ASPIRATIONALLY, AMY
ETHICS
This project was born out of outrage.
Perennially in March, which is recognized in the United States as Women’s History Month, a host of statistics are published in the news and on social media about the gender wage gap. On March 1, 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that “the gender-based wage gap in the United States has narrowed in recent years, but disparities remain: national median earnings for civilians who worked full-time, year-round in the past 12 months was $53,544 for men compared to $43,394 for women." Women make $.81 to every dollar earned by a man, according to these numbers, despite making up half of the workforce and over half of college-educated workers in America. While the numbers have improved over time (up from $.60 on the dollar in the 1950s), the narrative remains largely the same: women make less money than men.
As a woman, this makes me angry.
An array of scholarship in the form of academic articles, online articles, books, documentaries, TED Talks, and digital content identify patterns of systemic cultural and social barriers to the gender wage gap, which is inextricably tied to the gender gap in leadership. Research asserts that there is more nuance to the numbers than overt gender-based discrimination, that female workers often occupy lower paying jobs, that child-raising responsibilities typically fall to women, and that the “old boys club” of informal professional networks lead to lucrative and leadership opportunities for more men than women. The goal of my capstone project is to channel my indignation about unequal pay and leadership opportunities for women toward contributing to the growing body of engaging and widely accessible digital resources that aim to help women lead and succeed.
My work has centered professional women who work in corporate, public sector, and nonprofit spaces as the primary stakeholder audience. The leadership styles I examine and encourage women to practice assume that they are working within an individualistic culture and approach to business, such as that of the United States or Western Europe. My project places value on equal pay and opportunities for women in leadership by aiming to give them the tools and the skills to succeed when pursuing those opportunities. Given the scope of the project, I have chosen to deemphasize men, intercultural leadership practices, and field-specific approaches to leadership, such styles that are more oriented toward the education space, healthcare sector, or service and retail industries. While I seek to share resources in my project that any woman or female-identifying (femme) individual can practice, it is worth recognizing that I do not specifically address leadership approaches for women of color, people who identify as LGBTQ, or disabled women.
This project enters the growing landscape of free online leadership development resources that are designed specifically for women. Whereas industry-leading employment sites like LinkedIn and Indeed host general resources and courses on leadership development, there are few free sites dedicated to supporting the professional growth of women that are not also associated with a fee-based course or networking opportunities within an established business school. Sites like Career Contessa and Bossed Up aim to help “working women be more fulfilled, healthy, and successful at work” and to close the gender leadership gap, respectively, and they each host a range of engaging content, from listicles and blog posts, to videos and webinars. However, sites like these lack resources for women to learn about specific leadership styles and how to practice them, as my project aims to do.
The Aspirational Assessment and Leadership Style Library included in my capstone project are interactive self-service tools designed to help women who want to level up their leadership skills but don’t necessarily have access to fee-based professional development and certification programs, advanced business degrees, or mentors. Like those available on Career Contessa or Bossed Up, these resources are built to be broadly inclusive to women leading in the corporate workplace, public sector, or nonprofit field, regardless of their race, seniority, or previous experience. My approach to creating these artifacts is not without challenges and limitations. The goal of being as broadly inclusive as possible means that this project does not equitably contain supports for the women who are most marginalized in the workplace, such as women of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and disabled women. This project also does not tap into the allyship of men, which many scholars and industry leaders consider to be a crucial component of closing the gender gap in leadership.
Beyond the fact that the gender wage gap and leadership gap are systemic issues that are more broadly reaching than this project could attempt to address, there are also ethical implications associated with how my personal privileges influence the design of this project that are worth acknowledging. I am creating this project from a privileged perspective and lived experience as a highly educated, middle-class, cisgendered, able-bodied, white woman. Although I strive to design my capstone artifacts in such a way that honors and includes women and femmes regardless of their race, socioeconomic status, or ability, I have blind spots. Due to the scope of this project and the limitations of my own perspectives, I know I am making decisions about the research and resources I include within the Leadership Styles Library that exclude groups and theoretical lenses like intercultural and critical race theory. However, the digital nature of this project means that it can grow and evolve to better include, represent, and lift up those who remain underrepresented in positions of leadership.
EXPLORE THE CAPSTONE
REFERENCES
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