A Tendency to Essentialism? Discourses about Women’s Leadership

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to identify the women’s leadership model diffused through management literature in order to determine if there is a pre-eminence of essentialist and exclusionary principles in its sense. Through the Appraisal Theory and by analyzing a recent management literature sample, the values associated with the women’s leadership model are identified, and a conclusion about their essentialist character is reached. The initial hypothesis is that the women’s leadership model, disseminated to professional women through management literature, contains an essentialist character that reproduces gender dichotomies and the rational homo oeconomicus model by hindering gender equality and the development of egalitarian leadership models from being accomplished.

WHAT WE CAN CHANGE IS OURSELVES: Experiences of Women Leaders In Religious-Based Higher Education Organizations

“…In contrast, participants with a feminine leadership style rated themselves as lacking toughness and assertiveness. Several studies on women's leadership consistently show that women are faced with a duality of leadership styles rooted in gender role stereotypes (Andajani, Hadiwirawan, Sokang 2016;Brescoll, 2016;Kristiyanti et al, 2016;Rosette, et al, 2016;Carbajal, 2018;Mate et al, 2019;Medina-Vicent, 2020). Nowadays, leadership research has recognized that traditional feminine leadership styles are more effective than it was twenty years ago.…”