Women’s vs. men’s leadership abilities

We’ve all heard the claims, the theories, and the speculation about the ways leadership styles vary between women and men. Our latest survey data puts some hard numbers into the mix.Research has been undertaken to examine whether or not there are sex differences in leadership. Until recently, leadership positions have predominantly been held by men and men were therefore stereotyped to be more effective leaders. Women were rarely seen in senior leadership positions leading to a lack of data on how they behave in such positions. However, due to current research and women becoming more prevalent in the workforce over the past two decades, especially in management and leadership positions, these stereotypes are changing and various conclusions about gender effects on leadership are being made.

• The data from the primary literature on this topic is inconclusive as the two main lines of research contradict one another, the first being that there are small, but nevertheless significant sex differences in leadership and the second being that gender does not have an effect on leadership. It is difficult to determine which line of research has more validity as there is no conclusive evidence that supports one more than the other. More research needs to be conducted as more women are entering into higher level leadership positions and as better research methodology becomes available.

• When studying perception and effectiveness of men and women in leadership, in multiple studies, found that men and women are perceived better by subordinates and are seen as more effective leaders when in positions in accordance to traditional gender roles. A meta-analysis conducted later yielded similar results in which men and women are both perceived as more effective leaders in stereotypical roles and both are found ineffective in non-traditional roles

• Alice Eagly, a frontrunner in the research on gender differences in leadership, found through multiple studies that differences between men and women are small and that the overlap is considerable

• Bibliography• www.wikipedia.org• www.google.ro