The Top Truly Is Lonely (For Women)

For many people, rising through the ranks and assuming leadership roles is a prominent goal for their career development. After all, with higher-level positions come increased pay, status, power, and recognition. So, it’s all great, right?

Well, not necessarily. New research set out to understand a bit more of the “costs” of becoming a leader and the results are surprising.

Across three complementary studies using diverse methods (field study, laboratory study, and prior data sets), a researcher found that female leaders experience greater loneliness whereas male leaders do not.

Why is this the case?

In an examination of the why, the researcher determined that women face expectations in leadership roles that oftentimes do not align with female gender norms. For example, leaders are oftentimes expected to and praised for being assertive, but women are oftentimes expected to be cooperative. This ultimately results in female leaders being unable to show their authentic selves. Men, conversely, generally do not experience this issue given that the expectations of leadership roles typically align with male gender norms. In all, due to being unable to show their authentic selves, many female leaders may ultimately feel a sense of loneliness, despite their great accomplishments.

In terms of improving the situation, there are two key takeaways:

1. Increase support. It is imperative that there be support networks for female leaders. This can be in the form of formal employee resource groups (ERGs) or even informally by offering the pathways for fostering quality social relationships at work.

2. Environment of inclusion. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) has been a hot topic for the past several years. The notion of adjusting one’s environment in order to foster more inclusivity is likely to have a major positive impact on all leaders and individual contributors alike feeling comfortable showing up at work as their authentic selves.