Reflecting the experience, prejudices, or orientations of one sex more than the other.
Published in Chapter:
Women in Strategic Leadership and Management: Identifying Concerns and Implementing Strategic Gender-Specific Leadership Development
Eleanor Su-Keene (Florida Atlantic University, USA)
Copyright: © 2017
|Pages: 13
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1049-9.ch083
Abstract
Historically, strategic leadership positions and roles have been predominately male-oriented. This comprehensive review of contemporary and historical literature shows that gendering of leadership positions and organizations affect women's leadership success. First, societal pressures and gendered roles make it difficult for women to balance work and home life. Unlike male counterparts, women are usually unable to delegate familial responsibilities making it difficult for women to obtain, maintain, and ascend leadership and managerial positions. Second, gender specific leadership styles are evaluated differently due to the perceived masculinity of both leadership positions and the organizational environment. This chapter adopts Hopkins, O'Niel, Passarelli, and Bilimoria's (2008) leadership development strategy for women by attending to seven specific developmental categories: assessment, training and education, coaching, mentoring, networking, experiential learning, and career planning. Given that effective leadership development results in organizational success, the strategies proposed is an attempt to decrease some of the issues barring women from leadership success and in turn, increase success at the organizational level.