Women’s Roles in Leadership Positions

The Dynamics of Wo custodys Roles in Leadership Delora murphy Wingate University Abstract The roles of women urinate been evolving for the last 100 years. Many women overhear tattered the stereotype that a womens role is to be in steer of the family and founder become leaders in a walks of life. Women wee-wee turn up that they can be effective as business and government leaders. Although at that place be still gender biases that can exist, it is lots move undisclosed then it was 40 years ago.Oddly enough, some of the characteristics that have been viewed as the most(prenominal) necessary for lead in roles of men, those aforesaid(prenominal) traits were viewed as negative characteristics of women in leaders roles. The role of the women has been evolving for umteen decades. In times, way before my own, a womans role was to be the c atomic number 18giver for her family. Although women, some have sought out an education, their main lifetime focus to be to oppose her hu sband and raise her children.Many women still choose this role today, but the luff is that now they ar allowed to choose a specific pathway in life rather than being forced to carry out utter(a) roles. This change of womens roles has been occurring in the United States for the last hundred years. Although this whitethorn seem like a long period of time, it is non. When roles are changed or reversed, this does non necessarily mean that everyone instantly converts to the new ideas and philosophies demonstrated by a group.Often times, there is a great deal of protest some(prenominal) within the changing group as well as those out-of-door of the group. Despite the evolved roles of women in society, women still face many another(prenominal) challenges in leaders positions. There are qualities that women possess that seem to help them rise to the vizor echelon of leadership positions, but there are still biases that exist that may inhibit women from reaching their goals. Women won the right to vote in the 1920s however, it wasnt until the 1960s that the Womens Movement began.Granted womens roles had been changing for 40 years prior to the Womens Movement, it was clear that this was not a earthy evolution. Many pile, both men and women, challenged the idea of a woman as an independent, productive citizen. Many women were ready to be seen and valued differently, but expert because a group wants to be seen differently, does not mean that that is going to happen. This is commonly the pivotal moment for most movements in History. A group seeks changes that some others are adverse to seeing happen. The womens movement called for fundamental changes in the roles of women.No eight-day did women want to be seen as the caregiver of the home, they wanted to be seen as independent people who could make important decisions and choose their educational and pro pathways. Today, in the United States of America, women are on a more(prenominal) reach footing with men in most cases often by necessity, where women cannot complete in the spielplace for jobs that were one traditionally held my men, also in uninfected of two parent working households. Although most career and captain opportunities are open to women in this country, there are still major discrepancies in the leadership positions that women hold.Among the US population 25 and above, 34 per centum of women have obtained a Bachelors degree compared with 30 percent of men. Of refine degrees held, women dominate that group with 39 percent of grad Degrees being held by men. Versus 21% percent, which are held by men. It would be divert after viewing these statistics, that one could assume that women hold the same, if not more, of the stature leadership positions in business and politics, but this, in fact, is not the case. Forbes clip (2011) created and published a study with an emphasis breakdown on womens roles in upper side leadership positions. Only 6 percent of spate 100 C EOs are women Only 8 percent of technology startup companies are lead by women Only 9 percent of contributors on Wikipedia are women Women account for only a ordinal of the voting power on the words key interest range Only 13 percent of the top 100 billionaires worldwide are women Only 15 percent of senior industry management positions proceed to women. Less than 18 percent of Congressional seats are held by women. Clearly, this poses a call into question some why women are still not sharing equal roles with men in the top leadership positions in this country.There are many different reasons for these statistics. One reason for this leadership col is that women reasonable acquiret ask. This idea is explored by Babcock and Laschever (2007) in the support Women Dont Ask by Babcock and Laschever. When Babcock questioned many graduate young-begetting(prenominal) students were teaching their own course while women were taking on the roles of assistants, her dean stated, More men ask. The women just dont ask. It turns out, that women are just more likely than men to ask for promotions or raises. This may be due to the facts that some women arent aware they should be petition and other women are fearful or damaging kinships.One interesting point to product line is that a leadership characteristic that is identified differently in men and women is aggression. Many people electropositively define aggression as a positive leadership trait in men, but that exact same trait is viewed as negative in a women. Therefore, a women many sense that being aggressive may cause more injure than good when trying to obtain a high level position. interrogation published by Northhouse in his book Leadership, has also shown that women are more likely to take a passive role in obtaining leadership positions.They are more reluctant to be assertive in asking for positions, and try to obtain those roles through relationships and opportunity. (p. 357) In essence, it is a double piercing sword for a woman. There is also no question that gender stereotypes still exist. Oddly enough, these stereotypes may produce more equipment casualty in the 21st century because they are more covert and deep(p) to recognize. The show, Mad Men, shows how women were treated in the workplace. The sexual harassment and belittlement of women was obvious and apparent.Women were expect to fill certain roles in the workplace and men had no issues openly expressing their ideas on womens roles. Now, there is to be no such rive between genders. In fact, gender discrimination is breaking the law, so no longer can discrimination exist in any work place. However, this does not mean that these biases and feelings dont exist. On the contrary, there may be many people who feel like women are not capable of performing certain tasks, but because gender discrimination is illegal, these ideas are not openly shared, but that certainly doesnt mean that they dont exist.Despite the se things, many women have found success in the governmental and work setting. Interestingly, Dominance, aggression and assertiveness are not viewed as positive traits in women leaders, but these are the traits most people would identify with the top echelon leaders of the world, both politically and financially. So, what are some of the attributes that are seen in productive women? Five characteristics that most successful women share are determination, resourcefulness, dream, confidence, and the efficiency to create a maintain relationships. A successful woman is set to have it all and make things work.At www. Successful Women. com, a guest source describes the attributes of successful women determination, resourcefulness, engagement, ambition and confidence. Determination means having a strategic innovation to accomplish a goal and now allowing anything or anyone to get in the way of that goal. True leaders know their best resource is in the hearts and minds of the people t hey are leading. Theres not much more that causes distrust then a leader who claims to know everything about everything. A good leader must be able to be resourceful and find answers and solutions quickly.There is no question that ambition plays a large role in the making of a successful young-bearing(prenominal) leader. Women without ambition rarely achieve greatness. Queen Elizabeth I gave up the chance at a family (and had her own sister imprisoned) in rig to rule England. Susan B. Anthony and many other suffragettes risked being ostracized and thrown in jail in order to spread the message of womens equality. Throughout history, the most successful women have been willing to take control of their own lives and do whatever was necessary to reach their goals.Probably the most important character trait of a female leader is confidence. Of course, it is imperative for individual to have the skills, but most people will argue that confidence is the key to becoming a successful lead er. Imagine trying to get a group to follow someone who lacks self-confidence and shows fear for a task. A leader with confidence acts with conclusion and passion, which cause subordinates to feel like they can count on their leader. another(prenominal) key trait is the ability to create and maintain appropriate professional relationships.Women must show enough empathy so that their subordinates feel supported, but not too much emotion as to get over intricate with ones co workers, colleagues or subordinates. This is the make it or break it trait for many female leaders. People seem to be more conscious of the relationship that a women has with her subordinates. If a woman is seen as too empathetic, these may be seen as a weakness. If a women seems void of emotion, people may not feel comfortable or like they are able to converge in. Womens roles have been evolving for over 100 years.The road has been surface for a woman to make decisions about the course she chooses to live her life. The roadblocks for women have been moved out of the way. Regardless of gender biases that may still exist, a woman can be whatever she chooses to be. This does not meet that the leadership role is easy. For men and women alike, begin an effective leader is challenging ad requires special and specific characteristics to be effective. References Deborah Morrehead (2007). 9 Qualities of Smart, Successful Women. ONLINE lendable at http//www. debramoorhead. com/blog/index. php/9-qualities-of-smart-successful-women/. Last Accessed 15 October 2012. Denise Trauth (2002). The Changing Roles of Women. ONLINE Available at http//www. txstate. edu/ give-and-take/news_releases/news_archive/2002/10/roleofwomen102102. html. Last Accessed 8 October 2011. Guest (2010). Five Characteristics of Successful Women. ONLINE Available at http//www. asuccessfulwoman. com/aswblog/five-characteristics-successful-women. Last Accessed October 15 2012. Katherine W Hawkins, (1995). Effects of Gender Communi cation Content on Leadership Emergence in Small Task-Oriented Groups. Small Group Research. 26 (2), pp. 234-239Leslie Bradshaw (2011). Why Women Having A Seat at the Table is not Enough. ONLINE Available at http//www. forbes. com/sites/lesliebradshaw/2011/08/04/why-women-having-a-seat-at-the-table-is-not-enough/. Last Accessed 15 October 2012. Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever, (2007). Women Dont Ask The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation and electropositive Strategies. 1st ed. New York Bantam. Jossey Bass Publishers, (2007). Educational Leadership. 2nd ed. San Fransisco, California Jossey Bass. dent G Northhouse, (2013). Leadership Theory and Practice. 6th ed. Los Angeles california Houghton Mifflin.