By Mary Heideloff, VP, Marketing, Olympic Forest Products Company
Whether driven by nature or nurture, women and men have different leadership styles. Research repeatedly shows that female leaders demonstrate traits including collaboration, nurturing and empathy while male leaders tend to be more decisive, focused and better networkers. The challenge is what to do with these generalizations. Do we embrace them? Challenge them? Try to distill the best of both? Is this labeling reinforcing gender stereotypes we should be fighting to change?
According to studies, there is no biological difference in personality, cognitive and leadership ability between women and men. However social expectations do shape how women adapt in their career paths. Often when women exhibit perceived male leadership traits they are labeled bossy, bitchy and pushy. With males these attributes are often given a positive spin...strong, decisive and ambitious. Over time many women adapt to the negative feedback and adjust their behavior to be more in line with traditional female “acceptable” traits. This seems to support the notion that nurture is overriding nature.
The good news is that women’s leadership traits are well-suited for the increasingly diverse, inclusive and collaborative nature of the business climate of today. The bad news is that this may be translating slowly to increasing opportunities. While women represent 46.8% of the U.S. workforce, men surpass women in leadership roles across every sector – corporate, nonprofit, government, education, medicine, military and religion. A Catalyst report found that in S&P 500 companies, women hold only 21.2% of board seats, five percent of CEO positions and only 26.5% of executive roles. Additionally, the pay gap persists. In 2017, women earned 82% of what men earned in the same position, according to a Pew Research Study.
Like most widespread problems, gender inequality in the workplace can be a daunting prospect to address. But as leaders we need to address the challenges and opportunities and take steps to make a difference. Below are ten leadership skills to foster in ourselves and our associates, both female and male. After all, this is an issue that needs to be addressed by 100% of the workforce, not just the 46.8%.
We can all play a role in fostering gender equality. While the trends are improving slowly, increasing awareness education and action will help pick up the pace.