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...
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...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.
Discriminating gender roles throughout the movie leaves one to believe if they are supposed to act a certain way. This film gives women and men roles that don’t exist anymore, during the 60s women were known to care for the family and take care of the house, basically working at home. However, a male was supposed to fight for his family, doing all the hard work so his wife didn’t have too. In today’s world, everyone does what makes them happy. You can’t tell a woman to stay at home, that makes them feel useless. Furthermore, males still play the roles of hard workers, they are powerful compared to a woman. However, in today’s world a male knows it isn’t right to boss a woman around, where in the 60s, it happened, today women have rights to do what they want not what they are
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).
Powell, G., Butterfield, D., and Bartol, K. (2008). Leader evaluations: A new female advantage? Gender in Management: An International Journal, 23, 156-174.
In 2008 the first woman was awarded the position of Speaker of the House, and Hillary Clinton ran for president. While Hillary had widespread support leading people to believe that the two different genders had reached equality, there were several that doubted whether or not a woman has what it takes to be a president. The women that came into power that was generally held by men, needed to perform a balancing act. This balancing act was between the characteristics of women and projecting the masculine strength and leadership needed to hold their position (Jenen 14). This problem in society has been continuing on for a long time. In the 1970’s women had no standing in academia. That women were no use to the department they were studying and
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).
Tamerius, K. (1995). Sex, Gender, and Leadership in the Representation of Women. In G. Duerst-Lahti & R. M. Kelly (Eds.), Gender, Power, Leadership, and Governance. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
Wilson, Marie C. Closing the Leadership Gap Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World. New York: Viking Adult, 2004. Print
Tannen discusses about how the word “bossy” has a negative meanings in our society towards women who demonstrate assertiveness in the workplace. In the text called ““Bossy” Is More Than a Word to Women” by Deborah Tannen says “ In short, women at work are in a double bind: If they talk in these ways, which are associated with and expected of women, they seem to lack confidence, or even competence. But if they talk in ways expected with someone in authority, they are seen as too aggressive”(65). This is important because the word “bossy” affects women who are in a workplace to have a lack of confidence with the power of authority. In a social standpoint they do not want to be seen as rude, pushy, or controlling and that shouldn’t be the case. The word “bossy” should not be used to discriminate a woman who is doing her job as a leader; they should be treated with respect when demonstrating assertiveness in a workplace. I understand Tannen’s point of view that why should women have to act in a gentle manner when enforcing authority rather than being assertive because they do not want to be seen aggressive. Discriminating against a woman just because of the gender by calling her “bossy” is something society has made to be seen as if it is okay. It is not okay because women are very capable of showing authority and they shouldn 't
Leadership is a complex idea that is often is hard to define. Everyone seems to have different characteristics that they feel contribute to a good leader. Even though there is no straightforward definition of leadership, there are still certain personality traits, behaviors, skills, and motivators that people admire in a leader. The best example to show how leaders utilize these characteristics is to examine a prominent figure in pop culture, such as Beyoncé. Her life is transparent enough that we can analyze her leadership skills, and how they change in any given situation. Beyoncé’s impact as a leader will be analyzed in three different categories.
Leadership can be defined in many ways, but one thing all leaders have in common is the determination to get a task done. Although leaders may carry out this action in many different ways, they all do what needs to be done in order to reach their goal. Florence Nightingale was willing to gather a group of women and pick up and leave her home to tend to the wounded soldiers of the Crimean War. In order for Florence to be successful in leading these women ultimately into a place of war, she needed to have trust and a good reputation for herself. Something that shows the reputation of Florence Nightingale was the fact that at the time there were no female nurses in the Crimean War.
...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.
For many years, I have been told by teachers, family, and friends that I am a good leader. Until fairly recently, I had never truly thought about what it means to be a good leader and just took it as a compliment. Leadership is an intangible concept which cannot be properly outlined in a dictionary, but one which must be formed and explained only through one’s own philosophies and experiences.
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
Movies regularly illustrate a glimpse into the inner working of an organization. They analyze how the characters as individuals and groups interact with each other, how they think and feel about each other in an organization. The Devil Wears Prada is a 2006 comedy drama film by David Frankel that gives the viewers a picture of how it looks like when one works in the fashion world. It focuses on the fashion world and it is a social and cultural expose movie. In the movie, Miranda is a cultural intermediary who selects countless fashion items to determine which ones will make it in the market.
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...