Gender‐role stereotypes: perception and practice of leadership in the Middle East

Abstract

PurposeThe extant literature on leadership in the Arab world reflects the traditional bias of leadership being a male domain. Arising out of a patriarchal social structure, men assume leadership in organizations while women are often confined to work at home. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the emergence of women leaders in UAE organizations by going beyond biological sex role biases to identify leadership as masculine or feminine gendered role stereotypes in organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe data collected over two periods comprised two sets of Schein Descriptive Index (SDI) together with those of leadership intention and behaviour style; correlations thereof were computed to test hypotheses constructed from the literature.FindingsThe findings indicate that within organizations in the UAE, employee feedback highlights gender‐role stereotypes as defining leadership roles, rather than individual biological sex and their traditional family and social role. The findings reveal that in the UAE, gender stereotypes influence leadership intention and behaviour rather than individual biological sex and related traditions. Accordingly, women leaders having higher proportions of “agentic” characteristics of male gender stereotype together with lower proportions of “people orientation” of female gender stereotype, which makes successful leaders in the UAE break the proverbial “glass ceiling”. This explains the emergence of an increasing number of women leaders in the UAE.Research limitations/implicationsGeneralizability of the findings is limited by non‐representation of countries with high gender egalitarianism, as well as the geographical limitation of the study to the UAE only. In the context of traditional male‐dominated organizations in the UAE, the findings on gender‐role stereotypes of leaders in these organizations cannot only help organizations take informed decisions in choosing leaders without the “glass ceiling” biases, but can go further to identify and nurture potential leaders, including women leaders, within organizations. These findings are of considerable significance to the Middle East and the Arab world in general, in the wake of the developments witnessed there.Originality/valueThe paper explains women leadership in organizations in the UAE, a part of the Arab world of the Middle East, from the perspective of gender‐role stereotypes, as opposed to traditional sex‐role biases, to bring women leaders there into the mainstream gender literature.

The effect of gender on transformational leadership and job satisfaction among Saudi nurses

“…This observation is consistent with those of Sikdar and Mitra () who reported in the UAE, gender stereotypes rather than gender‐roles influenced leadership behaviours (Sikdar & Mitra, ). The perception that the male managers in the sample exhibited greater TF leadership style may be driven by the expectations of the subordinate nurses, based in the culture that males are more effective leaders than females.…”

“…This observation is consistent with those of Sikdar and Mitra (2012) who reported in the UAE, gender stereotypes rather than gender-roles influenced leadership behaviours (Sikdar & Mitra, 2012). The Furthermore, the current study conducted in a female-dominated profession and within a male-dominated society like Saudi Arabia therefore, this overwhelming context of gender roles and power relations may influence nurse's job satisfaction and their perceptions of their managers' leadership style.…”

Gender and Attitudes toward Women in the United Arab Emirates

“…For instance, Sikdar and Mitra (2012) investigated the effect of gender role stereotypes on the perceptions and practices of leadership in the uae. According to Sikdar and Mitra, gender-stereotypes not individual sex is found to be the most effective factor that influences the perceptions and practices of leadership in the uae (Sikdar and Mitra 2012). In his turn, Al Khoori (2011) studied attitudes toward females in the oil and gas industry in the uae using 'Women As Mangers Scale (wams)' survey for about 237 oil and gas industry employees.…”

Analysis of gender and leadership role competencies, perceptions and stereotypes in an organisational context

“…These categories of line managers are believed to have a good understanding of leadership concepts and are more familiar with the phenomenon under investigation. It is also believed that they are more exposed to the abilities and effectiveness demonstrated by their leaders in the course of exercising managerial functions (Sikdar & Mitra, 2008). The conglomerate's diverse business operations include freight rail, port operations, pipelines and engineering.…”