Time to Reinforce Role Congruity for Women in Leadership

In most societies, women are underrepresented in leadership roles, while men are in charge of higher-level positions. Upon hearing the word “CEO,” it’s prevalent to think of a male rather than female occupying the position. However, that is not the case for Women for Women International (WfWI) who acknowledge and understand that there is a deep divide in authority and power between women and men. Thus, they have dedicated their mission and vision to empower women. Eagly and Carli studied role incongruity theory, which explains the limited number of women in top-level management is due to a perceived incongruity between the attributes of a strong leader and those assigned to the female gender. This incongruity between women and leadership results in the perception that women are less favorable than men as potential occupants of leadership roles. For example, leaders and men are seen as assertive, masterful, and competent, while women are seen as friendly, kind, and unselfish.

Eagly and Carli’s role incongruity theory is not the case at WfWI, which is led by competent, assertive leaders who are women. Some beliefs contribute to this incongruity between leadership and women that govern our perceptions of who should be a leader. However, WfWI is committed to empowering women by hiring them as CEOs, VPs, and Directors. They have taken this commitment outside of the office space by working with women in countries that are on the list of human rights violation and teaching them skills to build their confidence, know their rights, earn income and gain respect in their communities. In some of these countries, role incongruity theory is a major issue because women are penalized for showing leadership, dominance, or competence since their societies prefer them to be communal and submissive.

The WfWI team is aware of the incongruity of women in leadership roles because it is seen as a violation of stereotypical gender norms and is perceived negatively by most. Seeing those issues, WfWI was started by a woman who wanted to lead and empower other women. I believe most to all the people who work at this organization are aware of the challenges of being a woman in a leadership role, but they fight this view through their work. Their awareness has helped the employees to strive to do an excellent job at a “masculine task,” be competent and server to empower other women. The women that I have interacted with do a phenomenon job leading and completing their tasks; they are ambitious, committed, and excited about the work they do. They are respectful, listen to those in lower positions, and treat everyone like a colleague. I don’t think the theory falls short to explain the incongruity of leadership and being women in society, but this theory does need to be challenged by normalizing the concept of women to take leadership positions. New approaches need to be written to show that competent women and leadership is the norm or should be the norm, and women who want to be CEOs, presidents, or directors should not be excluded from participating in the society because of their gender. It’s about time to stop reinforcing the old schemas and concepts that contribute to the incongruity of leadership and women but bring new theories that will strengthen that there is role congruity of women in leadership.

 

One thought on “Time to Reinforce Role Congruity for Women in Leadership

  • ksoderlu

    So given the nature of the organization – it’s mission, purpose, and goals – they are really trying to combat the phenomenon that Carli and Eagly describe (role incongruity); so within WfWI that phenomenon does not exist. So the context for the organization is important in regards to its structure and the substantial role that women play. Seems that WfWI is a model for organization (for other organizations) in regards to breaking the stereotype (of role incongruity). Really interesting. Will look forward to learning whether there are ways WfWI works with other organizations/industries (perhaps those that are traditionally very male oriented) to do training, etc.?

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