Will the #MeToo movement speed up the number of women in leadership or slow it down?

As the wave of sexual harassment allegations reaches seismic proportions, one solution touted repeatedly has been the need for more women in power.

Barack Obama suggested this month in Paris that more women should be put into power “because men seem to be having some problems these days.” Sheryl Sandberg, in a Facebook post, called for more women in leadership roles, arguing the power differential between men and women helps explain harassment. In article after article, from the Harvard Business Review to this newspaper, promoting more women into influential roles has been offered as a fix.

But will the current watershed moment lead to more women in top management roles — or could it actually hold them back? That’s a question getting more attention as the #MeToo movement takes root in workplace after workplace with acute, urgent risks such as reputation-crushing headlines or expensive legal proceedings. Some experts worry any backlash to the moment — from overly cautious men to organizations with unfair expectations for the women who do get promoted — could hurt the numbers rather than help them.

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About the Author: DrStefanieKJohnson

Dr. Stefanie K. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Management at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. She holds a Ph.D. from Rice University and is particularly interested in the effects of unconscious biases in the evaluation of women and minorities, with the goal of finding ways to mitigate those biases. Dr. Johnson brings bias to light with an engaging and humorous approach to advanced scientific research, which has earned her numerous accolades and invitations to present her work at meetings around the world, including the White House for a 2016 summit on diversity in corporate America on National Equal Pay Day, and the 2016 Harvard Negotiation and Leadership Conference. She has published over 70 journal articles and book chapters in outlets such as Harvard Business Review, Journal of Applied Psychology and The Academy of Management Journal. She has extensive consulting experience and has created and delivered leadership-development training with an emphasis on evidence-based practice. In recognition of her unique research, Dr. Johnson has been awarded nearly three million dollars in external funding to study leadership and create leadership development programs aimed at increasing safety. Media outlets featuring her work include: The Economist, Newsweek, Time, and CNN. Stefanie lives in the Boulder Bubble in Colorado with her Biology Professor husband, two young kiddos, and two old kitties.