Five Ways to Support Female Leaders

The doors to the top office are open barely a crack to women leaders, who occupy just 6% of corporate CEO positions, and disproportionately low shares of other top jobs, according to a recent Wall Street Journal analysis.

At a conversation hosted Thursday at the Robert H. Smith School of Business’ annual Women Inspire event, two alum executives—Meg Goldthwaite MBA ’96, chief marketing officer at NPR, and Sherika Ekpo MBA ’09, global diversity and inclusion lead at Google AI—challenged attendees to reach their full potential and to champion the high-skilled women in their lives.

They offered the following advice to help push a new (and larger) generation of women leaders to the fore:

• Sometimes you’ll stumble. Let other women lift you. Leaders fail over and over (and over again) as their careers progress. Support the women around you by coming to their assistance professionally and personally—and allow them to do the same for you. This could be as simple as reminding someone they are competent and capable despite whatever setback they are experiencing.
• Speak up for other women, even if they aren’t in the room. Provide validity and support for the good ideas presented by your female co-workers. You can reinforce their ideas and advocate for their suggestions by saying something as simple as “Piggybacking off what Jane said…” before restating and building upon it. “It’s known that women don’t promote their accomplishments as much. We have to use each other as support networks, and share what we are doing,” said Ekpo.
• Share your network across boundaries. Personal and professional networks often follow socioeconomic and racial lines, according to Ekpo. Open your network to smart women outside the typical socioeconomic and racial confines of the group. Good opportunities in employment are often spread through word of mouth and referrals. Support women in leadership by passing along advancement opportunities and advocating for women who do not have access to your network.
• Be a sponsor. Ruthlessly advocate for promising women whose careers in leadership you’ve decided to champion. Sponsors have conversations, send emails and make phone calls on behalf of the sponsored woman. They voluntarily do this in the name of getting a woman leader the attention (and compensation) she deserves.
• Be a mentor. Mentors provide accountability and serve as a check-in point for the women they advise. They ask how things are going, and help set goals or provide direction to achieve career advancement. They make suggestions and provide support when times are tough. "I have what I refer to as a personal board of directors," Goldthwaite said of her sponsors and mentors.