Blog Post #30

Traditionally, men are expected to lead in an aggressive, ambitious, and commanding manner while women are expected to lead in a way that is nurturing and inclusive. These expectations reflect stereotypical gender roles. The man is supposed to be aggressive, in control, and the financial supporter. The stereotypical woman is supposed to be “be at home, pregnant, and barefoot in the kitchen,” as people used to say back in the day. Women are expected to take more of a domestic, motherly role. The stereotypical masculine personality traits and styles tend to go more naturally with managing people than the stereotypical feminine traits. Women are expected be very kind and supportive which tends to clash with attempting to exercise authority. People do not really perceive women as naturally having the characteristics of a leader.

Many people’s leadership style is a reflection of who they are leading. A personal example of this is that my manager at work is often very nurturing and inclusive but he also manages a staff full of women, and one man. An aggressive style may not go over to well with his staff. Likewise, people expect to be managed differently by a woman than by a man. The general assumption is that the woman will manage in a nice way, rather than an aggressive way that a man is likely to manage with. A woman who strays from this assumption is likely to be disliked and/or rejected. Many women assume that women in a leadership position will be more supportive of them because they are both women and they have a “sisterhood.” If the women does not act in this manner she is likely to be seen as cold and/r distant. Holly English’s book Gender on Trial reflects the way people respond to different types of leadership. A more feminine leadership style is likely to elicit more loyalty and better performance but people may perceive this leader as weak and take advantage of that. This leadership style is not likely to elicit as much respect as an aggressive or masculine style. However, women are often chastised if they attempt to use a more “masculine” model of leadership and act more aggressive, decisive, hierarchical, autonomous, and directive. Because of this, women feel much more pressure to lead in a “nice” way, meaning they feel they need to act collaboratively, egalitarian, supportive, caring, and down-play their authority. Some of the women the Holly English interviewed admitted to adjusting to the stereotypes and gender expectations. They felt that their natural personality was not okay, and that they had to “sculpt a work persona.” I think that they found this to be true because it is awfully hard to exercise their authority and command respect while still being nurturing. These women in positions of power walk a fine line between being too aggressive, and being too passive. Men definitely have far more room to stray from their stereotypical gender expectations. One woman said that her goal is to get the job done while still being perceived as a familiar woman. Many times, gender expectations of women force the woman to take on the identity of a mother. They end up trying to be nurturing, wholesome, enthusiastic, hard-working, unthreatening, warm, and feminine. When this role is taken on, the work place turns more into a family setting. This role includes caring about the career development of the employees, positive reinforcement, and presenting ideas in way that they are not just leaders but they are everyone’s. This means the manager will use words like “our” and “we” instead of “I” and “my.”
I would like to say that I am a bigger fan of the more feminine way of leading a staff. However, I do not have any experience with a more aggressive leader. All of the jobs I have held (which aren’t many) the staff was small and mostly women. Every office I have worked for has had more of a family bond where everyone is very close, and everyone’s input is desired. My guess is that I keep working in settings like that because I prefer to be led that way. Generally, I do not need an aggressive leader being domineering in order for me to get things done. I know I do not like this type of leadership from my days as a competitive gymnast. At one point, I did have a coach (who happened to be male) that was very aggressive. He yelled at me a lot. That did not prompt me to change what I was doing or work harder, instead it made me shut down. My other coach (a female) would give me constructive criticism and praised me when I did well and I ended up doing very well as a gymnast with her behind me. I definitely think that a nurturing leadership style evokes more loyalty, a positive attitude from employees, and better performance. However, I still do think there is a way to command respect while doing this too (my manger does it).