The Inequality of Women in Leadership Throughout history, the United States have overcome a number of inequalities and discovered our many freedoms. In the modern age we now live, every individual should have equal rights. Theoretically we do, but technically there are still areas of inequality, specifically in business management. Women are facing difficulties in advancing to leadership positions within most fields, especially in Fortune 500 companies. Female leaders continually face difficulties both when inquiring decision-making positions as well as while in leadership roles. By combining research I’ve come across in leadership, gender roles, stereotyping and management statistics, this paper will consider the barriers, as well as …show more content…
Chemers perceived that there are three theoretical explanations for the main differences between male and female leadership. One difference, the most obvious, is biological differences, which is based around hormones and temperament. The second difference is culturally diversities. This tells that socialized roles are varied per culture. The final difference is structurally determined. The different sexs have very diverse organizational structures (Eagly, Makhijani, & Klonsky, 1992; Chemers, 2000). Placing practical differences aside, the essential problem with women leadership roles is actually seen in the attitudes of those around them. The attitudes people have towards women when they are the ones making decisions are a perception with no objectivity, formally known as a stereotype.
Stereotyping is one of the main obstacles women endure in their leadership positions. Gender-Role Theory is the development of expectations people create of their own and others behavior based on the beliefs about what is appropriate for both male and females. For example, if a female were to pull out a man’s chair at a restaurant before seating herself or open his car door before getting in the car, that would be found as odd behavior for a women.
When analyzing leadership characteristics and styles, there are considerable differences in gender characteristics that are identified. Men are considered to have “masculine” traits, such as being
Women make up a majority of the United States population and yet they are significantly behind men when it comes to their representation in leadership positions. Women only hold about 52 percent of all professional-level jobs (CITATION). When it comes to politics only about 20 percent of political leaders in the world are women (CITATION). In today’s society, women are absent in almost all major leadership positions in both business and politics. Women seeking leadership positions are constantly being faced with different obstacles. These obstacles include many negative stereotypes about female leaders. There is also the idea that women belong at home with taking care of the family not in the workplace. Another obstacle is that many women are lacking the necessary support and opportunities they need in order to succeed. Other obstacles they face are the leadership gap, lack of gender equality in the workplace.
In the United States, study after study continues to show that women have fewer opportunities to advance in the workplace than men. These disadvantages are a result of society’s views of women in leadership positions and how women may view themselves in these roles. Women have been making progress in terms of equality in pay and job positions, but significant gaps remain. Women who strive to be promoted into higher levels of responsibility in their companies often meet resistance that prevents them from achieving the goal of a senior or executive level of management. This barrier is referred to as the “glass ceiling” and it is a controversial issue in our country today. The glass ceiling called this because women are able to see the higher level positions, but can reach them because of an intangible barrier. One can look at the Fortune 500 companies, which are the most successful companies in the U.S. in terms of revenue to see how few women are in leadership positions. Clearly, women are significantly underrepresented in these companies, as less than 5 percent of these companies have female chief executive officers (CEO) today (Dockterman 105). Providing the opportunity for women to move into management positions, like CEOs, would bring a unique talent and a new perspective on how the company can operate to perform better (Buckalew 147). The “glass ceiling” is a real obstacle that creates an intangible barrier that puts women at a disadvantage in advancing in a company.
A recent study by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (2008) looking at the challenges facing women in leadership roles highlighted the following areas as being significant;
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).
In the past women and minorities have dealt with several obstacles that have prevented them from climbing the corporate ladder. According to Sanchez-Hucles and Davis (2010), women and minorities have experienced discrimination and biases that have been detrimental to them achieving and performing in leadership roles. Fortunately, the “glass ceiling” that has been suppressing so many women and minorities from suceeding in the workforce has finally been cracked. Now, according to The Department For Professional Employees (2014), “there are almost 67 million working women in the U.S.”, and according to Burns, Barton, and Kerby (2012), “people of color made up 36 percent of the labor force”. Although they’ve made great strives in the workforce, they continue to face several obstacles as leaders.
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
Marie A. Chisholm-Burns states that “perhaps no sector has been more publicly scrutinized for its gender disparities than the corporate world” (312). While women tend to do most of the shopping for the household, they still lack the ability to voice their opinions about what can be done to improve consumption or shopping. USA Today recently wrote an article that was boldly named “Sexism in the Workplace is Worse Than You Thought” which talks about the gender bias women face in the workplace as they progress in their career (Chisholm-Burns 312). Since white males are considered superior in today’s society, diversity is hard to find in high-paying jobs. Because women face discrimination, many businesses struggle to reach their full potential. The glass ceiling is also very condescending and causes women to act negatively towards themselves. The discrimination in pay between men and women has caused many women to form anxiety or stress disorders, such as depression. It also causes women to not strive to be the best they can and because they struggle with this, the possibilities of having great women in leadership decreases even lower than it was originally. These low levels of female leaders also lack encouragement from good role models who would help them learn how to be a leader. If equality becomes a strong focus for corporations, then they should see a positive overall
In the recent years, many women have made progress in obtaining jobs as CEO’s of major companies, hold seats on the board of directors, and many other high profile positions however, the percentage of women and minorities that hold these positions are very low in comparison to males hence, the glass ceiling remains. The term Glass Ceiling is the “unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rings of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements” (Glass Ceiling Commission, 1995). Stereotypes and biases have created an image that women are not capable of effectively filling the role of managerial jobs. In 1995, Glass Ceiling Commission noted that women filled only 3 to
Northouse (2016a) describes the development of female leadership. It was once a question if women could lead; yes, they can, but a gender gap exists. Differences between men and women that affect their job attainment. Although men and women may have equal access to entry and lower level positions, men hold more prestigious upper level jobs. Why does this occur? Generally, women have invested less than men in human capital: job history, training, and school. Women invest more time than men in taking care of family. As a result, men obtain jobs that require more responsibilities (Northouse, 2016a).
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2011) found that 98 % of Fortune 500 CEOs are men, and 97 % of them are White. Women are not able to enter the career fields such as science, politics and business. “Although America has opened its doors to the 50% population women college graduates entering the working world, it has locked its gates on promotions above the first management tier, except for the few that were able to knock the gates down”(Lana 1). Lana reveals that it is difficult for women to earn higher positions even both genders have similar opportunities to get jobs nowadays. Women have gained their independence from a male dominated society and are rising to become less dependent on their husbands for financial support. Feminism movements not only have helped to raise the confidence and self-esteem of women but also helped them to get a better life from advocating gender equality. Thus, this shows that gender equality have been improved over the years but there are still gender Inequality due to the gender stereotype in our society.
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.
The perceived contradiction between women and the typical leader role tends to create certain prejudices that causes people to think that leadership is more suited for men than women (Eagly et al., 2003)
For my research question I will be asking: “How is America making progress on gender equity?” Fundamentally, I believe that women are still misrepresented, and are still facing many challenges in the workplace, especially in the business world. The gender stereotypes play a considerable role in the way the society sees women as leaders. However, it will be judicious to consider the small but noticeable changes that have been made over the past years concerning gender equality in the American workplace.
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).