The 8^th March is an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions women have made - and continue to make – to leadership in all areas of life. Often this has involved women overcoming all kinds of barriers in order to get to where they are now – and to where we want to get in the future.  We see women leaders all around us - from those globally known – Jacinda Ardern, Mary Robinson, Christine Lagarde – to more locally active, less visible ones such as our own champion of gender equality, Professor Karen McCloskey. And the hundreds of women playing leadership roles with integrity, compassion and commitment in all walks of life - the community and voluntary, public and private sectors.

The research points to women’s contribution as leaders too. According to a recent HBR article (2020) women score higher than men in most leadership skills – those skills they identified as differentiating excellent leaders from average or poor ones.  Women were rated as excelling in: taking initiative; acting with resilience; practicing self-development; driving for results; and displaying high integrity and honesty. Overall, women were thought to be more effective in 84% of the competences most frequently measured.

Its timely to remind ourselves to look; to pay attention; to notice women and what women contribute. Otherwise, it’s too easy for this to remain largely invisible. The same HBR research also found that women don’t rate themselves as highly as others rate them; leading some to wonder if a lack of confidence on the part of women is at play here. Lack of confidence probably does play a part but the bigger issue is likely to be a dearth of opportunity with so many barriers to women still remaining intact.

So on this International Women’s Day, lets focus our attention on women and encourage all women to play leadership roles wherever and whenever they can. Women are not a homogenous group and, in recognising our differences, we can both celebrate and leverage our differences to create a world that is diverse and inclusive.

Dr Louise O'Meara, Programme Director on the Emerging Leaders Programme

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