GENDER ISSUES RELATED TO LEADERSHIP

Gender Issues Related To Leadership

Gender Issues Related To Leadership

Stereotypes are present in many organizations, and in most cases are directed toward women. They can affect the way women are perceived in the workplace, and also inhibit their ultimate performance. As you will read, stereotypes affect many elements of professional behavior. Some of which are leadership styles, language, behavioral expectations and double standards. By analyzing these issues, it is easier to understand how both women and men are swayed by stereotypes.

With respect to all of the stereotypes pertaining to male and female behavior, for the purposes of this argument, three specific assumptions will be discussed. Stereotypes, as defined earlier, can cause misunderstandings and can limit options. The three specific stereotypes are: 1. Women experience greater mood swings than men, and are unfit to perform upper management responsibilities, 2. Girls lack achievement motivation; boys have this motivation, and 3. Males are more aggressive than females. As stated in Management and Gender: issues and attitudes by Margaret Foegen Kartsen, "Mature adults are not slaves to their hormonal systems." This refers directly to the first stereotype, where women are not considered capable of upper management duties due to mood swings. Macoby and Jacklin (1975) have concluded that “there is greater variability in male cycle length, and there are external signs of the female cycle." Therefore, "…male hormone mood cycle is more dangerous, since a man cannot as readily take it into account and deal accordingly with his hostile feelings." This argument shatters then shatters the first most common stereotype about female mood swings, and brings to light the male biology with regard to mood swings, which has not been a major issue previously. This concept ties in with the second stereotype where girls lack motivation that boys possess. What is omitted from this statement, is that boys, in order to reach the same level of achievement motivation as girls needed to be challenged. Ego and sense of competition were played upon so that boys could be motivated. (Macoby and Jaklin, 1975) This idea also relates to the male dominated corporate culture that will be discussed later on. Males are more aggressive than females. Despite most misconceptions, aggressive behavior is not linked to hormonal variations. More simply, the most appropriate statement to explain this pattern of behavior would be that boys are taught from a very young age that it is acceptable to be aggressive. Conversely, women who possess aggressive traits are considered “manly.” Judy Mann reinforces this theory, she states that " we raise our sons to succeed, we raise our daughters to be happy." By establishing the stereotypes, and providing evidence to alleviate these misconceptions, we can better discuss the leadership styles that are most commonly associated with male and female leaders.

Leadership defined is “the process where by one individual influences other group members toward attainment of defined group or organizational goals." There have been numerous writings, (books, essays, etc.) that have been devoted to the large number ...