Women remain at a disadvantage in the workplace because success requires winning in a world we did not build on terms we did not set. Sylvia An Hewlett, head of the Center for Work-Life Policy summed it up in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required): "We've been trying to fix women so they fit into the lockstep male career model, instead of changing the model."

In 1950 only one-third of American women of working age had a paid job and constituted one-third of the workforce. Women have been severely underrepresented in the building of enterprise in America, and we remain underrepresented in leadership -- women account for 15 percent of directors on corporate boards in the U.S.

Lack of representation on the "inside track" makes removing the disadvantage all the more challenging.

Not only are women not present numerically, our behaviors and approaches are missing. Women are perceived to be less aggressive, less strategic in our thinking and risk averse.

And yet, a study by Catalyst, a research group in New York, found that American companies with more women in senior management jobs earned a higher return on equity than those with fewer women at the top. Some say that's because mixed teams of men and women solve problems better.

There are also studies that suggest that women are often better than men at building teams and communicating. I have found women to be more adept and effective at managing multiple priorities. These strengths are often not valued in the workplace unless they are accompanied by the pounding of fists on tables and shouting.

The challenge of succeeding on a level playing field is not borne by women alone, as class, race, sexual orientation and religion create even more permutations of this predicament. But there is a compounding and exacerbating factor specific to women that deserves special attention; the fact that life demands more of women than it does of men.

Nine months of pregnancy aside, both women and men play the roles of spouse, parent, family member and employee. But as long as society dictates that it takes more time and effort to be a good mother than it does a good father, a good wife than a good husband, and even a good daughter than a good son, women will be at a disadvantage because women cannot commit the same amount of time and effort to work that a man can.

Today two-thirds of women work, and we constitute nearly half of the workforce, so the numbers game is improving. But until we all appreciate women leading as women, and not men in skirts, the numbers will never be enough and the workplace will remain robbed of the strengths women bring to the table.

Ironically, until we expect more of men in the roles they play outside of work, families will lack the male role models needed to support children who can value both genders -- and thereby change the model.

-- Leah