Women in leadership I have always found to be an interesting subject. Having served in the U.S. Military for many years I have seen many leaders, some of them women. I have watch women try to navigate the levels of Individual, Interpersonal, Societal, and Organizational many times in my career (Northouse, 2013).
When I first joined the military women in combat roles and especially combat leadership roles were new and a somewhat taboo subject. Women had and still do have societal pressure to conform to the more traditional sex roles of women (Northouse, 2013). Women are not supposed to engage in warfare, they are the more caring and gentler sex. This societal pressure caused a lot of interpersonal issues as many males in the military saw women as weak and indecisive as well as felt their best role should be a traditional one such as admin or healthcare.
My first female supervisor struggled with a lot of interpersonal blockage. Most of the males under her leadership did not respect her authority at the same level that was afforded to a male. As a result she came of more authoritative and masculine as she tried to asset her authority over her subordinates (Northouse, 2013). This in turn perpetuated stereotypes and caused a lot people not to view her as good leader.
There were also organizational hurdles, as the military in general did not know how to integrate women inn to combat roles. There were very few mentors for my first female supervisor (Northouse, 2013). She also did not have the evaluations she should have had because of individual hurdles. She was not very good at promoting herself and showing the powers that be how she had contributed to the command (Northouse, 2013). This left her a little bitter and only added to the perception of her being a poor leader and not cut out for the job.
Later in my career I had the pleasure of serving with a female leader that was very successful as a leader and getting past the barriers to leadership. She was able to find a balance between her societal role of being a woman and being feminine yet being authoritative leader. She worked hard to over come stereotypes by proving she had the knowledge and skill to be in a leadership position (Northouse, 2013). She still had interpersonal issues to over come such, as some males did not want to be on her boat at first. She would take this in stride; eventually the person would figure out that she was very good at training her people and pushing them to succeed. This would eventually change people’s minds and make her one of the most sought out leaders in the command.
The organization was better prepared by this time to have women in leadership roles and had clear paths for women that were fully integrated with that of males. There were also more mentors willing to mentor a female by this point as well (Northouse, 2013). Individually she was able to be very good at promoting herself however she did not have to try as hard as my first female supervisor as people took notice of her accomplishments more than my other supervisor (Northouse, 2013). All of this combined to make her a leader that was not seen as a woman, but as her rank and position in the command.
Women can be as successful as males in a leadership role. However there are still many hurdles to over come, many stemming from societal sex roles and what is right for each sex to do. Like Northouse, I think for women to get complete equality in the arena of leadership, sex roles and the gender gap at home will need to be closed (Northouse, 2013). The biggest challenge women face is societies expectations of how a female should behave and act. If given a fair chance woman can be equal to men as leaders.
References:
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Inc.