Leadership
This week we call into question a number of seminal works on leadership that celebrate the Great-
Women Theory. Selections from various works cited within the article may be helpful reading for
students in better understanding the landscape of literature of recent decades that perpetuate the
gender stereotypes that the authors of this chapter seek to minimize. Familiarity with such works as
Helgesen’s The Female Advantage: Women’s Ways of Leadership and Wach’s Why the Best Man for
the Job is a Woman: The Unique Female Qualities of Leadership would be central to the understanding
of the assumptions that prevail in the field of leadership relating to gender. Other works to consider
citing: Coughlin, Wingard and Hollihan: Enlightened Power: How Women are Transforming the Practice
of Leadership; Rosabeth M. Kanter: Men and Women of the Corporation.
Questions
1. How is the Great Women Theory of leadership different from the earlier Great Man Theory?
Why is this distinction important?

2. The authors assert that they do not subscribe to either of the two approaches that prevail in
the analysis of sex differences in organizational leadership (“gender-stereotypical” versus
“no-difference”). How do the authors position this dichotomy?

3. Explain how gendered descriptive stereotypes have an impact on prescriptive expectations
of women in a way that does not apply to men.

4. Explain what the authors mean by the socialization of a certain kind of leadership. What role
do social learning theories play?

5. How does the polarization of the masculine versus feminine style of leadership threaten
notions of equality?
Chapter 4
Carli and Eagly show in this chapter how impediments to women’s leadership still exist and how women
who do succeed face particular challenges along their path to leadership than do men. The authors
describe stereotypes about women, men and leaders, noting the similarities between the traits people
generally attribute to men and those generally attributed to leaders, concluding that men do not face the concern of legitimacy that women do when tailoring their leadership styles. The authors describe a double bind that women face based on these stereotypes.
Questions
1. Why do men not need to worry as much as women about legitimacy when developing their
own leadership style?

2. Describe the double bind that women face when attempting to exert influence, authority and
leadership. What are the two components, according to the authors? What two unique
demands does this double bind place on women leaders?

3. What is the difference between transformational leadership and transactional leadership?
What accounts for the success of one form over another? What do the authors infer that this
means for women’s leadership?

4. If women manifest leadership styles that relate positively to effectiveness in contemporary
organizations, why aren’t there more women leaders?
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