Gender and leadership has been a long studied topic, and I feel like the stereotypes are changing for the better everyday. Although researchers have decided that both men and women can be leaders, the large majority of leaders have been men. This isn’t because of ability but because of the way our society works. According to NBCNews, 41 women in 2021 are CEOs of fortune 500 companies, which is 8.2% of all fortune 500 companies. According to the lesson, in 2002 that number was only 6 women. So it is clear that there is progress, but it is slowly coming. Additionally in the lesson, it says that there is a bias in sex roles to determine women moving up in managerial roles. The attributes of a manager were thought to be the qualities of men, and that is a systemic problem. There are reasons why we think the way we do about personalities, bodies, jobs, and so many other things because they are conditioned in society and media and influence the way we think.
According to the Eagly study in the lesson, women leaders were seen more negatively in male dominated roles. When I think of this fact, I immediately think of Hillary Clinton. She is a woman who has gone under a lot of scrutiny because of her drive to be the leader of the free world, or in official terms, the President of the United States. This is the one job in the world that has always and only been held by men, and a lot of people seem to have an issue with a woman taking over the job. Not because she wasn’t incredibly smart or hardworking, but mainly because she was a woman. She was shown in such a negative light when she was the democratic nominee against former President Donald Trump. This is because she was going against a very high-profile and rich white man, and that emphasized her dislike. If she was going against another woman, or someone of a different race, the outcome might have been different. And this is all due to people’s internal thoughts on women in leadership roles, and how she would compare to a powerful white man. She held very high government positions, worked under former President Barack Obama as the Secretary of State and was a former Senator for the state of New York. When you compare Clinton to Trump, she clearly had much more experience in the government world. But that didn’t seem to matter to a lot of people, and it showed in the election.
We are making strides in our country as Kamala Harris was recently elected the first female Vice President of the United States. The times are changing, and it now seems to be for the better. I hope that this stigma against female leaders doesn’t continue in the way it has, but it starts with each individual and the views they have on women in leadership roles.
References:
Lesson 13, Hamel 2021