By Dr. Wanda Wallace and Rob Kaiser
The popular opinion is that unconscious bias against women as leaders — by the mostly male establishment — is keeping women out of the executive suite. But that simple explanation misses the mark.
We conducted, researched and released findings in March that analyzed 360-degree assessments of 857 women and 857 men from upper-level management in six companies based in the United States, Western Europe and Australia. The women and men were matched in terms of age, experience, tenure, management level and functional area. We systematically studied the presence of bias using two well-accepted statistical procedures, and then we looked at real differences in behavior.