Gender and Leadership: Negotiating the Labyrinth

Abstract

There is no topic with more profound implications for gender equality than leadership. Gender equality cannot be attained until women and men share leadership equally. With unfettered access of women to leadership, the policies of organizations and governments would balance the concerns of women and men more equitably. Yet, women and men are not equally represented as leaders in any contemporary nation. Therefore, it is essential that people committed to furthering gender equality understand what enhances the access of women and men to leadership and their ability to perform well in leader roles. To foster this understanding, we focus this chapter on explaining why women have less access to leadership than men do, especially to roles that confer high levels of power and authority. We also explore women's considerable progress in attaining such roles in many nations. An understanding of both women's advancement and their continuing lack of equality with men illuminates the changes needed to produce gender equality.The first issue we address is whether the typically greater family responsibilities of mothers than fathers are the main deterrent to women's rise as leaders. The second issue is whether people are prejudiced against women as leaders and, therefore, discriminate against them as candidates for leadership roles and resist their authority once they occupy these roles. Such prejudicial pressures can affect women's leadership behavior. The third issue is whether challenges to women as leaders reside at least in part in the structure and culture of organizations. As we argue in this chapter, the conjunction of these several considerations produces paths to leadership that are decidedly more challenging for women than for men-challenges that can be metaphorically described by a labyrinth that women traverse to attain power and authority and exercise it effectively (Eagly & Carli, 2007).Given that all individuals possess identities in addition to their gender, the multifaceted challenges to leadership that individuals face can differ depending on attributes such as sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity. Throughout the chapter, we remain cognizant of the different contours that these intersectionalities impose on men's and women's leadership (Shields, 2008).

Barriers to Women's Career Advancement in Indonesian Academia: A Qualitative Empirical Study

“…Women are stereotyped as having communal attributes, such as being interpersonally sensitive, nurturing, kind, helpful, and concerned about the welfare of others; whereas men are stereotyped as having agentic attributes, such as being aggressive, forceful, self-confident, self-sufficient, and in control. At the same time, people generally believe that leadership requires more agentic and less communal qualities [18]. As a result of these competing attributes, women have less access to leadership roles [19], are negatively evaluated when occupying leadership roles [20], and when successful in their leadership, they are subjected to negative perceptions such as being more deceitful, pushy, selfish and abrasive than successful male managers [5].…”

“…For example, leadership has been associated with more agentic qualities [18], which are commonly perceived characteristics of men. On the other hand, women are stereotyped as having communal qualities that are perceived incongruent with leadership roles [12].…”

Women and Leadership in Mixed Secondary Schools in Kenya; Do Stakeholder’s Attitudes Matter?

“…Attitude is an expression of favor or disfavor toward a person, place, thing, or event (Kark & Eagly, 2010). Attitude about women leaderships are informed by stereotypes and subjective biases resulting from elements of societal stratification (Cheung & Halpen, 2010).…”

“…This notion appears to have persisted to date. Further, Social attitude is an expression of favor or disfavor toward a person, place, thing, or event (Kark & Eagly, 2010). Social attitudes towards women are acquired tendencies to evaluate women in a specific way and are characterized by positive or negative beliefs, feelings and behaviors.…”

Contesting gender stereotypes stimulates generalized fairness in the selection of leaders

“…It would therefore be interesting to investigate whether and how counter-stereotypic role models could affect perception and openness to innovation and change in laboratories as well as in existing companies. (Eagly & Karau, 2002;Eagly & Johnson, 1990;Eagly & Carli, 2007;Johnson, Murphy, Zewdie, & Reichard, 2008;Kark & Eagly. 2010;Koenig et al, 2011;Lord, Foti, & de Vader, 1984;Nye & Forsyth, 1991;Rosette, Leonardelli, & Phillips, 2008).Future research could therefore investigate how counter-stereotypic role models can affect schematic associations that are made with leadership positions, thereby challenging the glass ceiling effect of women and minorities.…”