Many people think that gender inequality is a theme of the past, but this claim is far from true, there is still a culture and society that privileges men over women, despite all the advances already made by feminist movements, machismo still exists and manifests itself in different contexts. In this article, we’ll talk about how female discrimination occurs in the context of leadership.
One of the most notable evidence of culture-based machismo is the absence of women in leadership positions. Traditionally, leadership has always been a matter of men. Although we are increasingly accustomed to some women holding few positions of responsibility, the proportion of female leaders remains much lower, in fact, when we talk about executive positions in large companies, the percentage of women does not reach 0. 5%.
- Several studies have been conducted in recent decades to find the relationship between female leadership and discrimination.
- One of the first scenarios explored was whether or not there were differences between men and women in leadership positions.
- And whether these differences were the cause of the low presence of women in positions of responsibility and power.
Eagly and Johnson performed a meta-analysis in 1990 that included 162 leadership studies, in this research they analyzed separately the different behaviors of men and women when each was in a position of power. .
Men tend to be more authoritarian, aggressive and task-oriented; however, women lead in a more democratic, participatory and wellness-oriented style; both styles are closely associated with the gender stereotypes that exist in today’s culture.
Now, after analyzing the existing differences, the first evidence seems to demonstrate a relationship between leadership and gender, the research suggests that democratic, participatory and well-being leaders in relationships are much more effective than those who are not. So how is it possible that women, who have the standard of a good leader, don’t hold a higher percentage of positions of responsibility?
Next, we will talk about the effects that result from the presence of sexism in society and hinder women’s access to leadership positions, it is important to understand that while there is no explicit gender inequality, the machismo implicit in our culture and education has an equally detrimental effect on the female collective.
The term glass ceiling refers to the existence of an invisible barrier that prevents women from accessing leadership and leadership positions, with the existence and influence of gender stereotypes being the main explanation and justification of this glass ceiling.
Let us not forget that the leader figure is not an individual thing, because without followers there is no leadership, because of the prejudices that exist against women, many believe that followers will reject a woman in power and her legitimacy as a leader.
In addition, there is a strong tendency to associate positions of responsibility with the male sex. Author Schein coined the term male think-thinking manager to refer to this phenomenon.
On the other hand, one effect associated with the glass ceiling is the cement roof. The latter term refers to situations in which the woman he or she he or she he or she is limited in reaching a position of responsibility. This is also due to the machismo implicit in gender stereotypes, generating in women herself the anguish of overcoming or not corresponding to what society expects of her.
We have already said that many difficulties are being imposed on women in positions of responsibility, clearly showing the existence of a relationship between female discrimination and leadership, but what happens when a woman enters and assumes a leadership role?The effect of the glass cliff appears.
The glass cliff refers to the possibility that when women move to positions of power, they tend to be more precarious and are associated with a greater chance of failure and criticism than positions occupied by men. It seems that the “think manager-think man” ceases to exist when the leadership position is associated with a situation of risk or crisis.
Thus, when a person is assigned to a position of responsibility with high probability of failure, it is customary to look for a woman, then we have the phenomenon of thinking about crisis-thinking in women, more research is needed to determine the causes of this effect, but the main hypotheses are those that speak of better management of women when talking about critical situations of crisis , or even the hypothesis of male manipulation to increase the failure of women in leadership positions.
In conclusion, it is important to realize that gender inequality remains very present in our current culture and society, the only way to combat it is to seek and pay critical attention to all the social, cultural and educational aspects that promote the existence of this relationship between leadership and female discrimination.