Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Gender inequality in the workforce
Gender inequality in the workforce
Gender inequality in the workforce
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Gender inequality in the workforce
Introduction
According to Northouse (2009), leadership is a concept of multi-dimensional facets
inclusive of skill, ability, inherent qualities, behaviors, and relationships. All or some of these dimensions may be observed in an individual that possesses leadership potential in different combinations and can be recognized when intent to make a change in an organization is for the greater good (2009).
Even with good intentions and desires for positive changes, pathways to leadership can be locked with long periods of time and laborious experiences. The male gender, White males in particular and majority in the United States, have dominated the field of leadership therefore creating psychological barriers that excellence, potential, and aptitude enviably are tied to the male- gender (Jackson, Engstron, & Emmers-Sommer, 2007). Many explorations and developments allure to leadership theories centered around White male-gender prototypes, establishing ideologies ostensible to that same race and gender, signifying status and power, and mentioning minimal influences aspired by females and minorities. The speculations thereof have caused females and minorities to experienced delayed or non-existent advancements in managerial of leadership roles (2007).
Recent literature more readily discusses cues that are suggestive of race and male-oriented ideologies of leadership as data depicts possibilities for setting apart females or minorities that may have potential and creditability for top leadership positions. Two articles, The Synergistic Leadership Theory (SLT), (Irby, Brown, Duffy, and Trautman, 2001) and the White Standard: Racial Bias in Leader Categorization (Rosette, and Phillips, 2008) probe female and minority presence ...
... middle of paper ...
...ng from predispositions about behaviors.
Subtle aversive racism derived from negative stereotypes continues to lay biases among female and minorities. Leadership prototypes that refer to being White as being “the” stereotypical characteristic nevertheless existent and lay constructs that affect minorities and not mentioned in these investigation, female minorities.
To many instances occur in leadership where individuals in power set the organization’s culture or create biases that undermine the acceptance of leadership potential and follower
7
support. Research that ignores leadership traits, values, behaviors, abilities, and skills establishes, to the contrary, data based on traditional beliefs about any group not excluding the aged, female minorities, and others, is soaked in attitudes given by the majority and questionable.
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).
Vroom, V. H., & Jago, A. G. (2007). The role of the situation in leadership. American
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.
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
Effectiveness of organizations depends on various factors. Nonetheless, it is firmly believed, by most practitioners and behavioural scientists, that leadership is a phenomenon which is crucial in achieving this goal (Yukl, 2013). As leadership is contextually bound, it cannot be completely understood from a single perspective. There are other elements that must be considered in order to do so, such as: the leader, the follower, the context and the interactions among them (Rumsey, 2013). The topic is even more fascinating in regards to the fact that most individuals are in some way a leader, a follower, or both. Despite the fact that most of these relationships go without particular notice, others have tremendous influence on the today’s world.
The vision of leadership that leaders are born made, and not learn to be leaders is still considered but not popular among researchers (Avolio et al, 2013).
When we think of leadership, many people may think of current or former presidents. They could also think of their boss at work or coach from whatever sport they participated in throughout grade school and college. What were the traits that distinguished them for their role as a leader? One of the most common traits that exist in many areas is that leaders are typically males. Even looking back in history leadership roles where highly monopolized by male figures. Washington, Napoleon, and even God is identified as male. One of the most resistant areas that this discrimination exists in is the military and more so the Marine Corps. It is important to develop an understanding of the benefits of equally
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
Ingrum, D. J., Berdahl, J. L., & Wagoner, B. L. (2009). Stereotypes of Latinos and Whites: Do They Guide Evaluations in Diverse Work Groups? Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 15(2), 158-163. doi:10.1037/a0015508
The most prominent cause indicated by the literature for women’s leadership gap is the gender stereotype. A stereotype is a prejudice as a simplified description about their qualities and characteristics applied to every person in some category (Gray, 2010). Hence, gender stereotypes are simplified descriptions regarding the attributes of men and women. These can be divided into two groups: descriptive and prescriptive gender stereotypes. Descriptive gender stereotypes portray what women and men are like, whereas prescriptive gender stereotypes portray what women and men should be like (Heilman, 2012).
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
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.
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 styles 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, 1990). The article Women and Leadership (2015 January 14) supports the research that looks at who makes a better leader; the article states that 80% of the public thinks that both male and female can be excellent leaders in society, while 11% said men and 7% said women.
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