Woman Striving to Succeed in a Male Dominant World

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Recommended: Introduction to women leadership

Many writers have addressed the popular question of women and the relationship between gender and leadership. These vary from women not possessing the quality and traits necessary for managerial work to the negative stereotypes attached with women striving to succeed in a male dominant quarter. 3% of CEO’s in the Fortune 500 companies are women [10], therefore this gap in leadership means that there are many obstacles barricading women in senior positions to make that leap through the glass ceiling that is holding them back. In this essay, I will be explaining a few obstacles women in leadership face and what can be done to address them.
Firstly, one of the obstacles women seeking leadership’s positions face is that women tend to have less human capital investment in education, training and work experience. This has an overall impact on the gap between men and women in terms of employability on the labor market. Evidence highlights that the difference in wages between men and women are contested when variables such as years of education and work experience is tested [1]. It was also addressed that in the years between 1980 and 2000, the wage difference between men and women was about 44%. This percentage was halved when variables such as work experience and education was made equal. The factor which played the biggest influence on statistics was work pattern. Men undertook more hours of paid labor and more years of job experience than women. The evidence collected in Eagly and Carli 2004 [11], expresses the impact that takes place when women have a deficit in human capital investments such as work experience, education and training. Small differences such as hours invested in paid work and amount of work experience one has affect...

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...r president, 42% of respondents favored a man, 31% favored a woman, and women and men were more likely to favor their own sex. Therefore, from what we are shown, women tend to be favored less than men as potential candidates. The reasons behind this are of the associations employers will make between the leadership role and masculine skills and traits. Skill and trait theory however are good tools for employers to assess a potential candidates ability to be a leader. Using this as a recruitment tool gives individuals a clearer image of what they need to undertake to become a leader and fulfill the position. It can also highlight the areas they are lacking in. However when negative stereotype and prejudice is involved in recruitment and selection, then the usefulness of this tool is no longer apparent, lop sided judgments makes this recruitment tool weak and solvent.

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