Expository Writing - Background and Analysis, Part 2

Research on leadership shows that, in general, gender is consequential in relation to leader’s effectiveness. Analyzing what makes leaders most effective, experimental studies have identified the female leadership advantage (Vinkenburg et al. 2011). Leadership styles that emphasize feminine qualities are described as transformational leadership. Transformational leadership is empowering, participative, and fosters the input of coworkers. Transformational leaders inspire, motivate, and encourage creative solutions to problems (Vinkenburg et al. 2011, 11).

Women display more transformational behaviors, while men are associated with more position-based and formal leadership. Men are believed to manifest command and control, while women facilitate cooperation and collaboration. Women encompass a distinctive set of capabilities and tend to lead with effective styles. They encourage commitment, interaction and involvement. Contemporary views of good leadership emphasize the ability to empower. Organizations can utilize these effective leadership styles to their competitive advantage. Among U.S. organizations that have adopted transformational leadership styles are Google and Facebook. These Silicon Valley giants hired women executives to stimulate innovation and progressive change (McLean 2014).

Not all women, however, exhibit this transformational style. Similarly, many men do. Advocating the advantages of feminine leadership in a way perpetuates a problem. Stating that men and women lead with distinctive styles promotes gender differences. It reinforces expectations concerning appropriate female behavior. Women are naturally seen to be different. Difference itself is a problem. The goal is to acknowledge that men and women are the same and deserve similar rights and responsibilities.

To this end, some organizations in the United States have adopted an “androgynous view” of leadership roles (Eagly and Carley 2003, 826). It includes a wide repertoire of masculine and feminine behaviors. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s CEO, points out that she is “gender-oblivious” (McLean 2014, 72). “She has credited her obliviousness with her success” (McLean 2014, 72). Mayer was one of Google’s highest-ranking women prior to becoming the youngest woman, at 37, to run a Fortune 500 company. She also refuses to be stereotyped and never noticed that she stood out as Google’s first female engineer. Being empathetic, decisive and having the ability to influence others are some of the modern characterizations of great leaders.

Women don’t make better leaders than men, or worse. But there are patterns of inequality which stand in way of women’s paths to executive roles. In American organizations, equality is not a distant goal. There is an upward bump in women's representation among corporate officers. Women in the United States have come a long way. Thanks to the Makers project, one of the initiatives that focus on issues of American women, leadership, and the workplace, a number of conferences and networking events are launching as part of the growing women’s movement. The Makers effort, originally a series of documentaries about women who make America, will soon become a global brand built around women’s empowerment (McGregor 2014). Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, is one of the women of distinction who was featured in a Makers documentary. After the wide success of her first book, Lean In, Sandberg is writing the second book for university graduates and is introducing “Lean In Circles” to college campuses (McGregor 2014). These networking groups are formed to open the dialogue on subjects like negotiation techniques and body language (Luscombe 2013, 42).

During negotiations, women pull back when they should lean in (Sandberg 2013, 44). According to the norms of behavior associated with masculinity and femininity, women tend to be deferential, which appears to be powerless and weak. Women have internalized the norms around gender and work. This internal regulation prevents them from self-promotion and using assertive speech when it comes to bargaining and negotiations. There is a tendency for women to equalize status, demonstrate responsiveness, and support others. It is an internal cognitive matter that is expressed in behavior. It is a mindset that translates into habits. Getting rid of the internal barriers that hold women back—the internal messages that say it is wrong to be outspoken, aggressive, and more powerful than men—is critical to gaining power (Sandberg 2013, 44).

Denying self-determination, in light of expectations, affects women’s chances of success. Each workplace situation brings up gendered expectations. Whether they lean in or pull back, women are automatically wrong regardless of how they respond to these expectations. Some women in positions of influence try to navigate the conflicting expectations, without deviance from norms of feminine behavior. A negotiation method, for example, that combines “niceness with insistence” is a creative way to attain a goal (Sandberg 2013, 48). Other female leaders seem to gain advantage by using competitiveness with cooperativeness, without appearing less caring or understanding. This technique, however, is a way of responding to expectations for femininity, like playing a role that is already scripted. In fact, most women hold each other accountable to appropriately manage their gender roles. Adhering to the norm meets the expectations, while departing from tendencies invites resistance. This type of gender compliance reinforces the binary expectations. The activity of managing the expectations is a self-defeating endeavor.

Expository Writing - Background and Analysis, Part 1

In their review of leadership research, Alice Eagly and Linda Carli, psychology professors whose research is based on gender differences, examined the stereotypic expectations of male and female leaders in organizational settings. Using large numbers of studies, they focused on findings of prejudice and discrimination directed against women as leaders. When people expect women to possess female-stereotypic attributes, they perceive individual women to be warm and selfless, which is a divergent from leadership qualities of decisiveness and instrumentality (Eagly and Carley 2003). Incongruity between expectations about women and expectations about leaders underlie prejudice against female leaders (Eagly and Carley 2003). Inconsistencies between the demands of leadership roles and the perceived female gender role produce disadvantages that women have “from prejudicial evaluations of their competence as leaders” (Eagly and Carley 2003, 807).

To explore this “role incongruity principle,” Eagly and Carley (2003, 823) consider previously conducted meta-analysis of stereotype research that compared the performance ratings of effectiveness for male and female leaders. They looked at studies where men and women held the leadership roles that were defined in especially masculine terms (Eagly and Carley 2003, 823). The results of these studies proved that there are biases against women in performance evaluations. Women were less effective compared to men in extremely male-dominated positions – roles that require the ability to direct and control people (Eagly and Carley 2003, 823). Since the desirable leader characteristics are aligned with stereotypically masculine qualities of dominance, women who demonstrate leadership ability may be perceived as “insufficiently feminine” (Eagly and Carley 2003, 820). They encounter more dislike than men for showing dominance or being highly assertive (Eagly and Carley 2003, 820).

This double bind is a dilemma in which women receive conflicting messages, with one message negating the other. Female professionals are held to these conflicting standards because the norm for professional managerial style is aligned with masculinity and associated with authority. Using authority wisely is an important aspect of leadership. Certain concepts of leadership, however, are perceived as acceptable to be applied by men, but are considered unacceptable when applied by women. This creates a situation in which a successful response to one message results in a failed response to the other. When female leaders exhibit stereotypically masculine qualities, they encounter judgment and resistance.

The “negatively bias judgments” of women’s performance as leaders constrains their chances of becoming business executives (Eagly and Carley 2003, 823). The findings on leadership research show that the masculinity of leader roles affects women’s rise in organizations. In view of the results produced by these studies, Eagly and Carley (2003, 823) conclude that the success of women in leadership roles depends on context. In male contexts, prejudicial reactions restrict women’s access to leadership roles and reduce the effectiveness of women who attain these roles (Eagly and Carley 2003, 823).

Expository Writing - Introduction

In the United States, organizational definitions of leadership are stereotypically associated with men. Americans have preconceived notions about what kind of work is masculine and feminine. The expectations about leadership are built around masculinity. The problem is that we have stereotypical expectations of men and women, and how they lead. The different norms for how women and men should lead may lessen women’s chances of achieving more elite positions (Vinkenburg et al. 2011).

Many years of studies on women and leadership questioned whether women can lead as well as men. Findings suggest that there are some people who still believe that women differ from men in personality and temperament in ways that affect leadership (Eagly and Carli 2007). There is vast research and literature on how such stereotypical beliefs may affect the promotions of women to higher levels in organizations. Modern research confirms the presence of the discriminatory glass ceiling phenomenon in organizations.

As a metaphor for barriers that prevent women from advancing, the glass ceiling has framed our understanding of reality. Despite the educational advantage of women over men, females remain rare in some executive roles; there is still a predominance of male leaders. Shattering the glass ceiling and the gender inequity in organizations remains a challenge.

Women are fully aware of the glass ceiling processes that are based on the ideologies in which women and their achievements are devalued. While neglecting the causes of workplace gender inequality, female leaders are tasked with breaking through the glass ceiling in order to attain high positions. There are diverse strategies that women devise to become leaders, “but finding the pathways to leadership demands considerable skill and some luck” (Eagly and Carli 2007).

In organizations, there are all kinds of expectations that invite gendered performance. Modesty and kindness is expected of women who are associated with qualities that convey affection and sensitivity. If women lead confidently they can be seen as abrasive, while men who behave assertively are considered passionate. When women are kind and cooperative they are regarded as inapt for powerful jobs (Eagly and Carley 2007).

What many women face in managerial and professional environment is a double bind. In other words, when women and men exhibit similar behaviors, when they are doing almost exactly the same thing, or saying the same thing, people interpret it differently (Ashcraft and Mumby 2004). They interpret it in line with the binary expectations, and the same behavior takes on different meaning. The same behavior leads to different consequences.

Although women display important leadership behaviors like ambition and confidence, these are inconsistent behaviors with prevalent stereotypes that women are modest and caring. This inconsistency can undermine the effectiveness of such behaviors (Vinkenburg et al. 2011). Women may still hit the ceiling, since these behaviors are not congruent with female gender role.

Gendered expectations create inequality, and lay a foundation for different work and assignments men and women do (Ashcraft and Mumby 2004). This is the underlying cause of impediments that women encounter on the path toward becoming business executives. A variety of obstacles stem from these expectations, restricting women’s access to leadership roles and further sustaining men’s dominance of executive positions. To revise these normative views of gender and leadership, there needs to be a shift at cultural, organizational and individual levels. Changes in current social structure require transformation of cultural ideologies, organizational practices, as well as people’s mindset.

SUMMER BOOKS

'Blue Nights,' by Joan Didion
It's my favorite read of Summer

Greece 2011

Young Greeks Respond to their Plight

I 'heart' The New Yorker

As summer is coming to an end, I want to praise a single publication that made this season ambitious like no novel or cinematic creation could ever make. After reading Kiran Desai's "The Inheritance of Loss," I was overdosed with overdeveloped characters that are faced with unrelenting complexities of life. And the much-anticipated "The Tree of Life" by Terrence Malick featured frustrations that are unique to middle class American families only. What a single issue of The New Yorker does, unlike any other 'escape' I could find this summer, is include themes about power relations, doing gender and the major flaws of interpersonal interaction at intersection of class, sex and race. Just grab the magazine, and you will be offered a selection of stimulating reads like no other publication presents.