Gender And Leadership : ' Big Girls Don 't Cry ' Essay

‘Why we have too few women leaders’ was an address given by Sheryl Sandberg in the year 2010, presenting messages to women if they want to stay in the work force. This topic is a concern to Sandberg because there are small numbers of women who hold prominent leader positions in the world. In her presentation, she states “…, How are we going to fix this? How do we change these numbers at the top? How do we make this different?”

Leadership - The perception of excellence in business leadership needs to be re-examined. This requires challenging the norms that determine leadership eligibility. Are there drivers that perpetuate a leadership incumbency that excludes females? What is the basis for these drivers?

One identified contributor to women's slower than expected assent into leadership is the persistence of assumptions and stereotypes that women are intrinsically "communal" or "dependent" and "passive", and therefore, lack the capacity to succeed as leaders. (National Academy of Sciences National Academy of Engineering Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2006 as cited by Isaac, Kaatz & Carnes, 2012).

As being two of the most unliked topics in society, when the two of them are brought together we are faced with a conflicting subject. Politics pursuing the image of justice and fairness, and sexism being a differ in equality between male and female. Although no one can truly be non-sexist, when powerful leaders of our country including a past prime minister, the man who conducts the running of the country makes blunt sexist comments toward a fellow female leader’s numerous times and also toward the women of Australia, it is understandable that women feel a need to fight back for equality.

Gender stereotypes–oversimplified ideas of female or male qualities and mannerisms–exist in all areas of life. In the political sphere, stereotypes, such as women not being outspoken or authoritative, negatively influence women and pose barriers to those who are running for political leadership positions. Because women are stereotypically viewed as “warm, gentle, kind, and passive,” in comparison to the typical man that is viewed as “tough, aggressive and assertive,” women feel that their qualities are not suited for political candidacy (Huddy, Nayda). Women are indirectly told through stereotyping that the political arena is unsuitable for their gender; therefore, they pursue careers they feel are suitable for their “feminine” character traits. The higher level of male participation, in comparison to female participation, in political elections is not because the electoral environment “favours” stereotypical male qualities, but rather, the campaigning, and public speaking aspects of the election process are perceived as unsuitable for women. Furthermore, a study conducted in 2014 discovered that voters tend to assign “positive leadership traits to male politicians,” whereas female politicians are repeatedly depicted as having “other characteristics that are not equated with political leadership” such as their physical image (Thomas, Kei). Much like in everyday life, stereotypes drive women to believe they are not capable of running for office or unlikely to win elections despite their exceeding qualifications. Even though stereotypes will always exist, it is important for young women to reflect on their leadership qualities and not allow deeply-rooted stereotypes in the political arena to impede their pursuit of a career in

Sexist values against women in leadership roles impact the confidence and empowerment of female initiative and authority. Embodying leadership is key to political participation – without which one could not take initiative in seeking to foster positive social change. Tony Abbott’s response to a question of women’s opportunities: ‘What if men are by physiology or temperament, more adapted to exercise authority or to issue command?’ (Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) 2012) accounts for the typical gendered attitudes towards female

America has made great progress in the amount of women in office and who go out to vote. The article explains this by going over the statistics and the overall political culture for women of the '70s until the early 2000s. While there has been improvement, there is still a huge gap between the number of men and women in our political field. And even when women get into a political seat, their chance at moving up to a top position is slim because of the covert discrimination that is still present in our political system. The author lists four aspects of American life that continue to limit women 's leadership, including the sexual division of domestic labor and the persistence of sex role expectations. A study was conducted on those who

As men filled more leadership positions in military and in government, they became known as the dominant and assertive gender due to the tasks required by their occupation. Women, however, were often seen in caregiving roles such as nurses and maids who display compassion and submission. Janice Lee, author of Gender Roles exerts that these constraints are traits, expectations, and behaviors associated with men and women and what it means to be ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’” (Lee 7). If a human being were to not conform to this societal formed idea, they become an outcast as they are depicted and stereotyped as incompetent, unattractive, and overall less likable beings (Lee 8).

A question that a lot of people, especially women, seem to wonder is why are women being held back from leadership positions in the workplace. According to PEW Research Center ‘the problem is that women still have to do more

Chin, J. L. (2011). Women and Leadership; Transforming Visions and Current Contexts. Forum On Public Policy Online, 2. Retrieved from http://www.forumonpublicpolicy.com

In prior studies, leadership roles have been based off one’s sex instead of gender. According to Park, male gender qualities characterized as; aggressive, independent, objective, logical, rational,analytical, decisive, confident, assertive, ambitious, opportunistic and impersonal are distinguished from female gender qualities described as; emotional, sensitive, expressive, cooperative, intuitive, warm, tactful, receptive to ideas, talkative, gentle, empathetic, and submissive (p. 12). These characteristics brings up the notion of how women pursue being leaders because they are opposite of men who dominates the leadership

Taking on feminist principles means reconstructing personal relations as well as public life, and this offers endless opportunities for hurt, mistaken judgments, and mistrust. Indeed, it is often easier to acknowledge women 's rights to fair and equal treatment in the public world than to confront sexism at the personal level. This is the response of some powerful men in the professions, in bureaucracies, in universities and in politics--liberal Democrats in the United States, Labor or Social Democratic leaders in countries like Australia and Sweden. Such men may find it easy to support equal opportunity and anti-discrimination programs, which correspond with their own agendas for efficiency and modernity. They are less likely to change the

Women must take on somewhat of an androgynous sex-role identity. They must not go about their career fitting the typical gender stereotypes. They must be capable of responding with either a masculine or feminine behavior depending on the situation they are placed in. If women are capable of doing this they have a chance at appearing to be a competent campaigner (Robson, 2000).

More and more women are rising to the leadership challenge, even in some of the most male-dominated industries. The increase in the number of women attending college, the increasing number of women in the workplace or starting their own business has demonstrated to men who own businesses that women can be both managers and mothers, thus showing their male counterpart that women can in fact "do it all".

Gender and leadership? Leadership and gender? A journey through the landscape of theories start off by giving a statistical summary of percentages of women in higher echelon position in the workforce. With this information in the intro, the article quickly highlights the limited representation of women in exclusive positions in Fortune 500 companies. Next, the paper examines multiple theories why this problem exists in the workforce. The four theories examined are biology and sex; gender role; causal factors; and attitudinal drivers (Appelbaum et al, 2003, p. 44).