Introduction
Many executives who ensure gender diversity is precedence are left feeling discouraged despite their best efforts to increase the number of women in leadership positions. When organizations attempt to increase the number of women in positions of power, they often fail to produce the desired results (Hideg & Shen, 2019). Being a manager is more than just being assigned an executive position, learning the necessary abilities, and changing one’s leadership style, as it requires an extreme variation in self-perception. When organizations encourage women to assume leadership positions without tackling aspects that signify a disparity between how females are portrayed and the characteristics and skills individuals desire to connect with leaders, they involuntarily hinder the process.
Women are Underrepresented
It is intricate for women to create a community of support in a field traditionally dominated by men. Women do not only cope with the burden of a permanent occupation, but they are typically liable for raising kids (Vong et al., 2019). As a result, it is difficult for women to balance professional and personal responsibilities successfully. Even if a leader’s behavior is more in line with the male-gendered role than the female task standards, the woman manager may be judged less positively than a man. Due to bias, women often face disadvantages that are not fair.
Gender Gap
The gender gap exacerbates the persistent inequality between the sexes in many areas, including but not limited to the workplace. Therefore, it enhances the disparity between genders in terms of educational, political, intellectual, cultural, and economic outcomes. Women are paid less than males for equivalent work, and there is a gender gap in the labor market and the jobs they pick (Vong et al., 2019). An immense economic and moral obligation exists to overcome visible and unseen biases that prevent people from bridging the gender gap. More gender equality results in improved financial performance, which is why countries should focus on closing the existing gap.
Gender-Based Leaders
Preconceived notions of women’s characteristics and actions are examples of descriptive stereotypes. As a form of gender bias, prescriptive stereotypes hold ideas about how women should act. Independent, forceful, dominant, and competent men are idealized in prescriptive gender stereotypes (Hideg & Shen, 2019). Women, in comparison, should be social people who are warm, empathetic, and outspoken. Both sorts of biases can negatively impact how women in the workplace are perceived and treated.
Transformational Leadership
Businesses and organizations with a higher proportion of women in executive roles do better financially and are more productive. Gender stereotypes about nature or nurture lead people to believe that women are more likely to be democratically participatory and transformative than males (Hideg & Shen, 2019). Despite no statistically considerable divergence between the efficacy of men and women, females are generally viewed as more caring, diplomatic, and good at communicating with others than males. Males are more aggressive, whereas women are often praised for warmth and sensitivity. Leaders who excel in the agentic aspects, such as assertiveness, are not indicative of transformational leaders because they are typically authoritarian, goal-oriented, and seek control over their followers.
Conclusion
Without addressing practices that demonstrate an imbalance between how females are depicted and the attributes, people prefer to link with leaders; organizations unknowingly hinder encouraging women to pursue leadership roles. Recently, many people have talked about how important it is to reduce the income gap between men and women. Even though nations have made significant progress, there still needs to be more women in leadership positions. While men tend to be more authoritarian, goal-oriented, and control-seeking than women, they excel in the agentic aspects of leadership, such as assertiveness. Countries should work to eliminate the gender gap because it improves their economies.
References
Hideg, I., & Shen, W. (2019). Why still so few? A theoretical model of the role of benevolent sexism and career support in the continued underrepresentation of women in leadership positions. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 26(3), 287-303. Web.
Vong, S., Ros, B., Morgan, R., & Theobald, S. (2019). Why are fewer women rising to the top? A life history gender analysis of Cambodia’s health workforce. BMC Health Services Research, 19, 1-9. Web.