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Who makes the better manager, men or women? Of course, like

most questions the answer is not definitive. However, certain female characteristics
may provide women with some advantages.

MANAGEMENT

The basic job of a manager is often described as performing the functions of:
Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling. Who is better at this? Of course,
men have dominated management jobs for decades, centuries, even millennia. Men
naturally assumed working roles because of their size and strength, when most jobs
required these attributes. And, just as naturally they progressed to management
roles. For much of recent history, women did not enjoy a significant presence in the
workforce. However, during World War II, women were needed to assume
manufacturing and other jobs, while men went off to war. Still, following the war a
sentiment of "a woman's place is in the home" reemerged.

For the past several decades women have re-entered the workforce in large numbers
so that now the male/female worker percentages are not too far from parity. While
men still occupy most top positions, the number of women serving as managers and
executives continues to increase.

EVOLVING JOB REQUIREMENTS FOR MANAGERS

As the nature of work has evolved so has the job of management. Far from requiring
physical prowess, managerial positions now require such abilities as: mental agility,
communications skills, technical and computer savvy, writing ability, analytical skills,
etc. Most of our work is now cerebral, not physical. Higher level skills generally
require more education.

WHO'S BETTER SUITED TO TODAY'S DEMANDS?

Interestingly enough, women college students now outnumber men. And, with more
professional jobs in the employment market, women have the "edge." Women also
have the temperament and communications abilities employers value so much. With
these educational, emotional and verbal advantages they are tough contenders for
management positions. However, not all women are "talkers." and not all men are
the "strong silent type." Most of the differences between the sexes can be attributed to
parenting and socialization. So, there are wide variations.

There have been several recent studies that support the hypothesis that women may
be more capable managers than men. Ratings by peers, superiors and subordinates
show higher scores for women on a wide range of measures-- everything from
decision-making, to idea generation, to motivation and encouragement, goal-setting,
quality of work, mentoring and staff development, etc. Various studies, as reported
in Business Week (Online edition, Nov. 20, 2000), uniformly found women
managers exceeded the performance of their male counterparts. Several of these
studies were not industry-specific, and some were quite comprehensive. One
involved a sample of 58,000 mangers.

There is an interesting caveat with all of this data. Evaluations of managers by their
bosses (only) found less difference between men and women managers. Part of this
may be due to stereotypes, and the fact that more males occupy the top positions.
THE BASIC DETERMINATION

Yes, in fact, women may be better-suited to succeed in management in

contemporary work environments. And not considering women for top management
slots would be a huge mistake. But we must not be simplistic in concluding they are
the best managers. Although women have strengths, so do men. And, not all women,
or men, have the same strengths or weaknesses. To definitively conclude that one
sex is better than the other would result in the error of unwarranted generalization.
Furthermore we want to avoid the stereotyping that has characterized the assessment
of people for far too long. And, we must consider how well that individuals talents
match with those needed in the specific position. In the final analysis each individual
must be evaluated on their particular merits.

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As a female professional in the early years I often found myself as the youngest
and the only or one of the few women at any given meeting. I knew that many others
would judge women executives by my model, and I kept this in mind.

Today, when I go to corporations to teach I find that many of the

employees there are surprised and sometimes reassured that the computer class is
being taught by a woman. I know that my teaching style is framed by my background
and experience, and I believe I am able to encourage students to work with me, not
only because they have some built-in expectations of a woman, such as being kind,
perceptive, encouraging, etc. and then I am challenged to demonstrate a supportive
learning atmosphere that is also as rigorous as they may have only experienced in a
class led by a man.
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