What do you think? Do women make better leaders than men?
There are studies that suggest women do make better leaders than men. (Let’s leave aside for now the question of what leadership criteria are they using?) The pandemic sparked off some research when it seemed that women were handling the crisis better than men. Studies comparing men and women in leadership roles all suffer from a size issue – there just aren’t that many women leaders out there to sample.
However, those that do exist show that women seemed to be getting better results. For example, more people survived Covid in the US in states run by women than in those run by men. I’d call that a pretty good result. The consensus seems to be that because women didn’t take so many risks, more people survived.
Women Take Fewer Risks?
This brings us back to the old trope of women taking fewer risks. Compared to what? Compared to men. Maybe men take too many risks? There is some research to show that men who want to be leaders take more risks than men who don’t and that is higher than women who are leaders.
I’d argue that any women who has braved the rigours of the male dominated world of work to get to a leadership role is pretty good at risk taking. I think women manage risk taking their entire lives, just think about walking home in the dark. Every woman I know is hyper vigilant and assessing risk every step of the way. It’s so ingrained us that most of don’t even realise that we’re doing it and some of us don’t want to own that thought. I know I resist it.
Persuasive Women Make Better Leaders Than Men?
Other studies have found that women leaders are more persuasive, assertive and willing to take more risks than male leaders and have a stronger need to get things done.
Women leaders also were found to be more empathic and flexible, as well as stronger in interpersonal skills than their male counterparts. (Check out Why Can’t Women Speak Their Mind in the Boardroom for an interesting perspective on women at work from the late Dr Judith Baxter.)
Qualities of a Good Leader
A US organisation called Talogy (previously Caliper) found that successful women tend to have the same qualities that successful male leaders do; namely assertiveness, action-mindedness, and problem-solving skills. This is interesting, this idea that there are universal non gender specific ideals of good leadership.
Of course, these are not original qualities and have been the standards set by men. I suspect that for women to succeed they will have had to adopt these male qualities to get on, maybe suppressing some of their more ‘female’ traits…
Speak Up
I have written a course called Speak Up (this links takes you to a shortened downloadable version but I also deliver this as a one day seminar) which looks at some of the research on differences/biases between men and women. In every sphere of life women are discriminated against, from design of cars, to medical research to standards of behaviour. It would be naive to think that that bias does not extend to ideals of leadership.
That bias applies to all of us, men a women. Women have been as much socialised as men into the second class nature of being female. (See No More Boys and Girls for an example of how this is till happening in our schools.)
If we were able to eliminate that bias, if we lived in a truly gender equal world from birth to adulthood, I wonder just what we’d see from women…?
RenewYou, My Tried and Tested Career Booster!
RenewYou has helped thousands of women make positive and lasting change in their lives. I deliver it one-to-one as part of a bespoke coaching package for women looking to move into leadership, to progress their career, or who wish to be the absolute best version of themselves.
Posted on June 13th, 2022 by Jane
