ORGANIZATIONAL

LEADERSHIP
CH 14. WOMEN AND
LEADERSHIP
Aswathi NV 17BM60024
Rucha Bodkhe 17BM60028
Deepti Nagar 17BM60032
Sampada Meshram 17BM60056
Payel Mukherjee 17BM60068
Shruti Banargee 17BM60096
Shweta Shekhar 17BM60098
Gender and Leadership approach
description
Historical View
 Researchers ignored issues related to gender and leadership until 1970s
 Scholars started by asking “Can women lead?”
 Changed by women in leadership
• Presence of women in corporate and leadershio
• Highly effective female leaders –
• Benazir Bhutto (former prime minister of Pakistan)
• Margaret Thatcher (UK)
• Indira Gandhi (India)
• Indra Nooyi (PepsiCo’s CEO)
• Andrea Jung (Avon’s CEO)
Gender and Leadership approach
description
Historical View
 Current research primary questions
• Do men and women lead differently?
• Are men more effective leaders than women ?
• Why are women underrepresented in elite leadership roles?
Gender, Leadership Styles, and
Leadership Effectiveness
 Leadership Style differences between women and men (Eagly and Johnson
(1990))
• Interpersonally oriented and task-oriented
• Democratic and autocratic style
 Gender differences in transformational leadership (Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt,
and van Engen (2003))
• Women’s style tend to be more transformational than men’s
• Women tend to engage in more contingent reward behaviours than men
 Relative effectiveness of male and female leaders (Eagly, Karau, and Makhijani
(1995))
• Women were less effective to the extent that the leader role was masculinized
 Evidence of Leadership Labyrinth
Women outnumber men in higher education. Are almost equal in workforce.
Still are underrepresented in upper echelons of America’s corporations &
political system

Higher education and Women % of US workforce based on gender

70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Bachelor's Degree Master's Degree Doctorate Professional Degrees Female Male
Column2
 Women in Politics
Women in leadership ranks
60.00%

50.00%
90/535
• Seats in US Congress
40.00%

30.00%
24 (19.3%)
• Seats for women of colour
20.00%

10.00% 70/187
0.00%
• US rank for women’s representation in
national parliament

r
s

Os

s
s

ce
on

on

at
CE

Se

Of
s iti

s iti

d
0
Po

Po

ar

6.1%
50

ve
Bo

uti
l

ne
na

CE

ec
io

rtu

50

Ex
s

Fo
es

ne

0
of

50
rtu

• Women military ofcers at Brigadier

Pr

ne
Fo
nd

rtu
ta

General or higher
Fo
en
em
ag
an
M
 Glass ceiling – Invisible barrier preventing women from ascending into
elite leadership positions

 Glass escalator – Men, on the other hand, encounter encouragement

 Limitation of the glass ceiling:

• Everyone has equal access to lower positions
• Until women hit the glass ceiling
• Alternate image of LEADERSHIP LABYRINTH

 Leadership Labyrinth – A journey riddled with challenges all along the

way, not just near the top
Leadership Gap
The leadership gap is a global phenomenon whereby women are
disproportionately concentrated in lower-level and lower-authority
leadership positions than men. (Powell & Graves, 2003)
Explanation for Leadership Gap
1. Human Capital
Education
Work Experience
Developmental Opportunities
Work-Home Conflict

Leadership
2. Gender
Differences Labyrinth 3. Prejudice
Gender Stereotypes
Style & Effectiveness
Biased Perception &
Commitment & Motivation Evaluations
Self-Promotion Vulnerability & Reactance
Negotiation Cross-Pressures
Traits
1. Human Capital Differences

 Pipeline Problem: Women have less education, training, and work

experience than men resulting in a dearth of qualified women
 Pipeline is not empty but leaking: Explanation that women haven’t
been in managerial positions long enough for natural career
progression to occur (Heilman, 1997)
 Division of labor: women self-select out of leadership tracks by
choosing “mommy track” positions that do not funnel into
leadership positions (Belkin, 2003; Ehrlich, 1989; Wadman, 1992)
 disproportionate responsibility: Women do have somewhat less work
experience and continuity than men, largely due to disproportionate
responsibility women assume for child rearing and domestic duties
 work-home conflicts: Some women respond to work-home conflicts by
not marrying, not having children, becoming “superwomen,” taking
leaves of absence, taking sick days or working part time
 Difficult Reentry: Those who use flextime and workplace leave are often
marginalized; taking time off from a career makes reentry difcult
(Williams, 2010)
 Lack of Encouragement: Women have fewer responsibilities in the same
jobs as men and are less likely to receive encouragement, be included in
key networks, and receive formal job training than their male
counterparts
 Lack of Developmental opportunities: Women occupy more than
half of all management & professional positions (Catalyst, 2014c)
but have fewer developmental opportunities
 Precarious Leadership: Women are more likely to be put in
precarious leadership situations associated with greater risk and
criticism (Ryan, Haslam, 2011)
 They confront greater barriers to establishing informal mentor
relationships
2.Gender Differences in Leadership
Styles and Effectiveness

• Contrary to stereotypical expectations, women leaders aren’t less

task oriented or more interpersonal than men leaders.
• Women do lead in a more participative manner than men.
• Adaptive style because women are devalued when they lead in a
masculine manner, occupy a typically masculine role, or when
evaluators are male
 Effectiveness of Male and Female Leaders

• Men and women equally effective overall

• Men and women more effective in roles congruent with their gender
• Women less effective than men when role is masculinized (military),
when supervising large numbers of men, or when rated by men
• Somewhat more effective in education, government, social service;
substantially more effective in middle management
Commitment to Employment and Motivation
to Lead
• Men and women show same level of identification with and
commitment to paid employment roles
• Men and women both view roles as workers as secondary to roles as
partner and parents
• Women less likely to promote themselves for leadership positions
• Women less likely to emerge as group leaders; more likely to serve as
social facilitators
• Men more likely to ask for what they want; Women less likely to
negotiate or self-promote and receive more backlash when they do
To sum up
• Women are no less effective at leadership ,committed to their job , or motivated for
leadership roles than men .
However , women are less likely -
• to self promote
• to negotiate than men

Owing to –
• Gender bias
• Social distinctiveness
• Social cost of ambition

• Few gender differences in traits associated with effective leadership exists , but these
differences equally advantage both men and women
16
 3. Prejudice

Gender bias stemming from stereotyped

expectations that women take care and
men take charge

• Stereotypes are cognitive shortcuts that influence the way people

process information regarding groups and group members.

• Gender stereotypes describe stereotypic beliefs about the attributes

of men and women and prescribe how they are ought to be.
Gender Stereotypes
Pervasive, well documented, and highly resistant to change

Men are stereotyped with agentic characteristics

confidence
assertiveness
independence
rationality
decisiveness

Women are stereotyped with communal characteristics

concern for others
sensitivity
warmth
Helpfulness
nurturance
Impact of Stereotypes on Women

- Pressure of tokenism and being scrutinized

- Women may assimilate to stereotype OR may counter the stereotype

Depends on:
 Leader’s self-efcacy
 Explicitness of the stereotype
 Type of task
 Gender composition of the group
 Power of the leader
 Whether stereotype threats are combined
Navigating the Labyrinth – Blending Individualized Consideration with Inspirational
Motivation for Leadership Effectiveness
Navigating the Labyrinth- Factors contributing to leadership effectiveness &
rise of female leaders

Changing culture of many organizations

Gendered work assumptions being challenged

Organizations valuing flexible workers & diversity of top

managers & leaders

Developing effective & supportive mentoring relationships

Increasing parity in domestic responsibilities

Negotiating for valued positions and resources

Navigating the Labyrinth- Other factors contributing to leadership
effectiveness & rise of female leaders

 Improving perceptions of
 Women’s foray into women’s leadership
entrepreneurship combining communal &
agentic qualities

 Adopting transformational  Becoming more assertive

leadership style without losing femininity
Strengths
• Understanding the research in gender and leadership can help promote more
women into upper echelons of leadership
• Developing a more androgynous style of democratic leadership
• Research on gender and leadership is productive in both dispelling myths about the
gender gap and shining a light on aspects of the gender barrier that are difcult to
see and therefore are overlooked
• Understanding many components of the labyrinth will give us the tools necessary to
combat this inequality from many perspectives
• Research addresses larger, more significant considerations about gender and social
systems
Criticism
• Leadership researchers should put a greater emphasis on
understanding the role of gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation in
leadership processes
• Researchers should examine the differences in the impact of gender,
ethnicity, and sexual orientation on leadership
• Research in gender issues and leadership is predominantly in Western
contexts and should be expanded into other global regions
• Research on gender and leadership should be expanded to include
closing the gender gap at home
Application
• Make it easier for women to reach top positions by
• Understanding obstacles that make up the labyrinth
• Initiating tactics to eradicate inequality
• Prejudice still a factor and needs to be addressed with awareness
• Women can manage biased perceptions of their leadership by enacting
individualized consideration and inspirational motivation
• Using effective negotiation techniques can enhance leadership advancement
• Changes in organizational culture, women’s career development, mentoring
opportunities, and increased numbers of women in strategic positions will
increase presence of women in prominent leadership roles.