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<p>Despite efforts to increase gender diversity, women remain underrepresented in STEM leadership. While work–life policies and gender attitudes are evolving, traditional explanations such as the glass ceiling and stereotype mismatch remain influential in explaining this persistence. To investigate, we conducted focus group interviews with fifteen women leaders at an engineering firm in South Korea, a country where growing expectations for women’s economic participation coexist with enduring Confucian norms. The leaders acknowledge organizational efforts to reduce discrimination and support careers alongside family, yet such efforts rarely extend to leaders, whose roles inherently require near-continuous availability, accountability for team outcomes, and frequent work–life spillover. Women who succeed often rely on strong but fragile external support systems, including family and caregivers. We characterize STEM leadership as a “greedy” role that disproportionately limits opportunities for women seeking work–life balance, making leadership itself a structural barrier. This conceptualization is important because leadership roles carry organizational responsibility and influence high-level decisions, making them uniquely problematic.</p>

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Greedy leadership roles: why modern organizations struggle to retain women leaders

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年2月6日

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  • Minyoung Choi,
  • Myokyung Han,
  • Suhyoung Choi,
  • Eunhee Bae,
  • Dong Ju Kim,
  • Bong Gwan Jun,
  • Lanu Kim

摘要

Despite efforts to increase gender diversity, women remain underrepresented in STEM leadership. While work–life policies and gender attitudes are evolving, traditional explanations such as the glass ceiling and stereotype mismatch remain influential in explaining this persistence. To investigate, we conducted focus group interviews with fifteen women leaders at an engineering firm in South Korea, a country where growing expectations for women’s economic participation coexist with enduring Confucian norms. The leaders acknowledge organizational efforts to reduce discrimination and support careers alongside family, yet such efforts rarely extend to leaders, whose roles inherently require near-continuous availability, accountability for team outcomes, and frequent work–life spillover. Women who succeed often rely on strong but fragile external support systems, including family and caregivers. We characterize STEM leadership as a “greedy” role that disproportionately limits opportunities for women seeking work–life balance, making leadership itself a structural barrier. This conceptualization is important because leadership roles carry organizational responsibility and influence high-level decisions, making them uniquely problematic.