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LEADERSHIP THEMES IN THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
LEADERSHIP THEMES IN THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
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In the movie, “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006), Miranda Priestly, the editor in chief and CEO of “Runway” fashion magazine, played by Meryl Streep. Miranda uses masculine and authoritarian ways to do leadership; she is competitive, surly, vindictive, impatient, dominate, direct, task-oriented, meticulous, demanding, and brilliant. She is viewed as a devil boss partly because she is a woman. She manages by intimidating, “Does she have to manage her staff in that manner? Is being nasty an effective leadership style?" This is not about being nasty or nice – it is entirely about being achievement oriented by focusing on performance and organizational goals. Being achievement oriented, leaders have to recognize that they have to be mindful of and accountable for the choices they make because they are setting the model of what’s appropriate and inappropriate. Words matter, they are as much a form of expression for leaders as they are to poets, singers, and writers. According to Posner and Kouzes(p. 59) to be a leader, you got to awaken to the fact that you don’t have to copy someone else or follow a script and you don’t have to wear someone else’s style. Currently, there are an increasing number of women who are in leadership roles in the workplaces. It is a generally accepted as true that woman are supposed to use feminine ways of doing leadership. However, this is not always true. In some cases, women also use masculine ways of leadership. In this paper, Miranda Priestly illustrates how a female leader breaks traditional gender stereotypes and uses masculine leadership style. Women, on the other hand, are difficult to classify as a good leaders because in order to be a leader, we often need to sacrifice our femininity. This belief... ... middle of paper ... ...re difficult to classify as a good leaders because in order to be a leader, we often need to sacrifice our femininity. This belief is actually blocking many women from becoming successful leader. Therefore, even though there are increasing numbers of successful female leaders in the world, such as Hilary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, and Ursula Burns’s female leaders are still a minority. I feel that being a woman in leadership people expect that you should be submissive and stay in your place wherever that is. By taking on nontraditional leadership styles to be effective is what is needed to succeed then I am willing to learn how to act like a woman and think like a man. I viewed in the movie how I can get a more thorough understanding of how gender relates to leadership in the workplace and how leadership is actually practiced by people in the real business world.
In relation to leadership and women, historically women who wanted to seek leadership roles were often seen projecting the traditional masculine model of leadership. This model means to be rational, unemotional and analytic. It also, means in order to succeed traditionally women needed to look and act like a man to be taken seriously in leadership positions. Women in the past often dressed up in suits and ties and anything feminine was seen as an internal “weakness”. To be a leader in power meant to exude confidence in masculinity and shy away from anything remotely girly. As opposed, to the feminine model which casts power as focused on connection and harmony instead of power over something, someone. This power can be skilled through collective gain or physical attractiveness (Kruse 22).
Self assured confident women of today do not bode well with manipulative, superficial people. Modern women have evolved in to forward thinking strong independent people who will not stand to be taken advantage of. The evolution of the modern woman stems from the sensibilities of the characters portrayed in this film. While it would appear to some that being manipulative, superficial, and tenacious are all negative qualities; women through out the ages have relied on these qualities to get them where they want to be. In today’s world, ambitious, resourceful, independent and innocent seem to be far more acceptable adjectives to use when describing a woman climb to the top. Being able to balance these qualities is the key to becoming a successful woman.
The reading assignment for this unit included reading several articles and one book in particular, The Female Advantage, by Sally Helgesen as an introduction into varying leadership styles. Leadership, as a honed craft is practiced continually in different ways and varying circumstances, no two individuals will have the same leadership style. Certain distinctive traits brought into the forum and on display for followers to observe. Some traits can be visible, clothing or skin color as examples, others, however, are not as visible such as upbringing or family situation. Each of these factors could play a role in the leadership style of a leader. One trait that the author of the book uses to distinguish leaders is gender. As much as men and women must be treated the fairly and equally, it cannot be denied that outside of the biological aspect, men and women are slightly different. Each gender brings a unique approach to leadership situations.
Powell, G., Butterfield, D., and Bartol, K. (2008). Leader evaluations: A new female advantage? Gender in Management: An International Journal, 23, 156-174.
...e; they are not leaders. Women’s creativity is shown when Hal tells Carol not to move but when she sensed Hal and was in danger she launched some missiles towards Parallax and sent Hal’s ring to him. For the very reason that there is patriarchy in this movie, we can say that the women are oppressed, marginalized and treated as the “other”. Female characters are not given enough voice to speak their values.
Despite progress being made in alleviating the gender gap, and breaking the ‘glass ceiling’, gender continues to play a role in the perception we have of the ability a leader has to be successful and have an equal share of the real power in our country. Three women that have pioneered changing this perception are Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice and Sarah Palin. These three women have displayed true, successful leadership throughout their careers. All three women are of strong character and display a high level of self confidence. These ladies also are driven by their deep-rooted values and beliefs. This is Self-Concordence. In the text Organizational Behavior, the authors described self-concordance as the degree to which peoples’ reasons for pursuing goals are consistent with their interests and core values (Judge & Robbins, 2011). Believing in one’s self is critical to being a leader. Being confident that one is capable of meeting the goals that have been established for her and by her, improves her motivation and this can be perceived by others positively, making the ‘can do’ attitude spread. This is called Self-Efficacy Theory- An individual’s belief that he or she is capable of performing a task (Judge & Robbins, 2011).
In the American society, we constantly hear people make sure they say that a chief executive officer, a racecar driver, or an astronaut is female when they are so because that is not deemed as stereotypically standard. Sheryl Sandberg is the, dare I say it, female chief operating officer of Facebook while Mark Zuckerberg is the chief executive officer. Notice that the word “female” sounds much more natural in front of an executive position, but you would typically not add male in front of an executive position because it is just implied. The fact that most of America and the world makes this distinction shows that there are too few women leaders. In Sheryl Sandberg’s book “Lean In,” she explains why that is and what can be done to change that by discussing women, work, and the will to lead.
In Sheryl Sandberg’s essay “Lean In: What You Do If You Weren’t Afraid?”, she talks about how women are afraid to strive for leadership that men pursue for. She mentions how women are afraid to be leaders even though they outperform men academically in their degrees. Women are discouraged to enroll in leadership in the workforce because “they are less valued in the workplace” and “overwhelmingly stocked with men”(Sandberg 646). More importantly, Sandberg points out that the reason women don’t seek for high positioned jobs is that they aren’t “ambitious” as much as men. Not being ambitious allows women to not show themselves that they don’t have a strong desire to obtain the highest leadership. Women aren’t as ambitious than men because they
...e successful along with the fear men have of the power women have. American men having such negative attitude and comments about the possibility of the nation being ran by a female president proves that it is impossible to think that a women is not still viewed as inferior to men and believed to be destined to raise a strong family to strengthen our male-ran country.
For this study, we were to examine the organization and individual employees of Runway in The Devil Wears Prada. Andy Sachs, a recent college graduate from Northwestern University, lands a job at a high fashion magazine as the assistant to Miranda Priestly, an arduous boss that expects above and beyond from every individual.
To begin, the modernized feminist movement has altered the way gender roles are viewed in society. Women are pushing for complete control in nearly every aspect of life. Many feminists believe women could do just as well, if not better, than men have been doing in leadership positions. Many women fail to realize that ingrained in men is a desire to protect and lead. By taking over men’s roles, they leave men not knowing exactly what should be done.
Interest in the impact of gender on leadership is relatively new. The first studies were conducted in the US in the early 1970s when male managers at nine insurance companies were asked to characterise ‘women in general’, ‘men in general’ and ‘successful managers’. Successful managers were overwhelmingly identified exclusively with male traits. Many similar studies have been carried out since that time and all have demonstrated that the successful managerial stereotype remains male.
The Devil Wears Prada movie showcases an autocratic leadership style in Miranda Priestly, the Editor of the fictitious Runway magazine. The movie begins with the hopeful and naive graduate student interviewing for a much coveted position as Miranda Priestley’s 2nd Assistant. This highly regarded position was within a fast paced and competitive organization and unfortunately, before our main character, Andrea, could be selected for the job she needed to run the obstacle course of the self-serving and somewhat indifferent leadership style of the 1st Assistant, Emily. In this plot, there are a multitude of leadership styles and characteristics that are identifiable throughout the movie displayed both by Miranda and her second assistant
When we think about how it used to be 100 years ago, the only people in leadership roles where men, and there was no presence of women. Why is it that we tend to see more men in leadership positions? Usually when we think of what a leader looks like, we tend to describe them as powerful, assertive and confidence. Because of stereotypes our society immediately labels this person as a man, due to the roles that we are expected to follow. Today, there has been a huge shift for women in leadership positions; however, there are many challenges that they still have to overcome. A process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal (Northouse, 2007) defines a leader. Moreover, leaders come in different forms whether in a professional, educational, or group setting. As a male college student and an advocate for equal rights between men and women, my understanding of the struggles that women face has a huge impact on my philosophy of leadership. The three most important concepts in this course that has resonated with me the most are double bind, and think manager-think male and glass ceiling.
Researches that support no gender differences in leadership skills, says female and male leaders lack internal validity as they are often over-reliant on narrative reviews or case studies (Bartol & Martin, 1986; Bass, 1981, 1990). Kanter (1977) argues that men nor women are different in the way they lead, instead adapts his/her leadership style to their situation and conforms to what is expected of them in the role given, ignoring their gender’s influence on their leadership style. However, researchers agree that gender differences in leadership styles do exist and that men often use a more task-oriented approach, while women, on average, rely on leadership style heavily based on quality of interpersonal relationships (Eagly & Johnson, 1990; Gray, 1992; Eagly, 1987; Eagly & Karau, 2002). Female leaders have also been described as taking a more “take care” leadership approach compared to the males’ “take charge” approach (Martell & DeSmet, 2001; Yukl, 1994; Hater & Bass, 1998). Researchers have also found that women tend to emerge as more transformational leaders while men are likely to use a transitional leadership approach (Bass & Avolio, 1994; Rosener,