GENDER

&
LEADERSHIP
 GENDER
&
13.

LEADERSHIP
When you meet a human
being, the first distinction
you make is “male or
female?” and you are
accustomed to make the
distinction with unhesitating
certainty.

Sigmund Freud (1965)

PROVERB
 Human Capital
The gender gap in leadership is Education
Work Experience
a global phenomenon whereby Developmental Opportunities
Workflow Conflict
women are disproportionately
concentrated in lower-level and
Leadership
lower-authority leadership Labyrinth

positions compared to men Gender Differences Prejudice

Style & Effectiveness Gender Stereotypes
Commitment and Motivation Biased Perception & Evaluations
LEADERSHIP LABYRINTH

LEADERSHIP LABYRINTH
(Powell & Graves, 2003) Self-Protection
Negotiation
Vulnerability & Reactance
Cross Pressures
Traits

Lack of WOMEN as human
capital is said to result of a
“pipeline problem.” However,
there is a view about the
“leaking pipeline” as well.
Women are obtaining
undergraduate degrees at a far
HUMAN CAPITAL GAP
higher rate than men, and are
earning professional and doctoral
degrees at a rate >/= that of men,
but are still vastly underrepresented
in top leadership positions.
Women do have somewhat less work experience and
employment continuity than men, driven largely by
the disproportionate responsibility women assume for
child rearing and domestic duties.
Some women choose not to marry or have children,
others choose to become “superwomen” and attempt to
excel in every role, and others take leaves of absence,
take sick days, or choose part-time employment to
juggle these work–home conflicts.
Those who take advantage of workplace leave and
flexibility programs are often marginalized, and
those who take time off from their careers often find
reentry difficult, returning at a lower level than the
level they left.
HUMAN CAPITAL GAP
In addition to having fewer responsibilities in the
same jobs as men, women are less likely to receive
encouragement, be included in key networks, and
receive formal job training than their male
counterparts.

Women are just different from
men.
Many experts assert that there are
gender differences in leadership
styles, and women’s leadership is
more effective in contemporary
society.
Book, 2000; Helgesen, 1990; Rosener, 1995
However,
STLYES & EFFECTIVENESS
Many academic researchers argue
that gender has little or no
relationship to leadership style and
effectiveness.
Dobbins & Platz, 1986; Van Engen, Leeden, &
Willemsen, 2001; Powell, 1990).
women led in a more democratic, or participative,
manner than men
women were devalued compared to men when they led
in a masculine manner, when they occupied a
typically masculine leadership role, and when the
evaluators were male
women’s styles tend to be more transformational
than men’s, and women tend to engage in more
contingent reward behaviors than men.
recent findings suggest that the devaluation of
female leaders by male subordinates has been shown
to extend to female transformational leaders
women were less effective to the extent that the leader
STLYES & EFFECTIVENESS
role was masculinized e.g., women were less effective
than men were in military positions, but they were
somewhat more effective than men were in education,
government, and social service organizations, and
substantially more effective than men were in middle
management positions, where communal
interpersonal skills are highly valued.

Women take care and men take
charge.
Hoyt & Chemers, 2008
Stereotypes are cognitive shortcuts
that influence the way people
process information regarding
groups and group members. People
assign characteristics to groups, or
individual members of groups,
PREJUDICES
regardless of the actual variation in
characteristics between the
members
Hamilton, Stroessner, & Driscoll,
1994
Men are stereotyped with agentic characteristics such
as confidence, assertiveness, independence,
rationality, and decisiveness, whereas women are
stereotyped with communal characteristics such as
concern for others, sensitivity, warmth, helpfulness,
and nurturance
According to role congruity theory, the agentic
( individual's power to control his or her own goals
actions and destiny) qualities thought necessary in
the leadership role are incompatible with the
predominantly communal qualities.
women are confronted with cross-pressures: As
leaders, they should be masculine and tough, but as
women, they should not be “too manly.
Not only are the decision makers influenced by the
stereotypes that disadvantage women in the
leadership role, but also they may succumb to
homosocial reproduction, a tendency for a group to
reproduce itself in its own image.
PREJUDICES
Research shows that women respond in one of two
ways to the gender-based leadership stereotype: Either
they demonstrate vulnerability by assimilating to
the stereotype, or they react against it by engaging
in stereotype-countering behaviors.
 The number of women who
successfully navigate the
Individual Level Interpersonal
labyrinth is on the rise. Promoting Effective Level
Eagly & Carli, 2007 Negotiations Decreasing
Use of Effective Gender
Leadership Styles Stereotypes

Organizational
Societal Level Level
NAVIGATNG THE LABRINTH

NAVIGATNG THE LABRINTH

Gender Equity in Diversifying
A confluence of factors contributes Domestic Leadership
to this increase in effective female Responsibilities Equity in Paternity/
Maternity Leave
leaders.
 Understanding the Research into Understanding the Research into
Gender and Leadership Gender and Leadership

• Promote more women into the upper • More a general topic.

leadership roles.
• Makes it easier to find talented
people, and achieve greater levels of
organizational success.
• Helps in making societal institutions,
businesses, and governments.
• Contribute to more ethical,
productive, innovative, and financially
successful organizations.
STRENGTHS OF DIVERSITY
• Greater emphasis should be on
diversity related to race, ethnicity,
etc.
• Researches are based more on
western environment.
• Lesser research on complementary
aspects i.e. domestic front.

• Higher levels of collective

intelligence and are less rife with
conflict.

CRITICISM
• Dispelling myths about the gender
gap and shining a light on aspects of
the gender barriers.
THANK YOU