Northouse Gender Roles

Andersen, JA & Hansson, PH 2011,"At the end of the road? On differences between women and men in leadership behaviour", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 32 no. 5 pp. 428 – 441

leaders. However, more people prefer male than female bosses. That has made it more difficult

They said if the share of female bosses increased by only .24 percent, the gender gap would decrease by more than 40 percent. This is an interesting find as it shows that just a couple of changes could make a big move toward equality, yet we aren’t making those changes. The authors concluded the slow progression of women’s corporate jobs is due to the history of men dominating those

Men and women could produce the same amount of work, but because the male is raised to a higher standard; the women’s work would be considered secondary. Despite the fact that men and women are as equal as they have ever been, this leads to the questions being asked: Why don’t women hold more than 15 percent of Fortune 500 executive-officer positions in the United States? Why do the average women still make seventy –seven pennies for every dollar made by the average male? Why does their representation rate remain below 20 percent in Congress? (Dorment) The difference is not in men and women; it is in masculine vs. feminine ways of thinking and acting. Both men and women incorporate masculine and feminine approaches.

This myth has been perpetuated throughout history and in result; we have barriers such as the glass ceiling in existence. If we were to pull up a list of the Board of Directors for any given company, the probability of it being a predominately male group is high. This notion alone shows how companies have continued to dwell in olds days where men are considered more capable than women. The Glass ceiling effect has continued to place barriers against women endeavor in achieving success in their careers and participation in their work place. Women have not been able to realize their potential in their work places since they are not offered equal chances as compared to their men counterparts who enjoy great opportunities in organizations. The fact that an organization is ran by men, may cause an adverse effect on the performance of men. Obviously, a man thinks differently than a woman. It is likely that a decision made by men only is likely to ignore the interests of women in the organization. This creates a domino effect because it affects the woman’s performance in business since they only get limited chances to learn, and limited job assignments that will enhance their skills. Hence, low or limited skills and experience will lower their overall

"Women's advancement often stops short of the general management level" as a partial result of discrimination by white men in positions of power, which include the differences of developmental job assignments they are afforded (Ohlott 46). "Developmental job assignments have been found to be one of the most important factors in preparing both men and women for upper-level management positions" (Ohlott 46 - 47).If women do not experience these same job assignments, they may be less prepared than men for handling future upper-level management jobs. These types of job assignments lead to high-level positions, make managers more visible, and prepare them for future jobs. With men being in the top ranks of organizations in most cases, they are less likely to assign these challenging tasks to female subordinates (Ohlott 49). "Organizations more often move women into staff positions and out of functions central to a business" mainly because those making the staffing decisions are more interested in advancing their own careers (Ohlott 49).

On the other hand, it is said that women are seen as being more supportive and less managerial. Women tend to display high levels of compassion and team-building skills. Additionally, women leaders are able to view situations from many different perspectives, enhancing their persuasive ability and making them better at persuasion than males. Women are also said to like a challenge. “An international study found that 70% of businesswomen asked their bosses for new challenges at work, which is less than half of the businessmen that did so.” Lastly, it is said that women are honest and hard workers. It was found that 54% of women worked 9-11 hour days compared to 41% of men. It was also found that women are more likely to do work during their vacations and less likely to spend their “sick days” playing hooky.

For the objective of this comparison matrix paper the following journal articles were reviewed. The first article was The Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Emotional Intelligence from a Gendered Approach by Ester Lopez-Zafra, Rocio Garcia-Retamero, and M. Pilar Berrios Martos. The second article examined was cited in the first, and is titled Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Transformational Leadership Style: A Gender Comparison by Barbara Mandell and Shilpa Pherwani.

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

According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, women make up half of the workforce today and 40 percent of women are either equal to their male counterparts or the singular breadwinners in their household (Institute for Women’s Policy Research). And most Americans find women are better than men in key leadership traits such as intelligence and competence for

I agree with Manning’s statement that women are hypercritical of themselves and men are often more confident of their abilities than they ought to be. Traditionally, women are more cautious and aware of their actions as they heavily impact their ability to advance within an organization. According to Sebastian Bailey (2014), women are several underrepresented in senior leadership, holding less than 5% of Chief Executive Officer positions in Fortune 500 companies in 2012. Bailey (2014) also suggests that society typically associates successful and efficient leadership with the characteristics of masculine traits and a female leader would violate those gender norms.

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.

Even though numbers are slowly rising in the United States, there are still more men in executive positions than women. According to one survey, female workers only made up 43% of legislators, senior managers, and senior officials whereas male workers made up 57%. In congress, congresswomen make up only 17% of representation compared to congressmen making up 83% (Ferrante, 2011, p. 312). Gender stratification is one explanation for the tremendous gap. Ferrante (2011) describes gender stratification as the unequal distribution of opportunities and resources amongst male and female employees. (p. 311) For example, male workers have an increased opportunity to receive a promotion than a female worker. According to Tinsley (2013), women are more likely to receive executive positions when a company is doing well, rather than when a company is suffering. Some companies stereotype that women workers will leave the workforce soon to bear children, limiting their chances of achieving executive status (Ferrante, 2011, p. 316).

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".

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.