The Women's Leadership Roles

This semester, we learned specific ways to build our leadership capabilities by reading “How Remarkable Women Lead” by Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston, researching Boston women leaders, interviewing a present day woman leader, and reading a group book. Throughout all of these resources and research, common themes of how to be a successful leader emerged. Not only did I learn more about leadership in general, but I also found ways to improve my own leadership without going too much out of my comfort zone. The important lessons of leading with perseverance, framing, and an activist's mindset thoroughly influenced my identity as a leader and gave me new tactics to grow as a person.

The differences between gender roles are not so apparent anymore. Men are not always the typical breadwinners and many women are not stay-at-home mothers. An article by Beaupré, Dryburgh, and Wendy (2010) described the transition that many men are going through. According to Beaupré, et al., (2010), fathers were once considered the forgotten parent. “Until recently studies on the family focused mainly on the mothers” (Beaupré, et al., 2010). Fortunately, both parents are now being focused on. Fathers today are much more involved in the pregnancy and birth of their child and their child’s life in general (Beaupré, et al., 2010). Beaupré, et al., (2010) explained that women’s involvement in the labour force could be a factor to this change. Women are more educated than they were in previous years. And while women want to work more, men want to be more involved in their children’s lives (Beaupré, et al., 2010). Fatherhood is occurring later in adulthood. Research stated that the majority of men are very satisfied with their involvement in their children’s lives. (Beaupré, et al., 2010).

Women feel more obligated to stay at home or work part time if they have children. Even if they share household chores with their spouses, many women still prefer to work less in order to sustain the home. However, women who are single mothers do not have the luxury to stay at home, and working part time may be the only option they have. For single mothers working is imperative in order to keep the family afloat financially, but with all of the commitments they have, they cannot balance everything. Childcare is essential, because while single mothers are working they need a reliable place to send their young children; the same with single fathers as well. Most women in the work force have children to take care of, and families to provide for, which many take as a decrease of masculinity, and the increase of femininity. On the contrary, many studies show that although the labor force is divided, the household is not and do a lot to maintain the household as well. According to Hertz and Marshall (2001), “Men who participate in more companionate activities with their children (such as play, leisure activities, and TV watching) are no more likely to take on other household chores than less-involved fathers. It is only men who participate in nurturing, are more nearly partners in family work. Men are also more likely to

Being a leader is not considered a job or position. Becoming a leader is not a talent, job or position. Although, leadership can be rewarding and difficult at the same time. In today’s society, “the kind of leadership necessary to move social movements forward is very different from the type of leadership required in a military setting, especially on the battlefield. A more sharpened focus on leadership processes versus individual leader traits and behaviors deepens our understanding of the complexities and interactive nature of leadership” (Komives, Lucas and McMahon 2013, 46). My goal is to understand how to face the complexities in life as a leader to communities, universities, organizations, the workplace and the world. As a leader,

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?

Leadership Legacy Assessment “will help you articulate your natural role with clarity, as distinct from your career path, current position, or the current condition of your company. It will help you sort out the distinctions between your roles and titles, and identify where you get the greatest satisfaction and where your strengths lie. Ultimately, it gives you something to think about as you plan the kind of legacy you want to leave. Most people share the characteristics of several types of leaders” (Galford, 2011).

2017 Women in Leadership Conference has opened my eyes and my heart to a wonderful world of opportunities. These successful and inspirational speakers; Dr. Wendy Murphy and Bentina Terry, along with the list of phenomenal of panelist really stood out with ear piercing words like be myself and be confident in what I know. Having mentors would be one key to my success that I learned and can begin today. Mentors provide support, motivation, understanding, and guidance. The one last thing to drive it home was Bentina Terry outstanding and unforgettable lecture. I will never forget her words of Boundless instead, of fearless, who’s going to stop me, and never jump if I don’t have wings. The needed learning tools given in this

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

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.

Thinking about and shaping my legacy is important. While at first that seems to be very selfish, in truth thinking about my legacy will lead to me being a better superior and boss. As Dr. Jann E. Freed explains in What is Your Leadership Legacy? a leadership legacy is like a photo mosaic. A person’s leadership mosaic is made up of photos, of employees, community connections, clients, and superiors.

When the mother is stressed and exhausted from handling these multiple roles it is also said to affect the child in that they will also feel stressed from feeding off the mother’s attitude. Dr. Rosalind Barnett stated in her article, Women and Multiple Roles: Myths and Reality, that a common myth centers on “the underlying assumption that the roles of wife and mother are ‘natural’ roles and are therefore performed without undue stress”, and that the role of being employed is “seen as ‘unnatural’ and therefore highly demanding” leading to the belief that mother’s and wives should remain in the traditional role that society has set for them (2004:158). The message a lot of women are receiving from society is that they are selfish in pursuing “other” dreams, when they should be taking their role of mother and wife as the main job. Barnett explained that the message women commonly hear is “children of working mothers, especially during the crucial early years, will suffer a range of problems from insecure attachment to inappropriate externalizing behaviors” (2004:160). However, as Barnett points out, contrary to society’s perceptions of mothers working, the consistent findings in various studies, including cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, showed that a working mother with multiple roles “exhibited better mental and physical health” and consequently felt less stressed and less anxious overall (2004:160).

As the author points out, the figures on women in leadership is staggering in disparity. The article takes time to focus on identifying and highlighting reasons what makes a successful leader. Having an opportunity to attend a leadership meeting, in which we discussed improving inclusion at my company, this article presented many of the same reasons that as a company we tried to understand, “Why do we not have more women in leadership?” This article really underscores that in order for a business to survive and grow or for that matter, any organization to flourish you need to find individuals that embody the above-mentioned leadership traits not just seniority.

Men have an upper hand, because they have been traditionally the ones that run and control business. It is very difficult to break a tradition or trend like that. When it comes to substantial positions, a woman has a tough time competing with a man that has anywhere near her qualifications, just for the plain fact that a man usually feels more comfortable hiring another man. Men feel that woman are not capable of handling these positions and just hire a male over a female almost every time.

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).