Chapter 12 Women and Men as Leaders

The chapter discusses women’s underrepresentation in leadership roles based on four general types of explanation. The first type explains there is a sex difference in human capital investments, in which the gender gap in workplace leadership is that women’s capital investment in education, training, and work experience is lower than men’s. Women’s capital investment is reasoned by women have less job experience and consistency of employment than men do. Also, motherhood and domestic obligations to the families cause women to suffer from loss of income and experience. Do you feel that this is a strong reasoning for under representation for women? I feel women have a happy balance between their personal lives and work experience. More women are going to college or receiving higher education.

The second type compares the leadership styles of men and women. Female leaders/managers tend to adopt a transformational style and use more rewards to encourage appropriate subordinate behavior, in contrast, men are more likely to engage in different aspects of transactional leadership (active and passive management-by-exception) and laissez-faire leadership. Do believe these styles apply to you based on your gender?

The third type of explanation considers the evolutionary psychology argument that is in the nature of men but not women to be motivated to lead and dominate others. I did not agree with this agreement and found it an invalid argument.

The fourth category of explanation focuses on prejudice and discrimination. I think that prejudice and discrimination occurs when women take on masculine traits for leadership roles. This opposes the common qualities for women roles in society that usually consist of friendly, unselfish, and quite. Do you think women are negatively stereotyped when they are in leadership roles? Do you think people have negative attitudes toward female leaders in our society?