ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

It amazes me that these leadership lists are polar opposites. I personally find it insulting to label people by gender. Men and women are different certainly but they are not opposites. I think this list is built on stereotypes that were current at the time. I find it useful to remember that any "general" statement about a group (men) applies to 80% of the group at most. There will always be 20% of any group which will not fit a general characterization.

I recently read a book on this topic that I would highly recommend: "Through the Labyrinth: The Truth about How Women Become Leaders." It is a recent (2007), very thorough review of the last two decades of research on how gender affects leadership. The authors, Dr. Alice Eagly and Dr. Linda Carli, take a careful, scholarly approach to analyzing and interpreting the studies that have looked at the topic from every angle. I appreciated the broad perspective that they took, taking into consideration contextual factors such as historical and cultural context. The authors' work provides a more accurate understanding of the complexity of the issue of gender and leadership than any individual study could. "Through the Labyrinth" is essential reading, in my opinion, for anyone who truly wants to understand the factors influencing women's leadership experiences and how they have changed over time.

I note that the source for this 2003 article is a book published in 1990 which is nearly 20 years ago.
As we look at gender role expressions I think we create a problem and foster continuation of stereotypes when we do not recognise that constructed gender roles in this culture have undergone significant shift in the past few decades. My 26 year old PHD candidate daughter and her contemporaries have very diffrent approaches to work and patterns of leadership than do those who were the source for the observations reported in 1990 when she was 6 years old. So do does her younger brother who at 20 may not have been concieved when Mintzberg and helgesen were doing their research.
We do have along way to go demonstrated in part by the fact that we still only have 4% male participation in Early Childhood Education but there has been much progress taht benefits both genders.

I have been following the past articles related to the topic of leadership. It has been interesting to me as a woman of color in a leadership role that looks different depending upon the people involved. Defining leadership and the qualities or characteristics relevant are varied depending upon the communities asked. It would seem to me that there is an assumption there is a "right way" of leadership that has been defined as a foundation that as a bicultural person I know how to operate within while bring my cultural self and ways of knowing and being to the leadership table....

Some controversy here. Good that you present opposing arguments. Intelligent thinking people can come to their own conclusions.

When I read this sort of "research", I always remember something I heard said, by a wise person, many years ago.

There are more differences between any two individuals than between any two groups of people.

This gender study may be an interestiing finding but not necessarily helpful in any real way. Individuals, whether male or female, have their own unique ways of going through the world and we need to be open to each one.

That there are clear differences between male and female leaders is nothing new, so I am left wondering what the purpose of this piece might be. While the "findings" as stated may hint at the research behind them, they are anything but objective statements of fact. It would seem, therefore, that the only thing being accomplished here is to once again stir the pot of misperceptions. Frankly, both as a woman and a professional, I find this appalling. I am sure I am not the only woman who finds it necessary to work at an unrelenting pace much of the time to keep my business going, and I also know that most of the successful men I am fortunate to know do not ALWAYS work at that pace. Nor do they fail to attend to their mail, although if they don't it's generally because they have prioritized their work better than many women do and have delegated that job to someone else who is not critical to daily operations. I know many women who are working so hard to keep their companies/schools/businesses going that they don't have the luxury of time for reflection either, and I wonder if the ones who do may not be in business very long. I, for one, would appreciate more of an effort to highlight what can be constructively learned from the undeniable differences that exist between men and women and that will allow us to work more cohesively and productively rather than to deliberately polarize the gender issues that push us further apart.

Rather than trying to deconstruct communcation and leadership differences between male and female leaders, we should ask people the kind of leaders with whom they have worked, and whether gender made a difference? In my long experience I can say that there is a huge difference!

The problem that I have with these type of stories is not that I find the descriptions objectionable, rather the "either/or" scenario. Readers natural reactions are going to be to try and argue that one style is better than the other, when in fact, both have styles have positives and negatives. I would not suggest that one ought to manage as a "Male" would, nor would I suggest that one ought to managae as a "Female" would, one should find one's own style, and try to find characteristics that make their style better.