Immerse Education Essay Winner
February 1, 2022
Praanjal Singh Sinver, a student of Grade 9, brought laurels to our school by winning a 20% scholarship for summer programs at Oxford, Cambridge and LSE through the Immerse Education Essay Competition.
The Immerse Education Essay Competition provides students aged between 13 and 18 with the opportunity to submit essays related to their chosen subject. Praanjal presented her essay on ‘Female Future Leaders’ where she expressed her thoughts on the challenges faced by today’s women in leadership roles.
Praanjal’s essay stood out amongst the other entries by bringing forward well formulated and clearly expressed thoughts on her chosen subject. We are proud of your achievement, Praanjal. Best of luck for all future endeavours!
SUBJECT: Female Future Leaders
TOPIC: What are the challenges faced by today’s women in leadership roles?
For centuries, the woman has been relegated to posts such as being a ‘housewife’, a ‘caretaker’ of the family and she has never been treated as somebody in the field of action in the real world, where she does the same laborious jobs as males and gets the due credit. But, over the years evolution happened, societies became broad-minded and today women are gaining prominence in the world of leadership, such as entrepreneurship, political leadership, sports team leader etc.
When we move forward with the times, gender discrimination has not left the society, which prevails to be one of the most pressing challenges faced by women today in leadership roles, women have been in leadership positions for a long time but they are yet to get their due credit, male employees believe that women lack the “authority” or the “assertiveness” to take on an extremely important responsibility; certain studies show that the people from all countries are still not quite comfortable with women leading and they choose to spread hate and defame them, with the simple reason being that sexism and male chauvinism brought this out of them. These reasons are at the basis of the issues that have arisen for female leaders, and while many are aware that they are biased, they refuse to acknowledge it. Another problem that arises for women leaders is the management of many roles. Women are more likely than men to leave their jobs to raise families; It shouldn’t be a choice between a child and a career; it is difficult for a woman to reclaim power and influence as a leader once she has been out of the workforce for a spell.
According to a recent study, even in countries with lengthy histories of female leadership much of the public remains adamantly opposed to the idea of women in power. The Reykjavik Index1measures female leadership views of the G7 countries and others during 2020 to 2021, the survey had Its recent poll consisting of over 20,000 adults and yielded some unexpected and disappointing results; the survey revealed that only 38% of the people were open to the idea of having a woman as the head of a government or the CEO of a company. Despite Angela Merkel’s long tenure as a chancellor, only 41% of Germans indicated they felt comfortable having a woman at the helm of government. Maia Sandu made history by becoming Moldova’s first female president, Kamala Harris became the first woman Vice President of USA; though they reached their dream positions they were no exception and had gone through the immense struggle.
Despite the reality that these circumstances will persist and torment, women must be applauded for their indomitable spirit to prove themselves in different roles, our past culture has a significant impact on our present societal values, there is a gradual change in men’s perception of women and I am sure gender disparity will fade away soon and many more miracles can be experienced by women.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
- BBC. Equality matters/how we work, Why do we still distrust women leaders by Christine Ro. 2021. 15 Jan 2021.
[https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210108-why-do-we-still-distrust-women-leaders / last accessed: 1st Jan 2022]
- Catalyst. Workplaces that work for women, 10 Big Issues Women Face at Work and What Leaders Can Do to Help (Blog Post). 2017. 19 Jan 2017.
[https://www.catalyst.org/2017/01/19/10-big-issues-women-face-at-work-and-what leaders-can-do-to-help/ last accessed: 23rd December 2021]
