Women's Leadership

Last week, in honor of Women’s History Month, I looked at women in leadership roles and how we might encourage more women to take on such responsibilities. This week, I’d like to explore women’s leadership. Interestingly, unlike a few years ago, when scholars tended to draw a distinction between male and female leaders, today there seems to be more debate about whether men and women really do lead differently, and if so, why. This change reflects, I believe, the fact that more women hold leadership positions, providing us with more examples of women actually practicing leadership. Some scholars do continue to distinguish between male and female leadership and even to argue for the advantages of the female style. Others say that there may be differences, but those differences probably result not from genetics, but from any number of other circumstances, including how we are socialized. Some even suggest that continued gender-based expectations—even stereotypes—encourage women to exercise more feminine styles because they are more effective when they do.

Sally Helgesen, a pioneer in the field of women’s leadership, exemplifies a scholar who holds on to the distinctions between male and female leaders. Helgesen describes women’s characteristics in this way:

1) They place a high value on relationships and judge the success of their organizations based on the quality of relationships within them.
2) They prefer direct communication.
3) They are comfortable with diversity, having been outsiders themselves and knowing what kind of value fresh eyes could bring.
4) They are unwilling (and unable) to compartmentalize their lives and so draw upon personal experience to bring private sphere information and insights to their jobs.
5) They are skeptical of hierarchies and surprisingly disdainful of the perks and privileges that distinguish hierarchical leaders and establish their place in the pecking order.
6) They preferred leading from the center rather than the top and structure their organizations to reflect this.
7) They ask big-picture questions about the work they do and its value.[i]

Not only does she characterize women in these ways, but she argues that this style of leadership serves us well in today’s society and economy. Specifically, she cites three transformational trends that favor women’s leadership as she defines it:

·         The proliferation of diverse values

·         The demand for ever-more finely calibrated customization

·         The challenge of creating new structures of support

In the case of the first trend, the movements of peoples around the world—both within and between countries—continues apace, creating diverse communities in places heretofore quite homogenous. For example, immigrants used to settle primarily in cities, whereas now they spread out across the country, in rural areas and suburbs, dramatically changing the nature of those communities. They bring with them different customs, religions, and values. Moreover, in an economy where people change jobs more frequently and work is more often done in teams, people are more likely to work in much more diverse environments. Helgesen also points out that women themselves, as their participation in the workforce has increased significantly, have added to the diversity of the work experience. So, leaders of today’s organizations are characterized by a “diversity of values” and need to “harness diverse yet passionately asserted values,” a feat requiring “sensitivity, openness, and cultural flexibility.” Helgesen argues that women—who are “comfortable with diversity,” recognize the “value fresh eyes can bring,” and prioritize relationships and collaboration—are especially well-suited to lead under these circumstances.

Technology is driving the trend of ever-increasing demands for customization. Leaving behind the age of industrialization, when mass production produced large quantities of similar or identical items, we now live in a period when computer-aided design and manufacturing allows for singular or specialized items to be made cheaply (think about the Nike sneakers you can design for yourself). In addition, the availability of huge data troves permits increasingly targeted marketed. Finally, as consumers, we can benefit from the unfiltered views of other consumers; we judge companies and services in part on the basis of feedback from others like ourselves—think of the product reviews on virtually any website today or online forums where customers share experiences and advice. We enjoy a much more direct role in the design of products than we have since before industrialization. In the process, the line between the producer and the consumer has blurred. The altered relationship between producer and consumer also calls for a different approach on the part of companies. They now have to be much more responsive and connected to their customers. As Helgesen says, all organizations need “to operate as webs rather than hierarchies. In turn, web-like structures demand leaders who are skilled at inspiring people rather than directing them, and at securing buy-in rather than making top-down decisions”—leaders who are “more inclusive and intuitive.” These characteristics equate to the Helgesen’s definitions of successful female leaders.

As we all know, technology has significantly changed all of our lives. Devices that allow us to be connected 24/7 have meant that work invades home-life to a degree unknown during the industrial age. Industrialization divorced work from home-life, creating a domestic sphere that became the purview of women. Workplaces were generally divided by gender and age, while regimentation brought with it very hierarchical structures. By contrast, today, as we use methods and technologies from work in our home-lives, home looks and feels more like work. Men and women, contrary to any other period in history, use the same tools for work; likewise, children use those same tools for play and learning. The rapid pace of technological change means that we all need to be learning all the time, and often the children are teaching us. Plus, the speed and pervasiveness of technology have heightened expectations of what we can accomplish, as well as when and how quickly. Not only have mobile devices and the internet challenged distinctions between home and work, but women’s increasing presence in the workforce has made it “impossible to segregate domestic concerns from those of work.” Helgesen believes that these changes have undermined a healthy separation between work and home and she believes that women are uniquely positioned to address this problem—the challenge of support, as she calls it. Technology has amplified work-life balance issues that women had already identified, as more and more of them took on jobs outside the home. Having already wrestled with these issues, they are the natural leaders we need as we continue to press to find balance, even as men also increasingly make balance an important issue.

Because women have played such a critical role in each of these trends, they have an historic opportunity to affect the future. This opportunity places a premium on ensuring that girls understand the chance they, in turn, will have. As Helgeson explains, “As women continue to assume an ever more visible role in every sector of the public arena, this reciprocal influence will grow stronger. This, in turn, will provide girls with an unprecedented opportunity to play an active role in shaping the global environment in the years ahead.” Helgeson encourages us to make sure that girls fully understand the trends, as well as the characteristics, that serve leaders particularly well in this new context.[ii]

Whether these characteristics are peculiarly feminine or not is irrelevant, I would say, but we owe it to our girls to help them recognize their power potential and to ensure that they know how they are likely to be most effective in exercising that power. In this way, we realize our commitment not just to inspire them to lead lives of positive influence, but to prepare them to do so.

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[i] Sally Helgesen, “7 Characteristics of Women Leaders,” “Human Resources IQ,” 1/14/2011.

[ii] The remainder of this piece comes from: Sally Helgesen, “Shaping Our Common Future: Preparing Girls for Leadership in a Changing Environment,” Seminar Series 192, Centre for Strategic Education (February 2010).