WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP - Thesis Example

This paper focused on women in leadership and how women face resistance regardless of how they prove that they are equal to men and regardless of what position they hold within the organization or political presence. This paper also recognized women that have struggled to achieve their leadership status and the qualitative leadership behaviors that have led to their success. It has been proven that women in business still continue to raise controversy in organizations when men are referred to as the backbone an organization.

It has been said that men are compensated 10 to 25% more than women in the same position. Research has proven that although women are “created as equal,” they still struggle to be considered for positions that a man has previously held despite their education, proven accomplishments, and abilities to make change within the organization (Ross, 2011). The importance and benefits of having women in powerful positions outweigh the negatives. For example, their ability to communicate, be more productive, focused, and have more of an inter relationship with their subordinates (Ross, 2011).

A woman in leadership is important because it is believed that men can provide both tangible and intangible benefits to an organization. On the contrary, women are just as capable of offering the same benefits as men (Lincoln and Guba, 2000). “In order to be an effective leader, you must possess the qualities of having a vision, courage, and interpersonal communication skills” (Lincoln and Guba, 2000). According to (Lips, 2009), power operates as a social structure, made up of numerous practices that maintain a cultural system of dominance.

The practices that maintain a power system include patterns of discourse, shared understandings about and participation in a set of values, expectations, norms and