I have long maintained that women and men are physiologically and psychologically different. And that these differences necessarily have an impact on why so few women are still, even now, at the top of the leadership ladder.
This is not to say the more conventional explanations, such as explicit or implicit bias, are irrelevant or unimportant. It is to point out that if women are in important ways irretrievably different from men, it’s inconceivable the distinctions have no implications.
This came to mind again yesterday, when Nicola Sturgeon announced that she would resign as First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party. The speech in which she announced her decision bore strong resemblance to Jacinda Ardern’s when she made a similarly surprising announcement only a month ago. In Ardern’s case she said that within weeks she intended to resign as Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Both women are embedded in complex political situations which clearly influenced their decision to get out of politics, at least for now. Still, there is a more telling similarity between them – the freeness and frankness with which they spoke of the personal price paid by political leaders.
Ardern (in part):
I’m leaving because with such a privileged role comes responsibility – the responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead and when you are not. I know what this job takes. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It’s that simple.
Sturgeon (in part):
Only very recently, I think, have I started to comprehend, let along process, the physical and mental impact of [this job] on me…. If the question is, can I give this job everything it demands and deserves for another year, let alone for the remainder of this parliamentary term – give it every ounce of energy that it needs, in the way that I have strived to do every day for the past eight years, the answer, honestly, is [no].
The numbers of variables here are high. So direct comparisons between the two women, and between the two women and two men similarly highly placed, are impossible. Still – whether for reasons of nature or nurture – both Ardern and Sturgeon had no qualms about saying that leading was utterly exhausting. And that they were, therefore, completely depleted. Their surprisingly similar admissons/conclusions could just be coincidence. But I am presuming not. I am presuming it’s related to why, after all these years of working the problem, the number of women CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, while higher than ever, remains still at a paltry, puny, ten percent.
Postscript on an opposite note: This week, Senator Dianne Feinstein, age 89, finally announced her retirement (in two years, at the end of her term) from the Senate. Feinstein, a woman leader who was a path breaker, should have left in a blaze of glory. Instead, because she clung to her post too long, into her dotage, and into senility, her departure will simply be sad.