The Women’s College recently completed a national study in partnership with The White House Project which reveals women outperform their male competition but do not receive the recognition they deserve. The study evaluates women’s leadership roles in the following four sectors: politics, business, entrepreneurship and non-profit.

According to their website, the White House Project is a non-profit organization whose mission is to ignite the leadership of women in business and politics.

Overall, the national study revealed that women outperform males in similar leadership positions across the board but are not recognized for their performance. The study showed that in the sector of business, women’s representation in higher-level positions has risen from 48 percent of companies in 2008 to approximately 49 percent in 2012.

In addition, during the economic collapse in 2009 to 2011, women running hedge funds had declines of 19 percent compared to male run funds at 29 percent. Companies with women on the board average 14 percent growth over the past six years, whereas companies that lack women representation on their board see 10 percent growth.

The Women’s College has conducted four studies that began in February 2012 and are expected to be released by the end of this month. The four studies, called Benchmarking Women’s Roles in Leadership,  are additions to the existing ten that were published in 2009 by The White House Project.

Marie Wilson, the founder and former president of The White House Project, approached the Women’s College to conduct the additional studies.

“When Marie approached us she said that we don’t want a highly prestigious school on the east coast to do this study. We want a school that is of high-quality and shares our values and vision,” said Professor Tiffani Lennon, chair of law and society.

Lennon guided a team of four as they gathered and analyzed the numbers of locations of women in leadership positions from a variety of sources such as annual reports, quarterly statements, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Office of Personnel Management and the U.S. Census.

On Monday, Oct. 22, the Women’s College held a leadership salon where a panel consisting of team members who worked on the actual study, as well as the current president of The White House Project, Tiffany Dufu, answered questions pertaining to the logistics of the study.

The salon evaluated women leaders involved in the presidential debate and was followed by a debate watch party. The discussion focused on encouraging women to pursue leadership roles particularly in the politics sector.

According to team members, the goal of the survey was to focus exclusively on raw data as opposed to asking subjects to self-report or to offer personal opinions.

“We don’t want to know what people think, we wanted to know where the women leaders are,” said Lennon.