What are the main causes of women's underrepresentation in executive leadership and finance roles along the corporate ladder in multinational firms?

Abstract

Women’s poor presence in leadership and finance executive roles and C-suite positions is largely an issue in today’s business environment, especially in multinational financial services firms, where a gendered structure still prevails. And, not only it sets the gendered undertone in its internal processes and operations, ranging from recruitment and promoting processes to board-role achievement, but also serves as the construction of an obstacle women encounter when making their way into the finance world in those companies. Therefore the need of this thesis to clear the gaps in why is this happening, also seeking to determine what future initiatives and measures can be taken to progressively see future generations get rid of this gender inequality in business. To efficiently dive into this topic and move ahead into analysis, this study will establish some guidelines, led by a research question drawn in the scope of two theories: Gendered Organizations and Glass Ceiling. That way, along with a mixed-method comprehensive analysis, this paper fills the gap about women’s underrepresentation causalities, enlightening existing and future work and encouraging both leaders and companies to revise gender equality in their day-to-day business activities.