Are Women Better Leaders - Essay Example

Are Women Better Leaders? Since time immemorial, leadership roles have been reserved for men. However with time it has emerged that women too can lead bringing up the issue of competitive leadership between men and women. Therefore, the big question remains, are women better leaders? Women are recently making a name for themselves in business organizations. It has become that it is very inherent for women to hold senior managerial positions in organizations. It is believed that if a woman holds managerial posts she is in a better position to steer the organization to success. Women shun the positions all the same because of the negative perceptions that the society has towards women who are senior in organizations (Deal and Stevenson 289). Such women are believed to have given sexual favors to men to acquire such positions. At times, they are hated by men or even discriminated. A very good example is Margret Thatcher who even to death was hated by many men (Brenner 382). The increasing impact made by women in leadership positions mostly the senior most positions has led to research to examine the effectiveness of women as better leaders. Research shows that it is natural for women to employ some skills. Women are non-coercive, team players as well as a proficient in making better relationships (Kolb et al. 306). Furthermore, female qualities such as expressive, emotional, cooperative, tactful, warm, gentle, and talkative as well as submissive (Park 15).These qualities of women make them have a more nurturing, motivational as well as based on relationships their work. Women juggle with a lot of house work. They cook, raise children, and they do laundry as well as they clean the house at the same time they go to work. It is very challenging to do housework as well as be a career woman yet women still succeed. This has made them know how to prioritize their work. Men lack priority in their type of leadership skills. Organizations require prioritization. Men are aggressive, and task oriented while women work on the relationships of the employees. This in turn results in a better outcome. Women are more transformational leadership works well in any organization. This the best type of leadership that is required in any organization. Women model their organizations they take them as their responsibility. They know that that it is their home. There is a famous saying that says “give a woman a house and she makes it home.” This simply means that women transform everything that is left under their care. Every place that requires a leader needs leadership that is transformational oriented (Park 306). It is has been noted with great concern that as women climb the cooperate leadership they disappear. Statistics collected even though they vary slightly in various places in the world the pattern all the same is consistent everywhere. More than half of the employees in an organization are women at early ages in their late twenties to late forties. At the CEO levels in almost all the organizations women are 3% to 4%. This is quite surprising given the fact that women are credited for the success in many business or organizations if they hold higher positions in organizations. A study by Forbes in 2012 showed that out of the 16000 senior employees of various organizations, two-thirds were men while a third were women (Kolb et al. 315). In order to understand the difference in age, it is wise to look at the effectiveness of leadership of men and women by their age differences. As men and women begin their careers, there is or even little perceived differences. The effectiveness of women employees is not felt very much as they begin their careers in their places of work. But as they climb the ladder women become fewer and fewer as men become more and more. This is when women effectiveness as leaders is felt in the organizations they work in. In terms of effective by age is that men become positively effective in their leadership styles. Women on the other hand women become increasingly effective in their performance as leaders. That is why many authors lament why higher positions are not held by women. If you look at the organizations that senior positions are held by mature women are better off than those that are held by men (Brenner 387). Women are always ready to live with an entrepreneurial spirit. They are ready to activate their abilities to connect the dots of resources and relationship they always want to leave a legacy. Women are known to cultivate new habits as well as new ways that will be followed later on. They always want to make an impact in the organizations that they work at (Llopis). If women only dive in into leadership and forget about the negative perceptions held by different people mostly when they hold senior-most positions in organizations, they will make very big strides that no one has ever thought of. Women should be headstrong; they must show the unique natural leadership qualities that they possess in educational institutions, corporate companies, government positions as well as political positions. In the recent celebrated women’s international day on March, women were reminded of past achievements by other women. They were also reminded of present achievements and the projects that women were engaged in for the future. With all these qualities of leadership, they can steer economies to better heights. For instance, the moment Helen Johnson took up the leadership mantle of Sierra Leone an African country that had been a war zone for ten years; the country has become very peaceful. Peace in any state attracts investors. Investors like a politically stable country so that their money does not get wasted. It would not be good not to recognize the iron lady of England Margret Thatcher who ruled with iron hands. She was principled, and this led to her being hated and loved in equal measures (Llopis). This is not a debate that there are women leaders that have failed in the past. Cleopatra of Egypt failed her nation and killed herself. This only proves that there are times women get emotional and act out of feelings and forget the interests of the people. All the same they are not task oriented like their counterparts men. Men also recognize their supportive nature. They always say that behind their success there is always a woman to thank. Therefore, it is right to conclude that it is a fact and not a claim that women are better leaders than men. Despite the harsh and puzzling data that shows that as women grow older, they are few in organizations as compared to when they were young, they still do well as few as they are. Men are also good leaders but then, they cannot reach the level at which women are. Therefore, this is a secret that organizations should consider and make good use of it to attain greater heights in their business. At times, it is better to ask what will happen if all the countries would have female presidents, or if 65% of political positions would be held by women. Maybe we would not have all these wrangles, maybe there will be more economic growth, maybe there will be better provision of services. The maybes are many. The fact remains that women make better leaders compared to their male counterparts. Works Cited Brenner, O. C. “Relationships of Education to sex, Managerial Status and Managerial Stereotype.” Journal of Applied Psychology 67 (1982): 380-388. Print. Deal J. J and Stevenson M. A. “Perception of Female and Male Managers in the 1990’s.” Sex Roles 38 (1998): 287-301. Print. Kolb A. Judith, Steven, J. Karau and Alice, H. Eagly. “The Effect of Gender Role, Attitude towards Leadership and Self-Confidence on Leader Emergence: Implications for Leadership Development.” Human Resource Quarterly10.4: 305 -320. Print. Llopis Glenn. Women Leaders Must Dive In, Not Just Lean In (Part 1) Forbes. 17 March 2014. Web.10 Oct. 2014. Park, Daewoo. “Gender Role, Decision, Style and Leadership Style.” Women in Management Review 11.8 (1996): 13-17. Print. Read More