Women in leadership experience a lot of challenges based on gender. Bierema (2016) indicated that there is a global mindset that a good manager equals a male manager, which sets women back from potential leadership positions even if they are more qualified. Many people believe work and leadership are based on biology which produces Essentialism. Essentialism is a cognitive bias that Bierema (2016) explains is motivated by ideas such as “women are natural caregivers and should bear the brunt of dependent care or men should be in roles superior to women” (p.126). Bierema (2016) also referred to stereotypical examples of what women in leadership deal with: they are never just right, having high competence but low rewards, not being personable, and much more. Another limitation is the discourse about women leaders. Phrases such as “she slept her way to the top” and “don’t get too emotional” as Bierema (2016) acknowledged are used by “dominant groups, in this case white men, to maintain power” (p.127) and depict negative pictures of women in leadership.
Bierema, L. L. (2016). Women’s Leadership: Troubling Notions of the “Ideal” (Male) Leader. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 18(2), 119–136. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422316641398
This research was conducted by me, Niyah Lighty, for the Leadership and Society course at Old Dominion University.
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