Why are efforts to increase the number of women in leadership positions experiencing snail-paced progress? The answer lies in digging deeper into unconscious bias.
By Dave Desouza

Research has shown that organizations with women in management positions outperform those without gender diversity in leadership positions. Knowing this would make a person assume organizations would implement successful strategies to achieve gender diversity in the leadership pipeline. Instead, progress has been slow. Women have more trouble getting on the leadership path than men, and even those that rise to low–and mid–level management positions often hit a glass ceiling that stops them from entering senior–level and executive positions. It is frustrating for women and the organizations.

There are persistent barriers that are proving difficult to remove, like unconscious bias that leads to evaluating women based on proof of performance and men on potential. Organi...