Women and Leadership

Lessons from some of the world’s most powerful women

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Summary

For readers of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Sheryl Sandberg and Mary Beard, Women and Leadership is a powerful call to arms about the lack of women at the top.

'Who better qualified to delve into this topic?' Business Life
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Women make up less than 10 per cent of national leaders. Behind this statistic lies a pattern of unequal access to power. Drawing on current research and in conversation with some of the world's most powerful and interesting women about their lived experience, Gillard and Okonjo-Iweala explore gender bias and ask how we get more women into leadership roles.

Speaking honestly and freely, women leaders such as Jacinda Ardern, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Bachelet and Theresa May talk about their ideas receiving less acknowledgement than their male colleagues' ideas, what it's like to be body-shamed in the media, and the things they wish they had done differently. Their stories reveal how gender and sexism affect perceptions of women as leaders, their pathways to power and the circumstances in which their leadership comes to an end.

The result is a rare insight into life as a leader and a powerful call to arms for women everywhere.

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About the authors

Julia Gillard

Julia Gillard was the first woman to serve as Prime Minster of Australia. She received worldwide attention for her October 2012 speech in Parliament on the treatment of women in professional and public life. She is Chair of the Global Institute for Women's Leadership at King's College, London. In April 2021 she became Chair of the Wellcome Institute.

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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is an economist and international development expert with over thirty years of experience. She served twice as Nigeria's Finance Minister, and briefly as Foreign Minister, the first woman to hold both positions. From 2015-2020 she was the Chair of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance which improves access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the world's poorest countries. In 2021 she became the Director-General of the World Trade Organization. She is the first woman and the first African to hold the office.