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Gendered Leadership

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Abstract

At this time in history, it is still noteworthy when a woman is appointed a leader, since they remain outnumbered by men in equivalent positions. To what extent does high impact leadership have to do with gender? Or race for that matter as in the case of Barack Obama, the President of the United States? In his case, it impedes him for championing the cause of blacks over whites. The Australian Prime Minister has made gender an issue and although received international acclaim in 2011 this has not been sustained. By Obama achieving the status of President means that he has bridged that chasm for marginal groups at least in principle. Can the same be said in the case of a woman president or prime minister? Who is included and excluded in top governance and management circles is a source of continuous speculation.

“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.”

Virginia Woolf 1882–1941

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In a search for scholarly articles on leadership in Business source premier returns, there were16,922 works between 1915 and 2012, which means about 0.4 % of works on leadership compared male and female leadership.

  2. 2.

    If that were so, board membership of women would have risen dramatically and quickly after the first women were appointed to the Boards. This has not been evident and will be discussed below.

  3. 3.

    Fierce and stubborn attitude.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vice Chancellor’s Unit, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Ann M. Brewer

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  1. Ann M. Brewer
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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Brewer, A.M. (2014). Gendered Leadership. In: Leadership, Coaching and Followership. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7463-6_5

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