It seems so logical that when many female talents are employed within an organization, more women will naturally move up to top positions. But is that really the case? We conducted research to find out.
Image by HBR/ EschCollection/Getty Images
Our initial exploration led us to a publication from Harvard Business Review (HBR) in April 2024. It reported that in the non-profit sector in the United States, where the majority of employees are women, female representation at the top is often lacking. The publication also revealed that the higher the revenue, the more often men are in charge. We were curious to see how this plays out in the Netherlands, so we conducted research on fifty ANBIs (Public Benefit Organizations) with the highest revenue within the non-profit sector, specifically in education and healthcare. These are sectors in our country where it has been proven that more women work than men.
And to go straight to the conclusions: we see the same pattern in the Netherlands. Despite the fact that the majority of employees in these sectors at all levels are women, the percentage of women in the leadership of these organizations is also lower in the Netherlands. As in the American HBR study, we observed a decline in the percentage of women in the upper layers of the organization. We also found that in the Netherlands, the choice for the highest leadership position is less often made in favor of female talent as the organization grows larger and generates more revenue.
You could say that although more women than men work in these organizations and they are eligible for leadership roles, they are more often stuck below the top. This phenomenon is also known as the Glass Escalator Effect: men seem to stand on a symbolic escalator to the top, while that escalator is missing for women, hindering their career progression. As a result, men have easier access to top positions, even when they work in industries where they are underrepresented. Why is this the case?
The HBR study suggests that this symbolic escalator for men is due to unconscious biases: the unconscious belief that men are better leaders and the assumption that as an organization grows larger, men are best suited to manage it. The association of male traits with leadership qualities remains strong (albeit unconsciously), and we see this reflected in the results of our mindbug tests in the Netherlands. These tests show that 81% of participants (n=19,004, both men and women) have an unconscious preference for a man as a leader, even though 96% of them indicated beforehand that they do not make distinctions in gender for leadership positions. Additionally, men who take on traditionally female roles (such as becoming a nurse) are often excessively praised for doing so. Click here for more details.
The Glass Escalator Effect in the Netherlands: Our Research
Our research within the same sectors in the Netherlands confirmed the American results, as shown in the figures below. First, we see that the overrepresentation of women in these sectors is not reflected in the boards of these organizations: the percentage of women in the top remains below or around 50%. We also observe that the percentage of women in leadership positions within the sector decreases as revenue increases. This is evident in the comparison between the top 10 organizations with the highest revenue and the ten organizations with the lowest revenue.
| Category | General Average % Women | Average % Women in Board of Directors | % Women in Top 10 Organizations by Revenue | % Women in Bottom 10 Organizations by Revenue | Average % Women as Chair of the Board | % Women as Chair in Top 10 Organizations by Revenue | % Women as Chair in Bottom 10 Organizations by Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Higher Education | 76.8%* | 51.3% | 46.6% | 55.0% | 52.0% | 40% | 50% |
| Healthcare Institutions | 53.3%** | 47.6% | 42.5% | 48.3% | 42.0% | 40% | 55% |
* Reported by 16 out of 25 organizations ** Reported by 9 out of 25 organizations
Lastly, our research shows that the overrepresentation of women in these sectors does not result in a higher number of female chairs of the board of directors. In fact, the likelihood of this decreases as revenue grows. This percentage also remains below or around 50%.
These are striking results given the consistent overrepresentation of women in the non-profit sector [1]. In summary, we conclude that the highest positions, even within ANBI organizations, are disproportionately awarded to men, despite the presence of many female employees and talents in these sectors. The ‘glass escalator’ phenomenon also exists in the Netherlands.
Finally, this: In our research and this article, we focused on the ‘glass escalator’ effect, highlighting the difference in opportunities for men and women in the non-profit sector in the Netherlands. The HBR article also explored this effect in the context of ethnicity. You can find that HBR study and the recommendations they provided here.
[1] Explanation of the general male-female distribution
Although every ANBI organization reports on the composition of its board and chairs in their annual report or on their website, not every organization reports on the general male-female ratio. The organizations that do report on this show a clear picture: the majority of employees are women. To validate these figures, we compared our data with publicly available statistics for the sectors we studied.