Women in Financial Leadership - Literature review Example

There have been improvements in the number of women who are employed in the main sectors of the economy over at least the last half century. The number of women who are holding top positions in corporations has also been observed to be promising. The financial sector is a central part of any economy and which is usually undergoing a series of fluctuations in this area. There have been suggestions to change the leadership and have women lead this particular area to see if future financial crises would be avoided. There have been assertions that are having women in the financial sector as leaders bring a positive outcome in the economy. One of the facets that women have been associated with that makes them active, and eligible candidates for the leadership position in the financial industry is that they know how to avert risks more than men. The essay will, therefore, analyze if indeed the presence of women in leadership roles will help to circumvent or minimize the rate of financial crises that have been experienced in the past, for instance, the Great Depression that had a significant impact on the Western world in 2008.

The presence of women in the leadership positions has been seen to yield affirmative results in the progress of the companies where they are attached. According to Barsh (2014), women do not get to the top positions easily. They work hard and persevere the challenge. They simply make it to the top positions in corporations by giving out a lot of effort than the men. They can be said to play the game better than men. Due to the aspect of working hard and persevering the challenges as well as using a good approach to get the promotions, women have been associated with success in the places they work. They have been observed to improve the business network since they play a better role in getting what the customers want from the employees. This can then be compared to having the women in financial sectors as leaders, meaning that they can bring out the best in this area. They will be in a position to predict a crisis even before it occurs and will be in a better position to manage the employees under them to produce useful results. All this will also be achieved due to the ability of the women to be creative and innovative. The difficulty that may be experienced in the financial area means that it will be tackled in the best way possible if women are in charge. They have also been associated with being better at solving problems and this can also be linked to their ability to be pioneering. There will be proper guidelines set for guiding the financial segment that will overcome whatever challenges it was bound to experience in future (McDowell, 2011).

According to Pettman (2012), there is also an issue with males, the sex industry, and the financial sector. The male managers have been linked with the sex trade. They have been seen to be high users of this particular area. The male group has seen themselves be masculine and have even come up with masculine practices to accomplish this comprehension and further achieve a sense of self-representation.

Women who want to hold positions that are regarded to be of power are usually required to form healthy relationships with men. There are the unspoken rule and code of behavior that is needed in women since it will shape the planned relationship dynamic. There is the aspect of mateship that has been observed to be linked to men more than women. This issue in women is not common since they are not usually seen in the networking occasions such as games (Gorman-Murray and Hopkins, 2014). Women have not also been associated with the facet of wanting to fit in a group. They do not have the ability of men to form tactical alliances within the surroundings that involve a chain of command. Some of this alliances are however not effective. They may go off the topic of work and focus on other aspects that are not noteworthy. This was seen to be one of the contributors for the Great Depression (Alen, 2014).

The sex trade is a way for men to generate their differences and where the women are used as sexual minors to give services to the males. Men in the finance industry have then been referred to being hyper-masculine. The men in the positions of the banking industry in the United States and especially those who are in the Commission for Securities Exchange have been viewed to give a clear illustration of the addiction to the development of the concept of hyper-masculinity. There was a porn problem identified in this department among the male employees. This has been termed to be a waste of the government resources since they were watching the pornographic materials at work at the expense of the taxpayers. These financial regulators were supposed to take care of the cases of fraud and regulate them, but they were observed to be indulging in something entirely different (The Week, 2010). The widespread viewing of pornography by the officials of the Securities Exchange Commission was taking place at the time when the international financial scheme was disintegrating. The enforcement team was however not there to save the situation. The situation was analyzed, and the presence of women acknowledged that if they were in these positions, the crisis would not have been experienced in the financial sector at that time (McElhatton, 2010).

There have been assertions that women are risk preventers as compared to the men in the financial industry. This implies being risk avoiders is linked from within the sex trait. The aspect of womanliness is what has been equated to have the notion of women being linked to better risk prevention (Nelson, 2012). Women have also been commonly associated with the home environment. They have been seen to practice good care when looking after their families or working in areas such as caring for children and nursing. Women have further been associated with qualities of being protective, ability to convey interpersonal warmth, cooperative and selfless as well. These conditions have been linked to the way the women conduct their duties and especially in the finance industry. They practice the same when dealing with work related to financing hence achieving success in this sector (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). This has however been used as a reason to keep women out of the leadership positions. They are seen to be more focused on the duties at home and will have less time for working and create the change that is required in this sensitive sector (Burke and Major 2014).

There is a link between the performance level of a company and the financial performance. This can be attributed to the presence of women in a corporation. The performance of an organization has been seen to be linked to certain leadership behaviors and which are found in the women characters. Women use some of the leadership practices that most men lack when they are in power in the financial sector. Most men tend to use control, corrective action and make decisions individually. Women have, however, been observed to utilize the development of people, expectations, and rewards, role models, inspiration and prefer an approach of participative decision making (McKinsey & Company 2008).

The aspect of focusing on the development of people by the women leaders implies that the right skills and knowledge will be imparted in the employees who are in the financial organizations. There will be frequent training and development to ensure that the skills possessed by the staff are always upgraded and blend with the current changes in the market. This will result in effectiveness in the team who will then deliver excellent results in their work positions hence ensuring that the finance department is a success (Chakma, 2009). Constant reward and raising the expectations of the staff by the female leaders in the finance sector will motivate the team to deliver positive outcomes in the duties assigned to them. They will also avoid making constant errors in the financial functions since it can have an enormous negative impact on an organization or even a country as well (Sliverstein, Kato, and Tischhauser, 2009). Indulging their employees when making decisions that will affect the work environment has also been associated with women when given leadership roles. For instance, when it comes to a decision such as the best approach to close off the accounts, the ideas of each employee should be taken into consideration, and the facts weighed out then the best method was chosen that will be seen to bear positive results (Knights and Tulberg, 2012). There is, therefore, a leadership gap that has been observed when men are left to dominate the financial sector. The mode of practice by women when they are in leadership positions, on the other hand, will be seen to fill this gap effectively. The promotion of diversity is significant when it comes to selecting leaders for critical areas of the economy.

There was a financial crisis in 2008, and the reasons for its occurrence were attributed to the behavior of some of the bankers. It was pointed out that if more women were in the banking sector, then the crisis would not have been witnessed. One of the reasons for the proposal of having women in the banking industry was the concept of ethics and moral attitudes (Staveren, 2014). There was the use of an experimental game theory that revealed women being more supportive than men. This was determined by using tests for determining the attitudes of both sides. The tests incorporated elements such as challenges and dictatorships. The change of one party in an employment scenario had a bigger effect on the strategy of women than in men. The interpretation of this was that women had a framework when it came to reasoning in difficult situations as compared to men (Heinz, Juranek & Rau, 2012). The aspect to take risks in finance is also seen to be more common in women than men. Their decisions will, therefore, be more appropriate unlike those made by men. The financial world, when dominated by women, will also be led by an ethical care and not governed by too many harsh rules (Carney 2014).

There have also been studies that concluded that women avoid loss more than the men. They weigh the risk on if it is low or high. A study was even conducted on some companies in the United Kingdom. It was found that corporations that had females as their directors, statistically they had a lower bankruptcy risk at their disposal unlike those that were governed by men. Women have further been associated with taking more time to act whenever they are facing an uncertain situation. They are therefore better at dealing with financial problems and will not rush to make decisions that may result in an adverse impact (McDowell, 1997).

Women are also in a position to accept the occurrence of high unclear situations than men. This can be viewed in various perspectives. When there is a financial emergency, there is bound to be tasks that require a more critical approach than others. The tasks that are associated with more theoretical thinking and coming up with concepts seem to be harmful and depict more risks. These professions are also the ones that are more powerful and offer a prospect to get huge additional benefits and further obtain a good reputation. These jobs are also absorbed by women. The women were also engaged in more research than the men before coming up with a final decision. Men on the other hand rush into making verdicts or even wait until the period of crisis is over rather than helping in looking for solutions (McDowell, 2010).

There are different ways in which men and women relate at the individual and institutional level. Most men have been observed to look for men and develop friendships. They also have a high preference for working with men than women. This has then translated to the phenomena of many men in the powerful positions in management. This gives one of the reasons why there are very few women in these positions as well (European Commission, 2010). The society has also been seen to favor the positions of the men in the high ranks and see them as more favorable. However, the posts of these men lead to high cases of giving excess pay and bonuses to themselves and those who are close to them. This was the norm after the financial crisis occurred. This is translated to embezzlement of funds and can be referred to as corruption (Kumra, Simpson & Burke, 2014). According to Knights and Tullberg (2012), men who are in the financial positions are seen to have personal self-interest which was evident with the high salaries and bonuses as well. This condition according to the author is what worsened the financial crisis witnessed in 2008. The self-interest shown by the male gender has created a sense of independence in them, and they tend to be careless about the situation of the finances in the economy. However, having women in these positions would depict a different picture due to their caring qualities that were discussed earlier.

The number of women in the positions of leadership has been observed to be low and especially in the financial sector. The low number of women in this particular area has been attributed to the aspect of gender stereotypes on the approach of leadership and power. This has averted most women from obtaining the highly ranked positions (PWC, 2013). The concept of the stereotype in the society has made it difficult for the women to get respect from other members or even maintain their positions at work. Women opted to leave the high and respected job positions for the men to handle while they settled for the simpler tasks (Women Watch, 2007). However, it is worth noting that after the financial crisis had broken out, quite a few leadership positions were taken up by the women. For instance, in the United States, the chair of the Securities Exchange Commissioner is a woman, Mary Jo White who was appointed in 2013 and whose term is expected to expire in 2019 (Sec.gov, 2013).

There are also some inhibitors to the development of women in the financial sector.

According to Barsh (2014), questions have been raised on whether the presence of women in the senior management positions will, in turn, lead to the distribution of resources and capital as well. This is due to the different type of investment that women focus on, such as education, health, development of infrastructure and elimination or reduction of poverty levels. The assertion to this proposal is that men should help out the women and ensure that they will bring the change that is required (Vasquez, 2015).

To sum up, it is evident that the presence of women in leadership positions has improved since time immemorial. The increase in the number of women mostly in the financial sector has also yielded positive results. The women have been seen to avoid risks more as compared to men. They have been seen to improve the business networking system as well. Women in the financial sector also have the ability to predict risks that are likely to be faced. Men, on the other hand, have been observed to bring ineffective results in the financial sector. For instance, they were associated with the financial crisis that took place in 2008 as a result of acts such as engaging in pornographic content instead of focusing on work. The groups that men form also tend to affect their performance in the specific areas of work. They are a bad influence on the work environment of these parties. The Securities Commission for Exchange was affected by the hyper-masculinity aspect hence the poor performance. The leadership qualities that women possess also helps them to be effective leaders in the areas they have been appointed. These qualities, for instance, inspiration and expectations and rewards have been observed to have a positive impact on the results that the women produce in the financial sector. It is also significant to note that the presence of women in the financial sector has improved, and more women are holding significant positions of leadership in banks and financial institutions. The move should continue to be supported due to the growth and development of the financial industry that has been seen with the presence of women as leaders.