Women’s ways of leading: the environmental effect

Leanne M. Dzubinski · Amy B. Diehl

31 citations0/0 files storedGender in Management An International Journal

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Gender Diversity and Inequality Gender and Feminist Studies Gender Politics and Representation

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to present a model describing how women enact executive leadership, taking into account gendered organizational patterns that may constrain women to perform leadership in context-specific ways. Design/methodology/approach This paper discusses gendered organizations, role congruity theory and organizational culture and work context. These strands of theory are interwoven to construct a model describing ways in which executive-level women are constrained to self-monitor based on context. Findings The pressure on women to conform to an organization’s executive leadership culture is enormous. Executive women in strongly male-normed executive leadership contexts must exercise strong gendered self-constraint to break through the glass ceiling. Women in strongly male-normed contexts using lessened gendered self-constraint may encounter a glass cliff. Women in gender-diverse-normed contexts may still operate using strong gendered self-constraint due to internalized gender scripts. Only in gender-diverse-normed contexts with lessened gendered-self-restraint can executive women operate from their authentic selves. Practical implications Organizational leaders should examine their leadership culture to determine levels of pressure on women to act with gendered self-constraint and to work toward creating change. Women may use the model to make strategic choices regarding whether or how much to self-monitor based on their career aspirations and life goals. Originality/value Little has been written on male-normed and gender-diverse-normed contexts as a marker for how executive-level women perform leadership. This paper offers a model describing how different contexts constrain women to behave in specific, gendered ways.

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References

1993Organizational culture and leadership 1990HIERARCHIES, JOBS, BODIES:2002Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders.2015Leadership : Theory and Practice 2006Inequality Regimes 2019White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (1989) 1 2003Transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles: A meta-analysis comparing women and men.2002Identity Regulation as Organizational Control: Producing the Appropriate Individual

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