1. Discuss the challenges women face in leadership that may help us understand why there are so few women holding the athletic director position at Division I universities. Women are not new to facing challenges and coming across barriers that limit or stall their progression within organizations and landing leadership opportunities. Women Rising explains to us how persistent gender bias often times disrupts the learning process at the heart of becoming a leader. The research shows that the process for women to be leaders is much more difficult than it is for men (Women Rising). The want and motivation to lead are attacked from the moment women realize that it is in them, due to these gender biases being in place. An example of a bias that is often noticed would be: behavior that is considered assertive in men will often times be perceived as an aggressive behavior in women, and thus denigrated rather than rewarded (Women Rising). In most cultures and societies, there are specific gender roles that are ascribed to either men or women. Men must be assertive, women must be submissive. Men must be decisive, women must be caring. These double binds are direct hinders to …show more content…
A mixture of multiple leadership styles, she was able to lead in her own way. For example, her leadership style was very similar to servant leadership, in regards to how much she valued the members of her team. Coach McKeever was quoted saying, “It is not about winning but being a better version of yourself. What happens at the end is a celebratory by-product of the work we do.” Although she was able to transform the culture of the university and make them a winning school, she still cherished the well-being and improvement of the swimmers. McKeever’s leadership style allowed for everyone to have a voice, similar to participative leadership. She was very receiving of constant feedback and total honest, no matter if it was convenient or
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).
In the book, Sally Helgesen cites the “Feminine Principles” brought forth by Anita Roddick, who is the founder of The Body Shop as basic principles that could help to distinguish, or rather help to further define men and women leaders. The principles include, caring, making intuitive decisions, not getting hung up on hierarchy, having a sense of work being part of your life, putting labor where your love is, being responsible to the world and knowing that the bottom line should not be the only driving factor. These are the principles that encompass the “feminine principles” within the context of the text. While these principles are broad, they are not exclusive to women, however, women in general exhibit these qualities in more pounced ways than men.
Powell, G., Butterfield, D., and Bartol, K. (2008). Leader evaluations: A new female advantage? Gender in Management: An International Journal, 23, 156-174.
The gap between men and women produce three important concepts that reason the difference. First is the discussion of the better leader- men or women? It has been studied that women approach their followers with an interactive style with the encouragement of sharing power and information with others, participation, and self-worthiness to others. On the other hand, men have a consistency to be more task-oriented in their leadership styles and emerge in short-term conditions. The simple claim that women are just different than men, can be argued with the idea that men have effective traits for leadership. Women are less likely to negotiate and as a leader, this leads to lack of communication. And as discussed, leadership’s main ingredient is communication. Without it, nothing gets across to followers, and nothing is reciprocated to leaders. As a leadership position becomes larger and larger, (such as a CEO’s leadership position) there are fewer and fewer women holding these positions. The biggest question is why? Generally, females and males share the leadership values, work equally as hard to accomplish their goals, and react accordingly. Society plays a huge role in the gender gap. Some jobs aren’t even offered to women because of their gender and women
The main component of an organization is people. A team of people work together to achieve the common goal of the organization. For an organization to operate successfully it must have a vision, policies, procedures and governance. Each of these four items are determined, implemented and overseen by the leaders of the organization. Leadership is an important part of each phase of an organization beginning with the start of the organization and continuing until the disbanding of the organization. Since leadership of an organization has a strong impact on every organization it is often researched in the study of organizational behavior (OB) (Kreitner & Kinick, 2014).
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.
Wilson, Marie C. Closing the Leadership Gap Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World. New York: Viking Adult, 2004. Print
402). Our gender differences and leadership styles can work in our favor and against us; I think it is contradicting, in the way we send mixed messages, while a lot of people, especially in the modernized Western world do accept a female to control the household and does it well, yet; at the workplace females are perceived as being too emotionally consumed to get a task completed. By nature, and nurture, each gender in most cases acts differently; this could be because of our biological hormones and way each gender is raised, apparently, it is not so nowadays. The problem is should we keep letting it slide by being bias or is there something that can be done to encourage and promote gender equality and respect for one another that goes beyond the responsibilities society requires of each
Women have been treated unfairly and discriminated in the workforce for too long. The discrimination that these women face is unjust and unwarranted. It is sad that as a society in the twenty-first century we are still trying to combat these issues. In Developing Women Leaders was published in The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist July 1, 2012 it discusses possible solutions and how stigmas and stereotypes are starting to change. Women should not have to face discrimination in the workplace as a society there should be an equal standard for all individuals no matter the race or gender.
...valuated and affirmed by those around us. For women, however, this process is often interrupted, due to the fact that “when women display leadership behaviors we consider normative in men, we see them as unfeminine, [and] when women act more feminine, we don’t see them as leaders” (Sarah Green, Harvard Business Review). This issue is felt and internalized, rather than seen, and drastically decreases women’s motivation to lead within an organization. In contrast, Morrison notes that women, while kept from the innermost circles of leadership and power, and constantly, and with high intensity, purported to succeed: “the pressure is in being a minority, set apart by gender before anything is said or done, and in being responsible for representing women as a group because there is no one, or few others, to share that responsibility” (Breaking the glass ceiling, pp. 17).
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.
My research provided an opportunity to review and identify different elements of leading from previous studies. As I begin my review, I find myself rediscovering essential qualities of successful leadership. The author provides a very interesting case study that depicts the importance of people skills, (Bennis, 2009). In order to be an effective leader you must be able to relate to others through open communication, (Bennis, 2009). A leader needs to be approachable and personable in their actions. The case study provided an example of a leader that lacked people skills. He had been mentored in an environment that was not conducive to team building, (Bennis, 2009). His leadership approach was to be direct and demanding centered on productivity
“Women tend to act in a collegial manner and actively extend invitations to others to participate in decision making” (Taylor, 1994), but men use more of their authority to handle situations. The basics of trait leadership theory outline the person whom should be a leader, rather than the style they lead in. Genders tend to be conflicting sometimes because certain people relate to their opposite gender rather than the same. When using the basic traits of leadership assists the leader and defines the path of making an effective leader. Whether it may be a female or male in the position of a leader they must decide what method to take on the situation. They might use the contingency theory or if they are charismatic then transformational theory. If a leader has a certain trait that can motivate their followers, then a manager or management can promote them to have their peers give additional output. People respond to gender leadership differently. It varies from person to person, but one must know how to approach the situation, for example, when a new leader is appointed a person may not feel like the leader is competent because the method is different from their own point of view. In conclusion, gender determines which theory is used and how they will approach
I work to maintain a balanced lifestyle: excelling academically, while allocating time for extra-curricular activities, volunteer work, a part-time job, family, and friends. I am the type of person who thrives under pressure and challenges. I enjoy having responsibility; I take charge and I am exemplary at it. I am a conscientious achiever and with well-rounded talents, I find myself continuously involved with everything that I am able. For the same reason, I bring it upon myself to take on roles of responsibility and leadership. Helping others is often a rewarding experience and I believe it is important to find the drive to inaugurate change. Similarly, leadership in athletics is vital to a team’s success; it is necessary to have a player
Women leaders have the crucial soft skills of empathy, innovation, facilitation, and active listening (Masaoka, 2006). They also have first-hand life experiences that bring technical skills and experiences from the street level to the workplace (Masoka, 2006). Women often build stronger relationships with clients and outside contacts than their male counterparts. This relationship building skill, provides a key aspect which helps to move businesses forward (Giber et al., 2009). Fortune 500 companies with a high percentage of women significantly outperformed those with fewer women. Companies with the highest representation of women showed higher returns on equity than those with fewer women employees (Giber et al., 2009). Thus, future organizations may have a higher percentage of female leaders than we have experienced in the past. Future leaders must ensure that there is equality among the workforce and that women are accurately represented among the