Gender and Leadership: Literature Review

The studies observed that women tend to adopt a more transformational and participative initiative style while men were seen to embrace more dictatorial and disciplined styles (Eagly & Johnson, 1990). The research studies likewise found that the style chosen by most women for the most part ends up being helpful for authoritative adequacy, for the most part coordinating the arrangement of reward, inspiration, expectation, and eagerness among others (Mohr & Wolfram, 2008). These differences in gender leadership styles may influence the way the coach approaches his or her coaching method to be more effective. For example, women in leadership are described as having a softer verbal tone than men who often have a more authoritative tone (Mohr & Wolfram, 2008) which can be offensive if a coach uses an authoritative tone unnecessarily or constantly with a woman

Thesis statement: Leadership depends on the leader’s leadership style and there way of communicating ideas rather than the leader themselves. Both women and men believe in similar leadership styles however women prefer a more participative leadership approach.

In a lot of areas, males are the ones who are supposed to earn money for their families and do the tougher jobs. They “fit the cultural stereotype of leadership better than women, [and] have better access to leadership roles and face fewer challenges in becoming successful in them” (Women in the workplace seen as less qualified and capable leaders than men). This shows how the gender norms for men causes them to be more successful than women in general. In Europe, “this masculine leadership stereotype is weaker now than it was in earlier years” (Women in the workplace seen as less qualified and capable leaders than men). Only just recently, women have finally been able to do harder and more rewarding jobs. This is because the country they were born in had been following a stereotypical pattern in regards to their specific

“Women are present in the workforce in significant numbers, representing nearly half of the workforce and 51 percent of all managerial and professional workers.” In addition to that, “Women earn the majority of undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees” (Lennon, 2014, p. 105). There has been a long-held bias against women in the workforce and especially women in leadership roles. Women continue to outperform men but do not earn salaries or obtain titles that are a reflection of their skills or abilities. “The assumption that women are underrepresented in leadership roles because they prefer less demanding or time-consuming positions to accommodate their families or lifestyle is refuted by the research” (Lennon, 2014, p. 108).

For decades, differences in gender have been at the forefront of debate, especially in relation to effective leadership in managing a company. Women were recognized as too emotional, weak or subordinate to be successful as managers. However, as time has passed, the perceptions of society have changed, and although women made the leap into many management positions, the stereotype that they are inferior to men still exists, making them feel the need to prove themselves. In management positions, women are challenged in different ways, present themselves in a different manner and communicate differently than men; however, despite the variations, females have successfully integrated themselves into the

Firstly, it is important to comprehend the difference existing between the “feminine leadership” and the “feminist leadership”. The attributes of the “feminine leadership” type include the general assumptions affiliated to the accepted gendered roles of women , women are supposed to be caring, sensitive, cooperative and inclusive . Despite that, researches believe that “leadership is crucial make or break issue for feminism” .

Since the beginning of history, men have always been considered the innate leaders of any society. They are considered to be aggressive, dominant, smart for business, and born to be leaders. Conversely, to women who since early history had to break stereotypes to show that they had the potential to work and prove themselves to hold powerful positions at work. Due to the pursuit of women 's rights and equality to men, known as feminism, history has changed. Different from decades ago, women are now entitled to choose between working and staying at home, they have more options than just being a wife and a mom. While, women now have rights, they still carry different stereotypes that sometimes prevent them to be respected and considered for a better position at the workplace. Stereotypes of women such as sensitive, unstable, deep emotional are some of the reasons why women are not considered potential leaders. That is why, as Ariel Levy discusses in her essay “Female Chauvanist Pigs” “Women who 've wanted to be perceived as powerful have long found it more effective to identify with men than to try and elevate the entire female sex to their level” (268). Instead of fulfilling the designated stereotypes, women are showing that they can have a masculine side too. In order to be considered as powerful leaders in a male dominated society, most women try to identify with men by acquiring masculine characteristics.Although, the successful leadership style is masculine, women

After looking at these information, there are some questions suddenly popped in my head about women in leadership. Why women have lower percentage of being a leader than man?　Can women achieve true equality?

The hypothesis of this paper must be defended from both sides of the argument in order to be properly investigated. Anyone has the potential to be a leader, be that male or female. Leaders are not born to one gender or the other specifically. A leader develops an identity through relational and social processes and comes to see oneself through these processes. This would apply to either a woman or a man. If one receives positive validation for one’s self-view as a leader, it bolsters self-confidence and increases one’s motivation to lead (Chan & Drasgow, 2001; Kark & van Dijk, 2007). As one’s leadership opportunities and capacity to advance in leadership grows, the likelihood of advancement and endorsement within an organization grows as well. The recognition and respect gained by these experiences, further fuels the search for new opportunities, growth, and so on. These qualities and opportunities are available to either gender. Contrary to this, if one fails to receive validation for leadership attempts diminishes, so does self-confidence and the motivation to seek out other opportunities or to experiment, and take on new leadership roles (Day et al., 2009) thus weakening one’s

According to the dictionary, leadership is defined as, “a person who guides or directs a group. An act or instance of leading; guidance; direction.” We are faced with leadership roles in every dynamic of life. In school, every click has a “leader,” every team has a captain, at work there is always a manager, always an editor when writing books. There is always a chance for someone to stand up and take a leading role. However, do both genders possess the same chances? Throughout this paper we will look at gender differences in leadership roles in the classroom, an emphasis of leadership in sports, and how leadership roles translate into the office among chosen career paths.

In reality most leaders are male, generally speaking. But, there are some important statistics when it comes to men and women in the workplace as leaders. Here are some statistics to take into consideration: Women are slightly more likely than men to say they are 'very confident' in their ability to keep pace (61% vs. 57%); only 56% of women were "very interested" in continuing with their careers, vs. 69% of the men; fewer than half of the online professional’s surveyed feel that women receive equal pay for equal work in the industry: 55% of men, vs. 29% of women (Woods 2001).

This literature review aims to critically identify and analyze whether female and male leadership style differ in business. It has been claimed that men make better leaders than women because of the leadership style they implicate. To this affect perhaps women have not been given a fair chance to show their leadership skills. This review will interpret international articles and journals based on these issues .

Leadership in itself can be meticulously picked apart and broken down in many ways. The importance of not limiting viewpoints to a particular definition of leadership and how it can impact individuals in education deems justifiable in terms of being able to broaden the mind to realizing the many factors incorporated into leadership. There are many different styles and aspects of leadership that are imperative when discussing leadership theory. Some key leadership styles include but are not limited to: autocratic leadership,

The purpose of this article was to examine women’s and men’s leadership styles, the effectiveness of the different leadership styles, and the true determination of effectiveness as a woman leader (Appelbaum et al, 2003, p. 43). The article present research conducted for theories examined. Comparing this week’s work assignment to this article, I notice a linkage to a few items. The comparable list that is closely related to parts of theories in the reading assignment are gender stereotypes; different leadership style effectiveness; developmental opportunity, and experience. All of these different topics are related to the Leadership Labyrinth.

Leaders aren’t necessarily born, they are made. Over time they inquire a different perspective of the world, which helps them gain, and equipped the leadership role. The topic that I’m going to cover throughout this paper is the idea of leadership under a woman or under a man. The question that I am asking is do you think that a male makes a better leader or do you feel that a woman makes a better leader.