Women in Leadership

Cranfield’s Expertise in Women in Leadership

Cranfield is home to the International Centre for Women Business leaders (now Gender and Leadership Inclusion Centre). The Centre was established by Professor Susan Vinnicombe in 1999. At the time we were shocked by how few women managed to get promoted into serious leadership positions in organisations, despite the fact that women did better at school and university than men and entered work in equal numbers to men. We have focused our research on why this is the case, covering such issues as why women lack social capital, the myth of meritocracy, the problem of international assignments, the masculine language used in job adverts, the differences between how women and men use role models, the challenge of identity at work, impression management, why women find politics difficult, how women are disadvantaged in interviews, gendered cultures and the implications for women. Our executive development work lies at the interface of gender diversity (and diversity more generally) and talent management. We are specifically focused on the issues involved in the successful promotion of women stuck in the middle and senior levels of their organisations. Our approach is distinctive in that we are less interested in personal development per se, but rather in seeing women getting promoted into these top jobs. Professor Vinnicombe is author of the Female FTSE Women on Boards report (an annual report which pioneered the measurement of the number of women on our top FTSE boards in 1999 and continues). The latest report will be launched on the 7th October 2021 and focuses on the need for companies to take female talent management more seriously by identifying high potential females early on in their careers and developing them for promotion. Professor Kim Turnbull James specialises in executive learning and leadership. She ran first the women leaders programme in the UK, a government sponsored initiative, and has worked with women’s leadership programmes at Cranfield for many years, both in company and open programmes. As a professor in leadership her interest lies in how can women identify what they bring to organisational leadership, demonstrate and articulate their contributions so they are recognised as ready for senior leadership roles.