The topic of advancing women’s leadership is personal to me.  I’ve spent a lot of time studying the topic and created a three part series dedicated to this incredibly important subject. My first blog post of this series shared statistics and reasons for the disparity in women’s leadership – there are many.  Part two of the series is dedicated to answering why this matters and below are some of the more relevant reasons to care: Why does this matter:

• The disparity slows the process of fostering acceptance,  inclusion and gender equality
• Diversity is a competitive advantage
• Leadership teams should mirror that of the demographics – we live in diverse America
• Women are more collaborative, better listeners, more relationship-oriented, more empathetic, more reasonable, and are better multi-taskers
• Gender diversity affects cognition, dynamics, decision-making, and results
• Gender diversity creates more strategic control
• Women on boards have been found to provide a competitive benefit by bringing a socially, community-minded, intimate, and innovative approach
• Groups with high concentration of diversity are known to consider a broader range of high quality perspectives when problem-solving than homogenous groups
• Diversity is linked to improved financial performance, better decisions, and stronger companies

So, what can we begin doing immediately to address the disparity?  Stay tuned to my next blog post to find out. Learn more about CAPACITY, Greenville Chamber’s Diversity and Inclusion Initiative Follow CAPACITY on Twitter Like CAPACITY on Facebook Check out the CAPACITY YouTube Channel