A few weeks ago Online MBA sent me a video they put together called “Why Women Make Better Business Leaders.” It raises some very interesting points—only 12 of the Fortune 500 companies are run by women, yet firms with women on their boards have 42% higher sales returns and 66% higher return on investment capital than firms that do not.
Readers, what are your thoughts?
Wouldnt this be considered a sexist remark? It sure would be if we said “guys make better ______ “
Mike-
The Online MBA that conducted the study and made the video could be viewed as making a sexist comment. However, they listed facts not opinions, however narrowly researched they may or may not be. RW is simply passing along the video for us to consider.
It might reflect some societal pressure.
The two genders might well have identical distribution of managerial skills, but women usually have the burden of taking care of the family. Indeed, it is an indisputable fact that, for social reasons, men in western societies do not contribute equally to housework and childcare. Thus, there is a selection acting on the women’s side: only if you are really good, you are going to pursue a managerial career. Otherwise you will find a balance between work and family. As a consequence, at the top there could be less women, but with better skills. It would be interesting to test this conjecture by breaking down the data by marital status and/or number of children.
When did people on boards start selling stuff?
Correlation is not causation. I happen to think greater diversity in corporate governance is a good thing, but let’s not leave our critical thinking skills behind when presented with data that happens to feed what we wish to believe in.