Member-only story
Why Are There So Few Women in Design Leadership?
The uphill climb past entrenched bias makes many women just give up
The data:
Only 33 of the companies in the Fortune 500 list have CEOs who are women.
The same applies to six of the companies in the FTSE 100.
Women don’t get to the top of companies very often, even in 2019.
We may have a better balance in the design industry than in the wider tech sector. Several teams I’ve worked on had a 50/50 ratio of male and female designers. But at senior levels, only 11% of design leaders are women. So we have the same old problem of not making it to the top. What’s happening?
My theory is simple: We get tired.
Here’s why…
Gender pay gap
It still exists. Currently, 78% of companies report a pay gap in favor of men. It starts early, often with negotiations on starting salary in the first job after university.
We’re taught to expect less, negotiate cautiously, and be grateful.
The fact that women earn less is reinforced by recruitment practices. A female designer I know applied for a role advertised at a specific salary…
