Growing up, I never doubted my own success in my career. I’m not sure that any child imagines what they want to be when they grow up and then stops to wonder if they’ll be successful. At that point in our lives, we imagine that whatever we want to be is possible simply because we can imagine it. But at some point down the road, whether it’s within our education pursuits or in real world corporate experience, we realize that perceptions, barriers, and the opportunities presented to us based on these things are a real consideration in whether or not we actually grow up to reach those childlike dreams.
Lesson 13 for this course has our commentary and our textbook discussing something that I’ve faced in my own career since 2011: barriers that are exclusive to women. The reason that I say that I’ve faced them since 2011 is because that’s the year my first child was born and I was forced to realize that I was now expected to work even harder so that my work felt as though they were my first priority while also making sure that my family thought they were priority number one. And while men also have children, there is still a social stigma that it is a mother’s responsibility to ensure that her children are cared for; this same responsibility does not rest solely on the shoulders of the father. This is both a problem with barriers as well as with prejudice in the form of gender stereotypes.
Northouse describes these issues as more in his description of what is called the “Leadership Labyrinth”. (Northouse, 2016, pg. 399) Northouse specifically describes this labyrinth as “a journey riddled with challenges all along the way” that women are faced with overcoming in the workforce. (Northouse, 2016, pg. 399) These challenges include these gender stereotypes and the work-home conflict that I discussed above as well as many more, including growth opportunities, biases in perception and evaluation, and work experience. (Northouse, 2016, pg. 400)
Northouse does a great job in explaining the fact that these barriers need to be removed or overcome before women can fulfill the same roles successfully that men are currently occupying. So far at my organization I have seen this trend: women occupy more than 50% of management roles, but occupy 0% of administrative roles in the top tier. By this I mean CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, director roles, etc. These are the leadership roles that kids talk about; I want to be a mid-level manager is rarely what a 7 year old will say. And when we look into this leadership labyrinth and the barriers that are presented to women, it’s easy to see why, especially for those of us who face them every day.
My husband, whose career I love and support, has never had to consider whether or not his job’s required hours will clash with childcare. I consider that with every position and promotion I take. My husband, who is well educated, has less education than I have, but is able to take a job paying more money because he did not have to consider family responsibilities when accepting the role. As the mom of the house, I do. My husband does not face gender stereotypes, gender differences such as expected assertiveness and attitudes; I do. Each of these issues are discussed in Northouse’s leadership labyrinth, and as a woman in the workforce I can verify that they are all true. (Northouse, 2016, pg. 400) As this is more of a family and society issue than a corporate issue, perhaps this is a barrier that will be harder to break. But, I have thought many times that more employers should work to offer onsite child care so women can focus on both priorities easier. Many top companies and hospitals offer this perk such as the University of Michigan hospital system, Disney, and IBM.
Northouse offers some solutions to overcoming other barriers that include employing a more transformational leadership style in order to bypass biases in how females should act in attitude and characteristics, working to change workplace culture, and even women starting their own ventures. (Northouse, 2016, pg. 408) I absolutely agree that these could be effective, but I do also think that some responsibility should lie on the shoulders of companies to ensure that treatment is equal. If the individual and the company work together to smash the biases and barriers, we could move a long way towards a more diverse and equal workplace.
Resource:
Northouse, Peter G. (2016) Leadership: Theory and Practice. Sage Publications. 7th Edition.
slh5490 says
Hi Lauren,
I have faced similar biases and struggles relating to being a female in a male dominated field – I had my first child in 2014 and also struggled with the needs of my family vs my duties at work. And while we have taken great strides since only 40-50 years ago; asking questions like “Can women lead?”, to now when we are considering how women lead differently than men (Northouse, 2016), there remains a decided lack of female leaders and the explanations offered by Northouse offer some reasonable explanations for this gap.
The human capital differences; i.e. the “leaking pipeline” in which women are receiving advanced degrees at a rate higher than men begs the question why some of these women are not ending up in the highest positions (Northouse, 2016). And while child-rearing and the majority of the household responsibilities end up a women’s responsibility – it still begs the question of why? Women are often made to feel like they have to make a choice – between their career or raising children while men do not need to make that distinction.
The antiquated norms of workplace leave and flexibility programs result in further marginalization and lack of leadership positions when women do return to work after focusing on their families (Northouse, 2016). I know many women who have taken the “mommy track” in which they accept low level position or work part time to allow themselves the ability to raise a family. Each woman has that decision to decide for herself; but, if a woman is dedicated and decides that she wants to have a successful career and be a CEO – what difficulties is she going to face getting to that position due to prejudice?
One difference I also found interesting was that women in leadership positions are often more democratic and participative than male leaders (Northouse, 2016). The difference in leadership qualities means that women are more likely to facilitate and communicate than be an authority and in a role that is masculinized (Northouse, 2016). Structural role redefinition offers an enlightened view of reassigning roles and tasks proportionally across the household; but it requires participation and acceptance of new role definitions by males (Northouse, 2016).
All in all, we are on the path to an equal and understood female leader; however, much work remains to be done. As a woman one must be mindful of the ways in which we perpetuate these myths and work to dispel them. Using “individual, interpersonal, organizational, and societal approaches” (Northouse, 2016) and allowing these conversations and shifts in perception to occur to realign the gendered division of work is the path we must take forward (Northouse, 2016).
Great post,
Sarah
ama6306 says
Lauren,
After reading your blog, I can relate to you and this lesson of women being inferior in the workplace but I cannot relate to the perspective of being a mother and juggling work at the same time because I have not had children yet. Regardless of the fact that I have not yet become a parent, I feel like your point of view on this topic is completely understandable and relatable for many women, as well as reinforced by the theories that Northouse discussed. Some of the explanations that are provided in the lesson for why women do not typically reach executive positions is somewhat insulting to females and I feel as though these rates are transforming little by little, as more and more females are stepping into leadership roles. As referenced in the lesson commentary, “Second, Ragins, Townsend, and Mattis (1998) found that women lack general management experience. There is some data to support the belief that women have insufficient experience in line positions” (PSU WC, Lesson 13, 2019). Another explanation that was cited in the lesson stated that “women are less suited to executive demands, are not qualified for these positions, and lack self-confidence (Heilman, 1997; Morrison, 1992; Morris, 1998)” (PSU WC, Lesson 13, 2019). While some of these explanations seem to be true throughout the history of women in the work force, I believe that these things are drastically changing. More and more women in today’s society are proving these biases wrong and exemplifying strong leadership in their companies. A perfect example is the company I work for, a highly successful and growing grocery chain called Wegmans. The former CEO, Danny Wegman, has recently handed the title of CEO over to his daughter, Colleen Wegman. It’s easy to say that he possibly made that decision based on the fact that she’s his daughter, but there is much more to it than just that. Colleen exhibits many of the leadership qualities that we’ve learned about in recent lessons, such as transformational leadership. She is a strong, confident, and highly respected woman who is proving that women can maintain high ranking business titles such as CEO of a Fortune 500 company. While I can completely understand your frustrations of this stigma of women and power, I think you have the power to transform this in your own life and break the barriers that stand between mothers becoming leaders in the workplace. Parenthood should be an equal responsibility of both mothers and fathers. I also think that you are absolutely correct in saying that companies and individuals need to work together in order to break barriers and biases so that the work force can be more diverse and equal, and I believe many places are already making efforts to do so.
Works Cited
Williams, J. (2019). PSYCH 485: Transformational Leadership: Lessons 10 [Power Point Slides]. Pennsylvania State University: World Campus. Retrieved from: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1972967/modules/items/25704959