By Molly K. Johnson
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – In 2015, The New York Times published an article that loudly proclaimed, “Fewer large companies are run by women than by men named John.” In 2023, Bloomberg revisited the concept and determined that women finally had more presence in the Fortune 500 than “any single male name.”
Yet, the 41 female leaders in 2023 represented only 8.2% of the Fortune 500.
In 1969, U.S. Rep. Charlotte Reid (Illinois) made national headlines by being the first woman to wear pants on the floor of the House of Representatives. Today, women represent roughly half of the Senate and one-third of the House.
There are 193 member states that belong to the United Nations and 13, 6.7%, are led by women. Nine of the 13 made history in their countries by being the first female head of government.
Of the Ohio State University’s 23 presidents, only two have been women. Ohio has had one female governor for exactly 11 days (December 1998 to January 1999) when then-Lt. Gov. Nancy Hollister filled Gov. George Voinovich’s seat when he left office to serve in the U.S. Senate.
The largest corporations in Ohio have been naming women to C-suite positions since the late ’90s. Goodyear named its first female CIO back in 1997. The Progressive Corp. and A&F Co., respectively, followed suit in 2016 and 2017. Sherwin Williams named its first female CEO only last year.
While the progress is undeniable and worthy of celebration, by most metrics women remain vastly underrepresented in leadership positions. This is true despite decades of science-backed evidence that female leaders are better than or equal to their male counterparts.
In 2010, organizational psychologist Anita Williams Wooley, Ph.D., and her colleagues studied 699 people working in groups of two to five. The researchers found that the proportion of women in a group was strongly related to collective intelligence including their ability to work together, solve problems, take turns and make the best use of knowledge and skills.
The Pew Research Center assessed female leadership in a 2008 national survey. Half of the respondents ranked women as “more honest than men,” while only 20% ranked men as “more honest than women.”
A 2022 study led by social psychologist Manshi P. Joshi, Ph.D., found that the mere presence of a female leader relative to a male leader led respondents to anticipate fairer treatment.
At a local level, females in leadership are thriving.
The YMCA of Youngstown is flourishing under its first female CEO, Beth Scheller, who says, “often women in leadership have to work twice as hard to get the same recognition and respect as an average male counterpart.” The juice was worth the squeeze when it comes to her current position. Scheller loves being able to help all types of community members: infants to seniors and fitness newbies to athletes.
Youngstown Business and Professional Woman of the Year Amy Shope credits her success to the network of female business owners in the Mahoning Valley. Shope is the co-owner of the Learner Shope Wealth Group and founder of a monthly “Power Lunch” series that unites local female professionals.
Mentorship is important to Shope, ,who writes, “I would tell my younger self not to rush and to keep betting on yourself. You’ve got this.”
Rachel Gore, owner of Pure Cycle in Canfield, finds business ownership to be extremely rewarding but acknowledges that work-life balance can be elusive.
Gore says of herself and associate female leaders, “Women do whatever it takes to get the job done.”
Cara Vernal, owner of Valley Little Melodies, reports that she would tell her younger self to “ignore any feelings of imposter syndrome.”
Vernal credits her clients for making her business thrive as well as for respecting her decision to work from home during school holidays while she rears her own daughter.
“This summer I worked from the car, at the swim club, at 5 in the morning and so on. The flexible schedule while being a mom is the best part of being a business owner by far,” Vernal says.
All of the female leaders and business owners interviewed wished that women weren’t held to a different standard than men. Overwhelmingly, they reported being called “pushy,” “bossy” and “intense.” These labels rarely are applied to their male counterparts.
They remain optimistic about the future and agreed that there is plenty of room for more female leaders and business owners in the Valley.
Vernal closed with, “I’ve seen the pendulum shift throughout my career. It’s really exciting to see.”
The author, Molly K. Johnson, was elected in 2018 to the Mahoning County Court, where she has presided over thousands of civil, criminal and traffic cases. She is the youngest judge in Ohio to have been appointed to two Ohio Supreme Court Commissions.