Women 's Comparative Lack Of Success

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

Likewise, understanding how societies have historically viewed and treated women in leadership roles is informative but fails to address how change can be affected. Business approaches in women in leadership look at the economic factors of what women earn in such positions and how many are represented in upper management but do little to address how to change long-standing perceptions. These three approaches provide vital information yet independently cannot be actionable. When considered in concert, elements of each discipline can come together to provide an understanding of the cause of gender bias in leadership, how societies deal with such bias, and what can be done to change the situation to improve economic realities for women. It is clear that an interdisciplinary approach yields much more useful information than can an approach based on any single

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.

the though of a woman being their superior is a dreadful thought. Researchers have long suspected that women employ a different leadership styles than men. And even though women make up only a small fraction of CEOs at the largest corporations in the United States and beyond, their leadership style might actually be more effective than men’s, according to at least

For instance, to support the first argument, research should be conducted on women leaders of specific cultures, Smith and Reed initially presented statistics related to female employment. For instance, in the United States approximately 50% of management positions are held by women (Smith & Reed, 2010). Despite the growth in the number of women leadership roles, gender biases continue to exist. For example, in Pakistan women rarely receive support to become leaders because of the belief that they should be at home (Smith & Reed, 2010). As in the previous scenario, these biases are often the result of cultural norms/beliefs, therefore, differences within leadership structures will exist within each subgroup. Smith and Reed (2010) conclude this argument by emphasizing that a greater understanding of women’s leadership influence within each subgroup would “unleash the potential of all citizens in promoting national economic health and prosperity” (p.

When it comes to female leader, same scenario does not exist. Female leaders, who, with few exceptions, are either single or have partners with full-time jobs (William, J. 2000). In 2011, a study showed that In Ireland, Men working hours averaged 39.4 hours a week with only 30.6 for women, and married men worked longer hours than married women. Also, more than half a million women in 2011 were looking after home/family compared with only 9,600 men (Gender Equality In Ireland). Gender stereotypes are hard to break, and like it or not, we are all prone to engaging in stereotyping at one time or another. This is demonstrated in the work of Mahzarian Banaji here at Harvard (Gender Inequality and Woman in the Workplace). In Addition, A review of the Australian Defence Forces (ADF) was conducted alongside by Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner to recognized the main barriers that prevented the growth of women representation in leadership that was due to a lack of critical figure of women due to retention and attraction difficulties, high degree of occupational discrimination with a rigid career structures; a culture with occasional poor leadership and unacceptable behaviors, and cultural perception and difficulties combining work and family (AHRC 2012).

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.

Does gender affect the ability of an individual to become an effective leader? Some researchers believe that effective leaders are just born while others believe that effective leadership can be learned. But few of these researchers discuss the difference that gender may make in becoming good leaders. When we take a look back through history, we can see that the evaluation of women leaders was slow. Today, only 2.4 percent (Gettings, Johnson, Brunner, & Frantz, 2009) of the Fortune 500 Company 's are lead by women which is an increase from the 1.2 percent (www.money.cnn.com) of female Chief Executive Officers in 2002. The gender differences in the corporate world posses several issues for the Human Resource Managers such as management

Looking at the significant body of research on the topic of gendered leadership, the overwhelming opinion is that men and women are thought to behave differently in leadership positions. Analysis of the key traits of masculine and feminine leadership models shows that masculine models value “assertiveness, aggressiveness and a task-focused orientation” while feminine approaches value “empathy, cooperation, and collaboration with an intrapersonal orientation”. Men are thought to bring a “command and control” style to leadership and women a “mentor and coach.”

The numbers are stark. Despite women’s impressive gains in education and the workplace over the past 50 years, men greatly outnumber women in leadership, especially in top positions. From corporate boardrooms to the halls of Congress, from universities to the courts, from religious institutions to philanthropic organizations, men are simply much more likely than women to be leaders. This topic has captured the attention of the nation. Many thousands of books and articles offer theories about the nature of the problem and advice to individual women on how to stand up, step up, lean in, and make their voices heard. But the leadership gender gap is significant, persistent, and systemic. Individual choices alone simply will not solve the

Women are master multi-taskers and have held the reins for years both in the home and in a professional environment. They are highly cooperative but women are also not afraid to get territorial to protect their terrain. As leaders, women invest in themselves and become knowledge seekers. They are not afraid to ask questions when given a safe platform to express themselves. For

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).

Things would be a lot different if women ran more companies. In Joann S. Lublin article, “How Companies Are Different When More Women Are in Power”, she states, “Change is coming slowly, but corner offices are looking a bit less like exclusive boys’ clubs lately.” The increase of female executives has also increased the number of female employees. Lublin interviews a woman by the name of Liz Gottung who is the head of human resources for Kimberly Clark. Gottung states, “When it’s only one or two women, our voices can get lost.” When you have women supporting each other, we become a force that you cannot ignore. But even when a woman is put in an authoritative position, she is still likely to be seen as less authoritative in comparison to a male (Ridgeway, 2013). I believe this is why men try and keep the male to female ratio obsolete.

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.