The notions contained in the current article confirm previous studies, which have often indicated that women can provide better leadership than men. A close analysis of leadership trends shows that a number of women have risen to different leadership positions. Precisely, a number of women are in leadership realms across different settings including the academia, political and corporate settings. While it is true that women have risen to leadership positions across various settings, there is a need to comprehend with the fact that men still dominate a significant proportion of leadership positions. Deductively, leadership should not be regarded as a masculine realm. Instead, there should be gender mix in the allocation of leadership roles. This would guarantee improvement of performance by various institutions. In line with gender mix in leadership McGregor asserts “new report from Credit Suisse offers more evidence that a better gender mix among senior managers is linked with better results.”
The current article further lays emphasis on the fact that women accorded leadership that are closely aligned with operational roles exhibit excellence, which can guarantee outperformance of a given company. This gives evidence that women are more suited for management positions in operations department. McGregor (“More Women at the Top, High Returns”) notes that female managers focus more on diversifying tasks given to them. This is contrary to men in management positions who focus more on making acquisitions. Diversification as focused on by female manager’s results in increased returns than acquisitions that is focused on by male leaders. Notably, according women executive roles guarantees increased performance than cases where women occupy insignificant positions such as being board members. This is attributed to the fact that women occupying executive positions exert more influence on the outcome of the corporation’s results. Certainly, this guarantee attainment of the desired outcomes.
Despite the existence of empirical evidence, which indicate that women can offer more effective leadership than men, the society is yet to appreciate the leadership traits posed by women. There are various reasons for the reluctance to accept women in leadership realms. More importantly, there exists a persistent myth that women roles are confined to lower or private societal realms. Leadership is often perceived as a public realm, which can only be occupied by men. This myth has and continues to prejudice women efforts to attain different leadership positions. Precisely, this myth makes it difficult for the populations to approve women as leaders. Certainly, such myths lack are untrue and lack a substantive premise. For this reason, there is a need for societal awareness on the fact that women too can make good leaders as men.
In addition, the beliefs that people have on the roles enshrined for women has and continues to curtail and derail women occupation of leadership positions. In most cases, women are perceived only to possess the capability to perform minor roles. As a result, leadership is often perceived to comprise of complex roles, which cannot be accomplished by women. Such notions hinders the confidence that people have on women leaders. This is perhaps the primary reason as to why women in management positions are seldom accorded highly valued leadership positions. A review of McGregor article confirms that existing notions regarding women and leadership are unfounded. In fact, the current article confirms that women can perform better than men if given an equal platform.
On another note, social and cultural barriers have and remain as great impediments to women involvement in leadership. A close analysis of the society shows that there is persistent gender stereotyping. This is evident by the assumptions that people have in the society that masculine traits are associated with leadership. As a result, females are only taken as followers who should be led by the masculine gender. Cultural and social barriers curtail women involvement in leadership in that women since childhood years are raised up with the notion that leadership is a male domain, which they should not venture into. This reduces the confidence that women in leadership positions have. Many at times, leadership traits possessed by women are seldom explored. Conclusively, there is a need to create awareness amongst the populations that women are equal to men and can lead even more effectively than men.
In a nutshell, according women masculine roles offers a comprehensive platform that can guarantee their triumph as leaders. From McGregor article, it can be deduced that leadership roles aligned with operation roles are more suitable for women (McGregor, 2014). In conclusion, male leadership should not be repealed nor dealt away with. Instead, there is a need for an assessment aimed at distinguishing leadership roles that are suitable for each gender. This would offer a comprehensive platform that guarantees success of male and female leaders in an equal magnitude. Overall, McGregor offers critical perspectives and insights on the topic of gender and leadership. Conclusively, leadership does not occur spontaneously not in isolation. Instead, leadership accrues from the possession of certain traits, which are not limited to particular genders. As an example, emotional intelligence is a crucial leadership trait. Males and females can possess this trait. This justifies the fact that leadership capabilities are enshrined in both genders. For this purpose notions that leadership is a masculine domain are not justified.
Reference
McGregor, J. (2014). More Women at the Top, High Returns. The Washington Post. Retrieved From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2014/09/24/more- women-at-the-top-higher-returns/
