30 November 2007

Leader Gender Bias

Reading this synopsis by Robin Hanson at Overcoming Bias (of more synopses at NYT and Slate), I wonder if the quality of 'being a woman' is antithetical in many people's minds to the quality of 'being a leader.' I.e., each culture determines leadership qualities based on qualities they think women lack, and conversely, each culture determines leadership qualities based on characteristics they perceive men as having, so that in the aggregate, man = leader and woman = not leader, ipso facto:

 

"In 2006, Catalyst looked at stereotypes across cultures ... and found that while the view of an ideal leader varied from place to place -- in some regions the ideal leader was a team builder, in others the most valued skill was problem-solving. But whatever was most valued, women were seen as lacking it.  Respondents in the United States and England, for instance, listed 'inspiring others' as a most important leadership quality, and then rated women as less adept at this than men. In Nordic countries, women were seen as perfectly inspirational, but it was 'delegating' that was of higher value there, and women were not seen as good delegators."

 

 

Comments

Did you happen to see this... :-)
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/man_finally_put_in_charge_of

"All the feminist movement needed to do was bring on someone who had the balls to do something about this glass ceiling business,"

Posted by: Mike McDermott | 08 December 2007

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