Leadership is the talent to use command with public in a component of voluntary involvement. A good leader should be able to interact with the people on their level rather than using authority. Communication should demonstrate both social and emotional understating combined with the task of the leader. The chapter Women in Leadership Roles talks about how women have come to being in these powerful positions today but even today there is a glass ceiling that is unbreakable. It describes how men who are in successful positions have a family where as successful women have to sacrifice when it comes to family just to maintain their career.
The author has explicitly explained that even today women earn 77 cent to a dollar that every man earns. There is a difference in the earing of women as to men compared the same jobs in the same positions. The question arises how women leaders are different, also are they better or worse. The true fact is that they are surely different. Women are said to be more compassionate, more soft hearted and thus are not ideal for a tough environment. But women joining the combat have proven that women can toughen up and take the same role as men and be just as aggressive as men.
All around the world we have had very successful women leaders. The book talks about Condoleezza Rice who was the 66th United States Secretory of the State, and today we have Hillary Clinton the 67th United States Secretory of the State. India had its 1st women Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to serve 4 terms out of which three terms were consecutive. Khalid Ahmed said, “She was a true feminist to the core, a woman of substance who helped the country through a testing phase, possessed all the virtues of a woman and fought valiantly for women’s rights in a man’s world”(unknown, BBC).
Indira Gandhi was a remarkable woman who possessed charismatic leadership skills. She was tough when needed to be and diplomatic when the situation called for. She ruled the country when women leadership was unheard of. When a country like India can have a woman leader at the time when America women were struggling for their rights, today women in America should be give more opportunity and fortuitous. Another big reason for woman to have a stunt growth is explained with the reason that mostly women have to raise a family, whether they are single parents or in a relationship.
The burden of the household responsibility falls on their shoulders. They have to stay away from work for a longer duration of time due to maternity leave or family reasons. Thus the male colleague that they are used to working in the meanwhile gets the opportunity of promotion thus dropping the chances of women. A leader is inferred as someone who sets course in an effort and inspires individuals to follow that direction. Every leader has a different way of influencing people, and a variety of factors influences it.
Women have very different styles as compared to men. Some people criticize it by saying that women are too softhearted and thus can’t take firm decisions, “It’s a man’s world”. But on the other hand we have people encourage our new age women to come out dense and bring about a new age leadership that the world would befall upon. Writer Laura Fitzpatrick explains the income imbalance between men and women. According to her evaluation she believes that women tend to stick to fields that are not as high paid as men.
She believes that women are discouraged from taking up the high paying jobs and thus are deprived of some of the opportunities that are offered to men. She believes that discrimination has however gone down tremendously; it has not yet been completely eradicated. Most of the Fortune 500 companies have male CEO’s but companies created by women have set up such a positive example for the new generation; companies like Martha Stewart, Mark Kay. These remarkable women have set an example of legacy.
They have built their lives and their careers setting an example and proving it that there is a way to penetrate the glass ceiling. We have women celebrities who are promoting and performing charity work all around the work. Their hard work should not be unnoticed. These women are prominent figures in their field of work but at the same time their charitable work is gotten them world renounced positive reaction. One of such celebrities is Angelina Jolie. She had promoted her charity work and led women organizations in counties where women have no one to help them or hear their problems.
Another such woman was Mother Teresa. She was a great woman and her leadership did not earn her CEO positions but awards for her charity. Today awards have been named after her. Leadership should not only be defied in the corporate world but in all aspects of life. When we have such great women leaders it is hard to believe that women would be any less than men in the powerful corporate world. We need to install more trust in them and offer them the opportunity that they have been deprived of. Deborah L. Larsen had talked about the history of
Patriarchy and explained the origin of the male dominated society. Women’s rights and movements have given the women the opportunity that they have today. The right to vote, the right to own property even the right to own a credit card was a huge struggle for women in the previous decades. One must not forget today; that the freedom that we have was not so easily achieved. There was disparity in the education system; even today we still experience the glass ceiling. But one must not give up hope; just as we have overcome the previous discrepancy similarly there is strong hope for the upcoming future.
