector are eager to take charge, in part because they feel they can make a difference. The Chronicle of Philanthropy's 2014 "Untapped Potential of Women in Nonprofits" report found that 57% of women in this sector, including 72% of women ages 18 to 34, aspire to hold the position of CEO. So why is my sector so different from others?
For one, it is female-dominated. The 2012 “Current State of Women in Leadership" report from the Women's College of the University of Denver found that women make up 75% of the nonprofit workforce. In contrast to the business world where there are only 20 female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, more women in my sector have the opportunity to walk in the steps of a female predecessor. It also means that more women have the chance to hire women as well as mentor and promote them.
The work-life balance — or at least the perception of it that — in the nonprofit field is also a draw. The Saba and WorkplaceTrends.com study found that "work-life integration" is a priority for both women and millennials. Nonprofits tend to offer more flexible hours, more paid holidays, and longer vacation packages (often in exchange for lower salaries than in comparable fields). So it is no wonder that women, who still share the lion's load of family responsibilities, are eager to join the nonprofit workforce.
It also offers women and millennials, many of whom eager to “make a difference,” an opportunity to combine passion and work. To meet the increased interest in the nonprofit sector, in the last decade, numerous universities have developed degree plans for Nonprofit Management and Social Entrepreneurship, providing a direct path from college to the field.
But, let me be clear. It's not all roses and rainbows in our sector. The top nonprofit leadership roles continue to be male-dominated. Men still hold 79% of the CEO positions for organizations with $25 million in assets or greater. A 2014 GuideStar report found that a gender pay gap exists in this industry as well. The sector is not perfect, but it is a place where women have a greater opportunity to lead.
If we want to increase the number of females who aspire to be CEO in the for-profit industry from among the millennial pool, we need to learn from the nonprofit sector. There must be more mentoring and role-modeling for young women, better work-life balance options, and ways for employees to see how their work can make a difference in the world.
For the latter, we need to make it clear that even nonprofits cannot survive without community and corporate support. As businesses become more socially conscious, the implications of what they support will greatly affect what resources are available to families, women, and children in the broader community. We need women in executive leadership from the for-profit arena to help determine where those corporate dollars will go both as decision makers within their corporations and advocates on nonprofit boards.
I regularly see this with women on my board. Just recently, one of my female board members, an accomplished attorney and a mom, spoke to a panel of funders and successfully asked for $500,000 to help us build a new extended-hours childcare for working moms and moms who want to train at night to obtain better jobs in the future. She was a perfect advocate.
That fact remains that women are needed on every side of the table, both nonprofit and for-profit, not only to make the community better across the board but to represent it. I believe that when given the chance and the ability to see their added value, women of all ages will step up to the challenge and we will see more female CEOs in the future.
Kim Williams is CEO of Interfaith Housing Coalition and a member of the OpEd Project Public Voices Greenhouse in Dallas.
