Women can be a better leader than men.

Introduction
According to Alice H. Eagly(1990 P.1),Women increasingly enter leadership roles
that traditionally have been occupied mainly by men, the possibility that the
leadership styles of women and men differ continues to attract attention. Without
doubt, the status of women boosts significantly this century. Davis (2008, P.2) states
that intelligence and contribution to organization are indispensable. But why we
seldom observe that women perform the top position in a company. This shows that
there are some people still question whether women are suitable for be a leader in a
company. In recent year, general public always debate and concern whether gender of
leaders affects the performance of business.
This paper is going to prove that women can be better a leader than men .In the past,
people think that only man can be a leader .As time passes, we can observe that many
and many Chief Executive Officer or managers are women nowadays. According to
studies (Francis and Case, 2006, p. ii),a firm which has a greater percentage of women
in senior management can perform better. We can know that the position of women in
business becomes increasingly important. Women do have the ability to be a leader.

The reason why I want to write about this topic Women also can be a better leader
than men is that I think gender is not the most important element to determine our
ability. It is important for us to know that our gender can not affect our status, position
and career path. No matter we are male or women, we do get a chance to be a leader.
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Thus, the main objective is that discuss how men can be a better leader than men. To
be a leader, women should not underestimate themselves. In contrast, they should
stretch their full leadership potential and strive for their best in our career path. I will
use different theories,models and real life example to explore this topic more deeply.
Firstly, I would introduce the role of leadership in a company , then I will examine
why people think women cant be a leader. In addition, I will use some theory to
prove that women also can be a better than men. Finally, I would like to give some
suggestions to company based on my discussion.
What is leadership?
According to Yukl( 2002),leadership roles means the individual who shoulder the
responsibility for deciding decision, strategies, allocating works ,stimulating workers,
sustaining the cooperation and stretching the potential of subordinates. Leadership
development is a crucial issue in business and millions of dollars are spent to develop
a successful leader within a company and this is the key for a business to success.
Nicole Z. Stelter-Flett also said this in a journalGender difference in leadership
(2002 :8)Thus, it is important for a business to know about female can also be a
successful leader.
Why people think that women cant be a leader?
Davison and Burke( 2000)said that numerous research show most people prefer male
to perform leader than women as leader is one of the gender-typed job.
Cultural gender expectations
Cultural gender expectations is the first reason why people think women cannot be a
better leader than men. Oakley(2000,P. 321-334 )suggests that in many cultures,
people usually expect the style of leadership and behaviors should be masculine. This
expectation creates a bias that the ability of women leaders is judged. This culture

gender expectation then also causes the organization cultural expectations. Because of
this expectation, People think that women are more fragile and feeble than men. As
being a leader need to tackle numerous obstacles and challenge; they tend to believe
that women are not strong enough to manage the whole company and withstand the
pressure. Rosenthal(2000,P.21) maintains that masculine and feminine cause the
implicit understanding and expectation to their social and organizational context. Say
for example, by the first impression, ,people will think that a tall , muscular man who
with a board shoulder are more suitable to be leader compared with a tender and
feminine women without looking at their working ability. Lets takes a real life
example ,the presidents of students union in university usually are men , the reason
behind is the organization cultural expectations that people want to choose the one
who looks stronger and tough and it can give a greater confidence to them.
Glass ceiling theory
According to Boatwright & Forrest (2000 P.18), social belief systems regarding
women destroy womens confidence when they attempt to be a leader. Traditionally,
people think that leader is masculine-oriented, this will prevent the behavior and
attempt of women for being a leader. When women try to be a leader, they socially
idea of being leader (more masculine) will stop women thinking that they can also be
a leader.
Family Roles and expectation
According to Zunker(2002), women's career development highly depended on family
roles and expectations. Women not only need to concern their career path but also
need to bear the great responsibility in family role. It is belief of many people from
the past century to now. The family obligation of women are taking care of children,
cleaning up the houses, and cooking meals. Janine Bosak & Sabine Sczesny(2011P.2-

5) reveal that mens occupation should be a breadwinner while womens occupation

should be a homemaker. Thats why numerous people generally believe that men
should be gain a higher status, higher competitiveness and higher ability to be a
leader. In Hong Kong, many female celebrities tend to be a housewife and stay at
home after their marriage. Say for example, Carol Chu , the wife of Andy Lau, stop
working in entertainment industry after marriage.
Although, cultural gender expectations, family role and expectation creates bias in
choosing leader. Now, I would like to use some theories and models to prove that
female can also be a better leader than men.
Why female can also be a better leader than men
Self-in-relation theory
According to Bartol, K. M. (1976 P. 368-370), Self-in-relation theory states that
female workers emphasize more on the relationships with colleagues and
interpersonal relationship than male workers whereas males value more on selfgovernment. This theory supports that female leader can have a greater interaction
with their subordinators .This becomes an advantage to women leaders compared with
male leaders.
Model to support that greater interaction with workers is better:
Global Leadership Model:
Adler (1997 P.171 ) said that global leadership means a group of
people work together towards a same goal and mission. Global
leadership model means there is a interdependent, energetic
relationship within leaders and workers. It can make contribution to
the future of the company in order to make it better.
From Global Leadership Model, a better leader should have better interaction with

workers so as to build up their relationship. This is the feature that we can observe in
women leaders as stated in Self-in-relation theory. Greater interaction in a company is
so indispensable so that the atmosphere of the company can become more harmonious
which is a nice working environment. Men leaders may just focus on the interest of
the company rather than really caring about their workers. Through more
communication with co-workers, they can understand more about their views to
company and realize their need. The workers can feel that the leaders also pay
attention to the feeling of workers. Thus, workers can have a greater sense of
belongings to the company and pay more effort to their work. Thus, women can also
be a better leader than men.
Evidence showing female leaders have a better interaction with subordinators:
Difference of female leaders and male leaders in decision-making
With regard to the difference of females and males leaders in decision making , it is
an evidence to show that women emphasize on interaction with subordinators.
According to Vroom and Yetton(1973) , male and female leaders perform very
differently in making decision. For males, they are more autocratic while women tend
to encourage subordinates to participate in decision-making. Women are regards as a
participative who pursue the consensus of all workers through discussing with them
.Women will collect views from workers and analysis with them. On the other hand ,
autocratic leaders means they always make decision on their own and less unlikely to
ask for subordinates opinion. Eagly and Johnson (1990) suggests that female
managers tend to encourage more participation among the workers while male
managers behave more autocratically. From the difference in making decision , it
shows that women focus on the channels of communication with workers.
Transformational Leadership Theory

Apart from Self-in-relation theory, we can also use Transformational Leadership

Theory to explain why women can be a better leader than men.Burns (1978) suggests
that a transformational leader should be the who can (1)influence their subordinates
by being a role model(2)inspire subordinates continuously(3)stimulate their creativity
and innovative(4)show some individualized consideration to the workers through
mentoring and understanding their needs. These are four prime factors for being
successful leaders. According to Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D(2010) also said that women
are more transformational than men since they concern more about their followers,
tend to listen more to them and stimulate their thinking.Hackman (1992,P.311319)states

that

female

perform

better

in

individualized

consideration

in

treansformational leadership theory especially when compared with men, they

emphasize more on the need of workers and keep an eye on workers. With regard to
transformational leader, women can perform better than men in the aspect of
individualized consideration.Women show more individualized consideration to
workers which is a very important elements for being a leader. To be a
transformational leaders, through mentoring followers, the leaders can encourage
workers to stretch their potential fully .It is essential for a leader to find the potential
of their workers therefore they can have a greater contribution to the company and
increase their working ability. Also, transformational leaders build up a better
relationship with their subordinates. As a result, subordinates can express their views
to women leaders in an easy way. By knowing the feeling of workers, they can know
how to implement policies in order to provide a better working environment for them.
Thus, women leaders can manage the workers in an efficient way.
Conclusion:
To concluded, women can definitely be a better leader than men. Women leaders tend
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to promote interpersonal relationship and more transformational than men. These two
may be great dominate factors for managing a company in some cases. It is also
important for women to know that they also have talents to be a leader and even can
do better than men. Women should not and do not limit our potential. Patricia H.
Werhane(2007,P.3) shows that1995 no women managers in the most popular
global companies, in 2006 eight women guide these companies. Women leaders
become a global trend gradually .Thus, people should believe that Women can be a
better leader women than men.
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Website :
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Retrieved from
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