New research from Dr Huong Nguyen has examined some of the barriers ethnically diverse women face in progressing to senior leadership roles in corporate Australia.
“Women remain underrepresented in senior and executive leadership, despite strong leadership capability,” Dr Nguyen says. “For example, in Australia women comprise 43% of managers but only 22% of CEOs, which suggests a significant leadership progression gap.”
She says understanding this gap is particularly important for ethnically diverse women, whose experiences can be hidden within broad gender statistics.
Drawing on interviews across two ASX200 organisations, Dr Nguyen examined how gendered, racialised and culturally specific expectations shape judgments about who is seen as suitable, credible and ‘ready’ for senior leadership.
A key finding was that an ethnically diverse woman’s competence could be recognised and valued by an organisation without this translating into recognition that she was suitable for greater leadership authority, which Dr Nguyen refers to as ‘competence–legitimacy discontinuity’.
The research also highlighted how workplace relationships, endorsement and sponsorship can influence progression, alongside established expectations about leadership potential.
Dr Nguyen says the findings show that improving diversity in management is not enough.
“Organisations must also examine how leadership potential is evaluated and how progression opportunities are allocated,” she says. “They also highlight the importance of collecting more meaningful data on ethnicity, gender and career progression.”
Dr Nguyen’s next step is to extend the research across a wider range of organisations and industries.
“I also plan to investigate how sponsorship, mentoring and leadership-development programs can be redesigned to support equitable progression rather than simply preparing women to adapt to existing norms.”
