While reading the chapter in our textbook regarding gender biases within leadership settings, I couldn’t help but be reminded of all the women in my life who have been great leaders. Although our textbook and online lecture emphasize the fact that women face a glass ceiling effect within their careers (Northouse, 2016; PSU, 2018), many women break this barrier in order to lead teams effectively. Through different leadership styles, many women in my life have been admirable leaders. In this post, I’d like to highlight two women in particular who have exemplified leadership roles.
During my second year of community college, I had taken a class entitled “Psychology of Gender.” My professor, Dr. Hallongren, was the perfect leader for this class. For this class, we watched different films about how gender is a social construct, and what we can do to make men and women equals in our society. Dr. Hallongren used team leadership to effectively teach our class this subject. Because the class was smaller than average, she had everyone speak about their thoughts of each film as a group. The first few classes were awkward because we were afraid to speak up, we were still in the “forming” stage of team leadership (PSU, 2018). Dr. Hallongren encouraged us to open up to each other, and engage in discussion. We quickly realized that many people within our group weren’t as open-minded as the others, myself included. The “storming” stage was when we broke our sexist thoughts of gender roles (including my thoughts that men should work to support their households), and began to explore more inclusive thoughts (PSU, 2018). Our “norming” stage awakened when Dr. Hallongren further divided our team into groups to develop our own conversation topics (PSU, 2018). Finally, within our class, we reached the “performing” stage (PSU, 2018). For me, this meant that I embraced feminism and discouraged sexist thoughts from my own life. With Dr. Hallongren’s guidance, our class became more open-minded than we had been in the beginning of the semester.
My mother led my church’s Sunday School program for about ten years. Using the leader-member exchange style of leadership, my mother excelled at making learning about the Bible interesting for children in our neighborhood. In order to get all other teachers on the same page, my mother encouraged them to participate in seminars at other churches and universities. This encouraged every teacher to be part of the in-group, rather than the out-group (Northouse, 2016). My mother was very good at getting teachers on the same page in terms of goals as well. For the first time in decades, our Sunday School student count was above ten students, and parents made the effort to get their children to Sunday School. For the teaching staff, everyone had a role: one teacher was the treasurer, one handled the music, one handled the extracurricular events (such as ice cream socials and summer classes), and my mother was the superintendent. Through the assignment of roles, the teaching staff knew exactly what was expected of them, and were able to address any issues with my mother. This led to a partnership, of which the teachers were able to donate their time in order for the Sunday School to become a successful program within the church.
Interestingly enough, as our textbook states, women as leaders do not only use communicative and social skills to initiate goals for groups (Northouse, 2016). My mother used the leader-member exchange approach, which is a bit more social in nature. Dr. Hallongren used team leadership in order to create an open learning environment. Women have and will continue to be excellent leaders, on par with male leaders.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice, 7th Edition. [MBS Direct]. Retrieved from https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781483317540/
Pennsylvania State University. (2018). PSYCH 485: Leadership in Work Settings. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1925331/modules/items/23786557
maa5905 says
Our life experiences change how we view the world, and it seems that your life experiences have inactivated a couple of gender stereotypes in your brain…which is amazing because Northouse (2016) reminds us that gender stereotypes are highly resistant to change. “Gender stereotypes both describe stereotypic beliefs about the attributes of men and women, and prescribe how men and women ought to be” (Burgess & Borgida, 1999; Glick & Fiske, 1999 cited in Northouse, 2016, p. 404). Your belief that men should earn the money for the household is based on a stereotype that men are earners, and that stereotype was automatically activated by your life experiences as you were growing up (Northouse, 2016). It’s likely that most of the dads that you knew as a child were the primary breadwinners and that female-led households seemed odd…and the children in that household may have been in an out-group at school themselves.
It’s interesting that a gender stereotype was changed, and kind of replaced by another in the same class. Isn’t feminist a label that is placed on people who believe that men and women are equal? And couldn’t that be considered a stereotype?
For most of my life, I have thought that certain types of leadership were better suited for women than men, and others better for men than women. And…I hate to admit this…but I think I still believe that to some degree. And that I know it makes me guilty of gender bias, but in my experience, male leaders are not very good with styles that are contingent on empathy. I don’t mean to say male leaders are generally not empathetic, but in my experience with male leaders, empathy can seem forced and inauthentic.
I think it would be interesting to know if your professor or your Mom ever advanced to leadership roles with more responsibility. Research shows that women are less likely to self-promote and negotiate than men, that often presents them from advancing to more senior leadership (Northouse, 2016). And to reduce the leadership gap, women must embrace negotiation and learn how to restructure negotiations to their advantage.
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
kah5714 says
First off let me say that it sounds like both of those women in your life did a get job leading. I know too that women can break the glass ceiling and be able to lead teams but I do think that it is harder for them. One person I think that can relate to that is my mother. She was a nurse when I was growing up and she was good at her job and became the lead nurse in her office. After a while she was running the whole nursing department and finally she runs about ten different department in a hospital. She was able to become a leader but it was not without her hard work. She had many of the barriers that other women face. For her though the biggest one was work and home conflict. She was a mother first she was always worried about how we were doing but she was also worried about how that was going to effect her career. I remember the one time when I was in high school I got mono and was out of school for a while and my mother was out of working tending to my every need but she wanted too. Though I know now in the back of her mind she was probably worried about how all the time off would effect her job. I think that over time we will see more strong women emerge like the two women you used as an example and my mother who is also a leader.
Erik J Lindstrom says
Natalie,
Do you feel like your mother was aided in any way by the potential gender stereotypes? What I mean is, do you think that there were any aspects of these types of generally considered feminine communal skills (Northouse, 2016, p.403) that made your mother better suited than a man to lead in this way? Would a man have violated any gender stereotypes (Northouse, 2016, p.404) in leading the same way as your mother?
Do you think that your professor was able to teach you more easily because you shared a cultural background? Were there cultural differences between you that enriched your relationship? Was there any group projects in the class? I find that even with a group of people who seem to have a similar cultural background you can find a wide variation on points of view as they relate to dimensions of culture (Northouse, 2016, p.464).