Abstract

For women of all ages, but specifically, for millennial-age women heading into the workforce, or already within it, equality is of critical importance for them to have successful careers and to move into leadership roles (Flood, 2015). Millennial-age women are entering the workforce in almost equal numbers to men. However, women remain highly underrepresented at leadership levels, and gender inequality is still a significant issue (Ely, Ibarra, & Kolb, 2011; Kelan, 2012; Twenge, 2010). The greater number of women in the workforce does not correlate with a shift in women in leadership roles. It is argued that the underrepresentation of women in senior positions is just a matter of time; it will even out over time due to larger numbers of millennial women with university degrees coming into the workforce (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2012). Gender equality, and diversity and inclusion programs have been in the workplace for a considerable amount of time, yet the pace of change toward equality in the workplace is very slow, especially at the senior leadership levels. The purpose of this study is to explore the status of millennial-age women in relation to business leadership to understand the increases, decreases, or neutrality in the numbers within leadership since they entered the workforce. Additionally, this paper looks at a new program introduced by the United Nations (UN) Women, “HeForShe IMPACT 10×10×10,” designed to help drive men’s awareness of the issues of inequality of women in the workplace, and ultimately to help resolve these challenges. This body of work explores to what extent, if any, there were changes to the number of women leaders within an outlined 15-year period where millennial women entered the workforce, from the years 2001 to 2015 within the 10 companies participating as the UN’s IMPACT Champion corporations. This study sets a foundation for future studies to track the UN’s progress with this initiative how it may or may not impact millennial women.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Dissertations (EdD) -- Organizational leadership; Generation Y -- Women -- Employment; Sex discrimination in employment -- Research; Diversity in the workplace

Date of Award

2016

Degree Type

Thesis

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