Introduction to Gender and Leadership

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to session 11: Gender and Leadership - We hope you find our blog posts interesting, informative, and practical. Look forward to engaging with all of you throughout this session, and don't hesitate to message one of us if you any questions, concerns, or comments.

Best Regards,
Michael, Breanne, Connor

Gender, Leadership Styles, and Leadership Effectiveness

Style differences between women and men compared either interpersonally oriented and task-oriented styles or democratic and autocratic styles

Women were devalued compared with men when they led in a masculine manner

In a meta-analysis comparing the effectiveness of female and male leaders, men and women were equally effective leaders, overall, but there were gender differences such that women and men were more effective in leadership roles that were congruent with their gender

Thus women were less effective to the extent that the leader role was masculinized 

The Glass Ceiling Effect

The Glass-Ceiling is a global phenomenon

• An invisible barrier preventing women from ascending into elite leadership positions
• Women are disproportionately concentrated in lower-level & lower-authority leadership positions then men
• Encompasses ethnic and racial minorities as well

Understanding the Labyrinth

Women are more educated, 57% of bachelor degrees, 60% of masters, more then half of Doctorate, but are still underrepresented

• Human Capital differences
• Women have less human capital investment in education, training, and work experience than men
• Women are in the pipeline
• Women are achieving education higher than men
• Gender Differences
• Women underrepresentation in elite leadership positions is a result of differences in leadership style and effectiveness
• Leadership styles should nit disadvantage women and can even offer a female advantage
• Prejudice
• Stereotype that women take care, and men take charge
• People assign characteristics to groups, or individual members of groups, regardless of the actual variation in characteristics between the members

Navigating the Labyrinth

Changes in organizations are allowing women to successfully navigate the labyrinth

• The changing cultures include:
• Gendered work assumptions
• Notion of uninterrupted full-time careers
• Separation of work and family

Many factors contribute to this increase in effective female leaders, which is seen in the Leadership Effectiveness diagram below.

Motives for Removing the Barriers

There are multiple motivations for removing barriers in leadership. Two of these ways include:

• Allowing everyone an equal opportunity to fulfill leadership roles at all levels of an organization
• Providing these opportunities to different ethnicity’s, races, etc. will create more diversity and will facilitate greater levels of organizational success 

• Promote a rich diverse group of women into leadership roles
• This will make the organization more representative
• It will contribute to all different successes of the organization – ethically, productively, and innovatively

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

• A more androgynous conception of leadership will present people the opportunity to sharpen their leadership skills through practice platforms that do not restrict people by behavioural associations to their gender.
• This research is a good way to busting myths regarding the gender gap while simultaneously putting the spotlight on aspects that need it.
• This research provides tools to help dismantle the glass ceiling from multiple angles.
• Addressing rather than ignoring these gender issues will aid in women attaining influential leadership positions.

Weaknesses

• Researchers should put more focus on the correlation of race and ethnicity and gender on leadership.
• The current view is very western world focus therefore making it difficult to generalize.
• There should be an increased focus on closing the gender gap at home.
• Leadership researchers should look more closely at different types of diversity in organizations processes.