There is a plethora of approaches when it comes to examining the concept of leadership. One can examine leadership through the lens of theories, either behavioral, trait or contingency theories. Leadership can also be examined through the lens of styles, whether transactional, participative, transformative, charismatic or servant styles. Wren writes “Leadership is a complex phenomenon, involving the constant interaction of three essential elements: the leader, the followers, and the surrounding situation or context. An effective leader must know something about each and how they interact.” (Wren, p. 125). In the section “The Leaders”, Wren compiles readings which focus on the leader, bringing to the forefront issues about traits, behaviours, gender and minorities and how they influence leadership. In this essay, I will examine the issue of gender, specifically whether women lead differently than men. I will compare and contrast Virginia Schein’s conclusions with those of other researchers.
Schein begins by elucidating that in our quest to know what makes effective leaders, we have begun to look beyond the theories of traits and behaviour, beyond the contingency theories and have turned our attention to the question of how gender affects leadership. She explains that one view suggests women would lead differently being “oriented toward cooperation, teamwork and concern for others.” (Schein, p. 162) From this point of view, possessing feminine characteristics would be beneficial and thereby increase opportunities for women to access managerial positions. However, she points out, the focus on gender based characteristics is actually counterproductive to promoting equality for women in the workplace as it “perpetuates sex...
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...arate gender out as the determining factor influencing leader behaviour from the many other mitigating circumstances and factors in this puzzle. A female leader may lead in one particular way in one context and adapt to another way in different circumstances. I think female leaders have the capacity to lead differently than male leaders. Whether they choose to or not is another matter.
Works Cited
Lowen, L. (nd). About.com:women's issue. Retrieved July 25, 2010 from http://womensissues.about.com/od/intheworkplace/a/WomenLeaders.htm
Rosener, J. (1995).Ways Women Lead. In T. Wren, The leader's companion (pp. 161-167) New York: The Free Press.
Schein, V.(1995).Would Women Lead Differently? In T. Wren, The leader's companion (pp. 149-160) New York: The Free Press.
Yukl, G. (2009). Leadership in organizations. (pp. 448-453) Prentice Hall.
Women who carefully follow their expected roles may never recognize sexism as an oppressive force in their life. I find many parallels between women's experiences in the nineties with Betty Friedan's, in her essay: The Way We Were - 1949. She dealt with a society that expected women to fulfill certain roles. Those roles completely disregarded the needs of educated and motivated business women and scientific women.
Baker, Ella. A. Developing Leadership among Other People in Civil Rights. The American Women's Movement, 1945-2000. A Brief History with Documents. Comp.
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).
Rosette, A., & Tost, L. (2010). Agentic women and communal leadership: How role prescriptions confer advantage to top women leaders. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(2), 221-235. doi:10.1037/a0018204
DuPont, Kathryn. The encyclopedia of women's history in America. New York: Facts on File, 1996. Print.
...evere emotions, so not do it for dominance, but for reasons such as love, children, or family. Carol Shakeshaft, a writer specializing in gender differences in educational administration, describes the female mentality as: "emphasizing power with, rather than power over, others." She theorizes that women, in general, perform better in leadership positions, because they are more person oriented, and adopt a more democratic leadership style. To settle arguments, women rely more on negotiation than competition or physical violence. Had females been on the island, they would have practised more community involvement, equality, and inclusiveness.
Powell and Graves’s study shows that “the gender gap in leadership is a global phenomenon whereby women are disproportionately concentrated in lower-level and lower-authority leader ship positions compared to men” (as cited in Northouse, 2016, p. 399). I couldn’t have agreed more with the statement; I have come across all of people from different aspects of lives. I have noticed that females’ interactions and how they are perceived and or accepted are quite different from males, whether at the workplace, school, in social gathering like religious services, around families and friends, etc. This includes the communication, uncertainty that arises in a professional environment that must do with our
Wilson, Marie C. Closing the Leadership Gap Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World. New York: Viking Adult, 2004. Print
Rosen, Ruth. The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America. New York: Viking Penguin, 2000. 196.
Hewitt, Nancy. "Beyond the Search for Sisterhood: American Women's History in the 1980's."Social History. Vol. 10: No. 3 (1985): 299-321
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.
It follows, then that women were and still are underestimated in terms of leadership. According to Webster’s dictionary, “feminism” is the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. As the strong and independent character Nanny Flowers puts it, “you may be the boss out there, but I’m the boss in this kitchen” (Whale Rider, 2002). In making this comment, Nanny Flowers confronts Koro, the Chief of the community as well as her stubborn and traditional husband. She does so by asserting her role as an authoritative and independent woman, despite his sexist demand to clean up his spilt coffee. Just like her grandmother, Paikea, shows she doesn’t belong to any sweeping generalizations regarding women. Women know they are discriminated against and are inferior to men, but Paik...
As Yukl (2010) indicates, such factors (e.g. personality, values and capacities) attributed to a leader. Normally it is widespread acknowledged that someone is born to be a lead...
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...
Many people associate leadership with a specific job title or form of power within an organization. However, through personal experience, I have concluded that leadership can come in many forms and position as well as from multiple sources of roles and job titles both with and without power. Based on the definition of leadership, anyone can be considered a leader as long as they have the ability to influence people to achieve a particular result or goal which benefits the organization or group as a whole. Individuals with a secure sense of self and understanding, acceptance of diversity within an organization tend to be the strongest leaders that not only make others want to follow, but they also encourage other leaders to gravitate to their