ABSTRACT
Some forty years ago, Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique helped launch the contemporary women's movement by naming a "problem that has no name". With respect to leadership, in particular, women still have a long way to go. Almost a sixth of the Fortune 500 companies still have no female officers. For a variety of reasons, women are often ambivalent about seeking power and making the sacrifices necessary to obtain it. Gender-related laws remain too limited in scope and too expensive in application to reach most of the causes of women's underrepresentation in leadership positions. A diverse workforce serves equally important objectives. In today's increasingly competitive global economy, no organization can secure long-term success with policies that penalize half the talent pool for leadership. Forcing professionals of either sex to opt on or off leadership tracks as they are currently structured is not the answer.
