How does leadership effect in gender roles?
Everybody wants to be on top of the corporate ladder and become a leader, right? But does everyone get the same and equal opportunity? Here, you may be wrong because men secure most of the top positions in organizations.
According to the Catalyst census, a nonprofit and research organization, women continue to be underrepresented in top leadership positions. Their report states that the average Fortune 500 company had 21.8 corporate officers in 2005; on average, women held only 3.6 percent of these positions.
So why did only men bag the leadership roles? How does our society see gender roles? Why don't women get equal opportunities? Come, let us explore the answers together.
The perception of gender in Leadership
In studies it has been found gender differences, women adopted participative styles of leadership and were more transformational leaders than men.
Why can we only visualize a CEO or Executive as a man with a formal crisp suit, an authoritative and straight-face with great leadership and not a woman with her skills and qualities higher than her heels?
Why do we have to associate the traditional gender roles with leadership skills and afraid of "feminine type of leadership"?
When we think of men, we perceive only a man can radiate authority and handle the employees, is more influential and can manage everything single-handedly.
While women are stereotyped as having less authority and influence, cannot handle the stress, her marital status comes in between especially if she is married. But now things have changed, and we have most influential entrepreneurs like Ghazal Alag- Mama earth, Falguni Nayar – Nykaa, Vineeta Singh-Sugar Cosmetics Radhika Agarwal – Shop clues, Huda Kattan-Huda Beauty and the list goes on and on.
In a study conducted by Judith H. Langlois and A. Chris Downs (1980) it was observed that girls received fairly consistent traditional socialization for gender-typed play behaviors: girls were rewarded by both mothers and peers and were praised and given affection by their mothers when they played with same- gender toys and in contrast scolded for playing with opposite gender toys as it is seemed as something to be ashamed of and taboo.
Both get reprimanded for playing for opposite gender toys by parents, so these things add up and then get included in the workplace. These depict the gender norms that how everything is classified into male and female.
Fathers play a crucial role in inculcating and moderating gender behavior. They react positively to girl child and negatively to their sons.
This research demonstrates the debate of gender-parenting that how male and female are made aware of their assigned roles and those lessons reflect in the workplace because it is rooted in their childhood only and it pass forward to workplaces and goes on and on in generations
The answer to this is many affirmative actions have been taken to make women reach the key positions which are dominated by men, but it backfires women are not given the necessary support, skill and knowledge or mentoring to reach those goals whatsoever the reason be.
Also, the parenting, culture, religion, society is working according to old and traditional norms and roles and is not ready to change.
The Classification of Roles
According to a study it is revealed that the characteristics that define leadership such ambition, emotionless, directness, critical analysis are perceived to be " manly" or "masculine" but if women have the same it is taken negatively and they are tagged as rude, aggressive and harsh.
Along with that, women are perceived to do less tedious work in organizations like managing events or parties. The family is also one of the reasons as women have to take care of their children household chores and cooking.
So, if they learn to balance between these masculine and feminine traits, they can surely reach greater heights and perform even better than men.
What goes in a woman's mind?
Women account for 55% of undergraduates, outperform and have less dropout rate as men
Unfortunately, in 2020 women only made it to 7% in the fortune list.
Despite women ruling in design only 11% undergraduates hold title like executive designer, senior designer
By reading this you can conclude that the problem is not women, it the society, norms, fear, lack of resources, skills, mentoring which stops them pursuing their goals.
Susan Chira interviewed a number of women who almost made it to the CEO’s office in a recent New York Times article. All of her subjects cited isolation, competition and most chilling, deeply rooted barriers. Veiled assessments, such as lacking “gravitas” or being overly “aggressive.” All comments that imply “not like us.” Yet these same corporations have clear policies against discrimination. And many male leaders clearly state that they want women to advance.
A new and effective type of leadership can form if women bring out their original behavior, trait and style.
'Restore connection' is not just for devices, it is for people too. If we cannot disconnect, we cannot lead.
~ Arianna Huffington
Did you know that according to a recent survey the number of women in top executive positions contributed to 29% in 2019 which is the highest ever record?
As we all know Rome wasn't built in a day so it will take time and things are changing and we can see the bar going up and things and perspective are changing, and women are ruling the corporate world so with better education, opportunities, facilities and support women can do wonders while managing their family and position both.