Microsoft Word doctoral thesis final[1]. doc

2.3.2   Women and management 
 
The study of women and leadership/management is a recent phenomenon, chiefly 
because historically, leadership has been concerned with the study of political leadership, 
of “great men” who defined power, authority, and knowledge (Klenke 1996). Leadership 
as Sandler (1993:193) puts it, “has been generally associated with men and with male 
styles of behaviour, and because women have not been in leadership positions in great 
numbers, the mental image of a leader held by most people is male”. Klenke (1996: 15) 

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notes that “most leadership research prior to the 1980’s was carried out by men and dealt 
almost exclusively with male leaders…because women have been largely absent in the 
study of leadership, much of our knowledge of leadership has been derived from the 
description and analysis of male leaders reported by male researchers…leadership has 
been synonymous with masculinity”. 
 
 The concept of leadership is strongly embedded in gender stereotypes, and as 
Middlehurst observes: 
 
the language of leadership has masculine connotations, images of leaders are often 
male heroes… and popular contexts for leadership encompass traditionally masculine 
scenarios…common perceptions of appropriate leadership behaviours also carry 
stereotypically masculine overtones: of command and control, of autocracy and 
dominance, or personal power or charisma, decisiveness, initiative and 
courage…because management and leadership have for long been predominantly male 
enclaves, the picture of the ideal manager is grounded in masculine attributes 
(Middlehurst  1997:12-13). 
 
Consequently the ‘male script’ of leadership is still firmly entrenched in organisations. 
Universities are the main ‘culprits’ of male hegemony, and despite the recognition of 
women’s leadership potential as “future leaders in the twenty-first century and as the 
future in academic leaders” (Gale 1994 cited by Kessissoglou 1995:8), their gender is, 
according to Klenke (1996), a barrier in the evaluation of female leaders and “acts as a 
filter for assessing women’s leadership skills and effectiveness” (p17). 
 
It was not until women in leadership began to form a critical mass that the issue of gender 
and leadership was given attention. As women gained visibility, so did the recognition of 
their potential as leaders. However, despite this, their leadership progress is very slow 
particularly in higher education. Johnson (1993:10) reporting on the status of women’s 
leadership in higher education, writes that “women administrators continue to be 
clustered in middle management positions and areas outside of academic deanships and 
other more central administrative positions”. 

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As indicated, women are perceived as the potential academic leadership of the twenty-
first century. The Karpin Report, the Working Party on Management Education (1995), 
suggested that “more women and those of non-Anglo background are likely to be 
managers in the twenty-first century” (Blackmore 2002:50). Leadership in this century 
demands different skills, the type most commonly associated with women, which 
comprise abilities to: 
 
▪  
empower others and fill them with enthusiasm 
▪  
build informal networks and coalitions  
▪  
be flexible and responsive to customer and client needs 
▪  
nurture and develop individuals 
▪  
be willing to share information and operate in an open and transparent manner 
▪  
articulate core values and so develop culture through the creation of shared 
 
meaning (Middlehurst 1997).  
  
It is widely recognised that women have alternative ways of problem-solving and dealing 
with conflict. Bennett (1997) is concerned about the extent to which orthodox leadership 
theory is applicable to the needs of women managers and points out that in the past, 
leadership studies have focused almost entirely on the behaviour of male managers. 
Studies on the leadership styles of women suggest that women tend to adopt more 
democratic and participative management styles than males. They share power and 
information and support and encourage subordinates. Women managers are said to be 
persuasive, influential and charismatic and make extensive use of interpersonal skills. 
Moreover, as Bennett (1997:189) has observed:  
 
women managers adopting feminine management styles are better suited to 
contemporary business conditions than males since modern management 
techniques are invariably based on teamwork, flexibility, trust and the free 
exchange of information. 
 

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After observing how six women school administrators were using power, managing staff 
and transforming some of the externally generated reforms for the benefit of the school, 
Hall (2002) concluded that their behaviour demonstrated a model of educational 
entrepreneurialism that eschews conventional managerialism in order to preserve the 
integrity of the educational enterprise and its ultimate goal that of young people’s 
learning and development (p20). Hall’s findings showed that for women being manager 
and leader “is not about compromised values and domination of others” (p21). Many 
women educational/academic leaders working in masculine environments have 
developed a repertoire of management and leadership behaviour that works toward the 
ethical as well as for the social benefit of education (p26). 
 
The context in which universities operate today is being rapidly transformed by changes 
in technology, increasing international competition and globalisation of the economy 
(Ramsay 2000). These technological changes have brought with them a demand for new 
skills and fresh ways of working which require innovative abilities from the new leaders 
and managers. Ramsay notes, for instance, that communication technology, “demands 
communication skills of a particular and new kind, and also ‘protean’ managers flexible 
and adaptable enough to thrive in constantly changing environments” (p2). Many of these 
changes in approach, attitudes and ways of working (Middlehurst 1997) are more likely 
to be applicable to women managers than to male managers. Ramsay reports that CEOs’ 
responses in the Korn Ferry research project identified women managers as empathetic, 
supportive, relationship-building, power-sharing as well as information sharing; whereas 
male managers were characterised as risk-taking, self-confident, competitive, decisive 
and direct. Qualities such as sharing power and information are required by managers of 
the future – and women apparently possess them. Ramsay also points out that Malaysian 
studies on the leadership attributes of men and women in universities have found that 
women are more “consultative and conciliatory, avoid conflict, and are more likely to be 
task oriented than their male colleagues”. She adds that women in leadership in 
universities are often described as “co-operative, team-oriented, collaborative, fair and 
contextual,” whereas men are described as “competitive, hierarchical, winning, rational, 
cold and principled” (p2).  Furthermore the guiding principles of women leaders of 
further education colleges in the UK are listed as: 

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▪ 
valuing and motivating 
▪  
team working and decision-making 
▪ 
listening  
▪  
students coming first 
▪  
accountability 
▪  
honesty and integrity 
▪  
equality of opportunity and empowerment 
▪  
commitment to community 
▪  
commitment to staff 
▪  
being a reflective manager and  
▪  
staff development  
(Stott & Lawson 1997 cited in Hall 2002:24).  
 
The distinction between women’s and men’s ways of leading is the subject of the next 
section. What is known about female leadership style and is it distinct from men’s 
leadership style?