Lately women, leadership and career has been a growing topic of interest and media coverage, especially promoted by Facebook COO’s Sheryl Sandberg’s bestselling and eye-opening book Lean In (which I wholeheartedly recommend and will blog about it very soon).

Unfortunately, women have a long way to go until gender inequality, pay gaps and stereotypes are solved (if ever!) and until it becomes normal for the C-Suite to be 50% female.

But, as research suggests, we are making progress – especially women in Germany (where I live) and in communications (the field I work in and want to make a career in).

The PR industry has traditionally been dominated by women; however mainly so at the lower executive or mid-level. When it comes to the managerial and the C-level though, the majority of the top positions are predominantly held by men. A study on the feminisation of PR in Germany just confirms this. As the research has found, women:

• consistently earn less than men regardless of their level of education and years of work experience;
• face much stronger salary discrimination when deciding to start a family;
• receive less recognition for their performance;

Yesterday I came across Stephen Waddington’s blog post introducing the findings of the 2013 Ketchum Leadership Communication Monitor (KLCM) and I found them quite interesting and worthwhile discussing, so I decided to share them. (Oh and by the way, Brandzeichen (the agency I work at) is now officially part of the Ketchum network).

Some background first: the annual research explored the perceptions of 6,000 people in 12 countries on five continents “regarding effective leadership, effective communication and the intrinsic link between the two.”

Here’s what got my attention:

• Only 24% of people around the globe believe leaders overall are providing effective leadership.
• Last year astonishing 60% of people boycotted or bought less from a company due to poor leadership behavior.
• For the second year in a row open, transparent communication is the No. 1 characteristic of an effective leader.
• However, 29% point a gap between expectation and delivery on communicating in an open and transparent way and only 16% believe leaders are effective communicators.
• In the rank of credible information sources on a company employees are at the top, CEOs are placed sixth.

For centuries men and women (have) had very distinct roles in society and business: men were the ones supposed to make money, women were the ones supposed to take care of the children and the household. Such sexual stereotypes have guided the course of society and even today in some cases (and countries and cultures) they still do.

But things have changed. Women are now able to pursue the same career opportunities as men, however when it comes to the workplace it is more than apparent that even if women are just as capable as men doing the very same job they do not reach the leadership positions.

Some may call such inequality in the boardroom total discrimination and injustice, rooted in misconceptions and prejudices passed down over generations where women are seen as week and sensitive.

It is very difficult to dig into the reasons why there are a lot less women in leadership positions than men. It is a fact, however, that there exist serious gender inequities and massive pay gaps between sexes. According to research, women hold only 14 percent of the board seats at S&P 1500 companies. Female graduates in the same job positions earn a lot less than their male counterparts despite laws designed to ensure equal access to careers and pay.

But why?