Women in the Labyrinth of Leadership [PDF]

Authors: Alice Eagly and Linda Carli. (An HBR, September 2007 Article). Most of what is in the brief summary are the ide

14 downloads 5 Views 82KB Size

Recommend Stories


[PDF] Download The Battle of the Labyrinth
Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?

Women in leadership
Seek knowledge from cradle to the grave. Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)

Women In Leadership Positions
Never wish them pain. That's not who you are. If they caused you pain, they must have pain inside. Wish

History of the Labyrinth
Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion. Rumi

Advancing Women in Leadership - International Leadership Association [PDF]
Jun 8, 2015 - Using role-congruity theory, this paper examines how Division I female athletic trainers experience their workplace and see themselves as leaders or not. Exploring Cultural Capital Among Female Division I Athletic Directors. Maylon Hano

Women in Management – the Leadership Pipeline 2017
I cannot do all the good that the world needs, but the world needs all the good that I can do. Jana

Celebrating ATS women in leadership
Ask yourself: Am I putting enough effort into my relationships? Next

women in business and leadership
Never wish them pain. That's not who you are. If they caused you pain, they must have pain inside. Wish

Advancing Women in Leadership Journal
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Wayne Gretzky

Advancing Women in Leadership Journal
The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together.

Idea Transcript


A Summary of Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership Authors: Alice Eagly and Linda Carli (An HBR, September 2007 Article)

Most of what is in the brief summary are the ideas of Eagly and Carli, using their language, sometimes verbatim and other times with a little bit of a re-write on my part. At a few places I provide some brief thoughts of my own. The article is very good. The second half of the article provides a dozen or so suggestions for how to make the workplace leadership track more accessible for women. First the Facts: •

Of Fortune 500 companies, in the roles of Chairman of the Board, President, CEO and COO, only 6% of those positions are held by women.



Of Fortune 500 companies, in the role of CEO, only 2% of the positions are held by women.



In the European Union’s 50 largest publicly traded companies, in the roles of Chairman of the Board and CEO, only 4% of the positions are held by women.



Of the Global 500 companies, in the role of CEO, only 1% of the positions are held by women.

Now, the reasons for this situation.

ONE:

The idea of a glass ceiling has been used to describe the fact that

in organizations, women can rise to a certain point, but then it seems as if an invisible barrier prevents them from going any further. The authors prefer the metaphor of a labyrinth that is complex and challenging with walls that are holding women back. The items that follow can be viewed as “wall” that limit the leadership development of women.

TWO:

There is a wide resistance to women in leadership. This is, in part,

due to the fact that most people see men and women as having different traits and that men have the traits needed for leadership whereas women do not.

PDF created with pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com

Women are seen as having the qualities of: concern for the compassionate treatment of others, being affectionate, helpful, friendly, kind, sympathetic, interpersonally sensitive, gentle and soft-spoken. Men are seen as being: aggressive, ambitious, dominant, self-confident, forceful, self-reliant and individualistic. It is the latter qualities that are seen as the traits needed for leadership! And when women act in ways that are just described for men, the women are severely criticized. In essence, if they act like women they are viewed as incapable of leadership and if they act like men they are criticized for being like men (and often a pejorative term is used to describe such a woman.) [Leaving her political view and policies completely out of this for the purpose of this article, this very issue, of course, has been the “devil and the deep blue sea” dilemma for Hillary Clinton in her run for the democratic nomination for president. If she acts like a woman she is described as being weak and if she acts like a man she is described as a b****!].

THREE:

The previous point now moves into another closely related one. Not only are women and men

considered to have different traits, but there is the issue of “leadership style” as well. Is there a distinct leadership style for women. There seems to be a popular consensus that there is. In a kind of amusing twist, Coach Mike Krzyzewski, head coach of the Duke University basketball program is described as coaching the way a woman would coach and that is the secret of his success! His leadership, coaching style is described as mentoring and interpersonally sensitive (like a woman)! In the language of Burn’s magisterial work on leadership, women are seen as somewhat more transformational in their leadership style and men are seen as somewhat more transactional in their leadership style. What is striking about this is that in Burn’s work – the transformational style is a much healthier, more productive style of leadership (and that is the style woman have!).

FOUR:

The demands of family life are a wall that limit

women. (By the way, I love the picture to the left. A business woman in dress shoes, with her toddler and a tattoo!) In light of the needs of the family, it is women who interrupt their careers

PDF created with pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com

and take more time off to attend to the family. One result of this is fewer hours/years of experience. In addition, the majority of domestic work still falls on the shoulders of women, whether it is housework or taking care of kids.

FIVE:

Women have less time for the professional socializing and networking

that seem essential for upward leadership mobility. [In a previous post, I blogged about an interesting dynamic that upwardly career minded leaders were actually much less effective and beneficial when it came to leading high performance teams. Some of the research shows there are different traits and qualities evident in those leaders who are predominantly concerned about their personal career advancement and those who are concerned about team/company performance. AND IRONICALLY, the leaders who get promoted are those who pay attention to their career advancement. ] The studies show that “social capital” is vital for advancement into leadership roles and may be even more so than skillful performance! Women find it harder to make the time for such networking activities.

The conclusion to all of this: Despite the old jingle that tried to be encouraging for women, “You’ve come a long way baby…” (which is itself derogatory in its language) the glass ceiling is still very low, the walls are still very high, the way is still very hard and the numbers of woman who actually succeed in highest level leadership positions still very small. We have a lot of work ahead of us . . . Brian Rice

PDF created with pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com

Smile Life

When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile

Get in touch

© Copyright 2015 - 2024 PDFFOX.COM - All rights reserved.