Women leaders outperform
“Findings suggest that female leadership contributes to the promotion and implementation of environmental and social practices through several characteristics intrinsic to their nature, such as the ability to emphasize and listen and the predisposition to sharing and collaboration.”
Like many other countries at the moment, Sweden is on a forceful mission to re-establish a secure and trustworthy defence mechanism. Over the last few years the Swedish weapon industry has seen a massive increase in demand and subsequent revenue, and the numbers are almost unbearable to read. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute continuously follow international statistics and said in a recent study - “The new data showed that world military spending grew for the eighth consecutive year in 2022 to an all-time high of $2240 billion.”
As it is Sunday and I have time to just sit and ponder, I’m slowly wondering in my little head, a female one, how this world is organised. We currently have about 30 female leaders in the world and it is easy to playfully wonder what the world would be like if we reached equal gender levels when it came to decision making? UN Women have released easy graphics on “Visualizing the data: Women’s representation in society”. Only in sports and in the participation of the Olympic Games, are women somewhat represented in the same numbers as men. However, very much underpaid compared to their counterparts, again the men.
The relationship between gender diversity, climate performance and innovation has not been widely discussed but a 2020 study of more than 11,700 companies, points to a correlation between the presence of a critical mass of women on the board, and climate governance and innovation. They state “The results suggest that companies with higher than 30% women on board had better climate governance globally in the past four years. This trend has been observed in electric utilities, oil and gas and mining sectors”.
Another study (and this feels like a common wording when there is research and studies of women in general) states - “Despite the growing number of studies on women as sustainable development leaders, there is still little empirical evidence on how women contribute to the companies' sustainable development.” They further continue - “Findings suggest that female leadership contributes to the promotion and implementation of environmental and social practices through several characteristics intrinsic to their nature, such as the ability to emphasize and listen and the predisposition to sharing and collaboration. In addition, sustainable women leaders exhibit the following main traits: thinking systematically/holistically, managing complexity, and inclusive approach to leadership.”
Over the last few years I have myself been called naive and I am fully aware of my inclination to flirt with norms and expectations of being a woman while trying to change systems. The focus on social behaviours, culture and art has been a truly bad personal life choice for making money. My inclination to believe we need to remove things rather than add yet another tech product has not brought any investors to my side. But maybe it is time for those who believe I am too simple to re-evaluate possible ways of thinking. For the increase of female leadership in the world shows me that I’m not that far off. Ursula von der Leyens opening speech at the Beyond Growth Conference in May earlier this year gives me hope. Tricia Hersey’s The Nap Ministry and her manifesto for women to rest gives me hope.
But let’s end with a twist and an article from Forbes a couple of years ago - “The mountain of evidence keeps growing. Women leaders outperform. Especially during a crisis. Companies with more of them do better. Countries led by women are managing the Covid crisis better than their male counterparts. Why aren’t we all celebrating a global human awakening to the miracle of women’s century-long rise this International Women’s Day? Because only half the world is listening. And no, it’s not women vs men. It’s public vs private sector.”
My Sunday ponder is, what could $2240 billion do for the public sector?
