UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS AND CULTURE Rector Gunta Veismane

Gender and Leadership Introduction The Gender perspective Gender related not gender specific Characteristics Styles of men and women leadership Barriers to equal opportunities in leadership

Introduction The most significant transformation of the 20th century is the change in the position of women The aims of this tranformation, are not for the supremacy of women over men, but, for equity and equality in status, opportunities and power relations between the genders. The task is to respect differences, which are mainly the result of learning process and, therefore, subject to change Leadership is, like many other related concepts and processes, presumed to be GENDER NEUTRAL

The gender perspective must be at the center on a new ethical approach to leadership Gender is a conceptual and analytical category which explains the differences between women and men Psyhological, social, cultural differences not biological nor genetic in their origin;nor they imply a “natural inequality” The gender perspective

Warren Bennis:“Leaders must be competent,.there must also be congruity between they say and do” Rojas Castaneda says as one prepares oneself to exercise leadership, one prepares to give space to others. Eunice Njovana says that a leader is a person who has ability to provoke, and encourage fellow human beings the best they can according to their different abilities Peter Senge suggests that leaders are no longer ”men on horseback”, who shape up organizations though the force of their personalities Graciela Kremenchutzky:the leader is the one who has faith in others, the one who bets and takes risks with them... Leadership: gender related not gender specific

Feminine: excitable, gentle, emotional, submissive, sentimental, understanding,compasionate, sensitive, dependent Masculine: dominant, aggressive,tough,assertive, autocratic analitycal, competitive, independent, action oriented Neutral: adaptive, tactful, sincere, conscientious, conventional,reliable, predictable, systematic, efficient. Are we in agreement about which characteristics can be definetely assigned to either males or females? Characteristics

Judith Rosener`s researh revealed, that men usually describe themselves in ways that characterize “transactional leaders”. Rosener says that women tend to describe themselves in ways that characterize “transformational leaders.” New style of leadership – type of inclusive leadership vs authoritarian forms of leadership. Styles of men and women leadership

Structural barriers include legal, educational, cultural, social, and historical factors. Major psychological factors influencing EQUAL acceptance of women and men as leaders include cultural and societal attitudes toward woman, but also, the socialized perceptions of women and women`s own self-perceptions. Barriers to equal opportunities in leadership

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