Reading “Why Women Lead” by Judy B. Rosener went hand-in-hand with the reading I recently completed for my Justice class: Make Love, Not War by David Allyn. While Make Love, Not War predominantly focuses on the sexual double standard, “Why Women Lead” ties in the double standards against women in the workplace. Rosener states, “men and women received different signals about what was expected of them…women have been expected to be wives, mothers, community volunteers, teachers, and nurses,” (157). The push of women into “pink-collar” jobs persists today and contributes to phenomena such as the wage gap, the wealth gap, and the feminization of poverty. Women were expected in the home to support their spouses (specifically, their husbands, due to the heteronormative view of the American family) and enter the “helping” fields such as the ones listed above.
While I thought that Rosener did a good job outlining the results found in the IWF Survey of Men and Women Leaders, I think the article itself had limitations that must be acknowledged when studying women’s leadership. While the author acknowledged that “linking interactive leadership directly to being female is a mistake,” she did not elaborate upon that conclusion. She also made points that oftentimes women were only given these leadership positions due to a company’s own turmoil or need for employees. Again, the author does not elaborate upon why this is problematic, and that women are only entering certain fields at the expense of a company’s organizational failure, rather than their own skills.
Additionally, I found the conclusion from the survey results that “both men and women leaders pay their female subordinates roughly $12,000 less than their male subordinates with similar positions and roles” was extremely problematic. Statistics such as this one show the impact that class has on one’s acquisition of power and wealth; women are very well pervading sexism against their poor counterparts just as men are. We must take into account all facets of one’s identity to recognize that while women have been discriminated against since the beginning, factors such as race and class come into play as well.
Anna Marston
I agree with you completely, The reading seemed to state gaps in the workplace between males and females without fully elaborating on the consequences of them. On the other hand, I did find that the other reading we had did do a good job of explaining the differences between male and female leadership and how the differences are so small, that sex should not play as big of a factor as it does in leadership today.
I agree with you! Another instance where Rosener did this was when saying “the women experience slightly more conflict than men” after exploring the effects of work-family conflict. She completely disregards pregnancy, which (in my opinion) there is not just a “slight conflict.”
I also found the results from the IWF survey interesting. Some of the information found in that survey was so different to what studies I have read in the past say that I almost struggled to believe parts of it. I also thought that the point about $12,000 showed that the idea of men as superior in the workplace is so engrained in us that women also discriminate against women.
I am really glad that you pointed out how problematic it is that “both men and women leaders pay their female subordinates roughly $12,000 less than their male subordinates with similar positions and roles.” The author quickly glanced over that statistic without exploring the fact that it perpetuates gender inequality, as well as the fact that even women are treating other women as less than men.
The expectations we have for different genders in the workplace are very powerful. They can even manifest themselves and effect the way we treat people of different genders, the way we pay them, and the way in which they themselves act. Sometimes, the self fulfilling prophecy can take place as men and women conform in the work place into their expected roles, but other times it can have the adverse effects and encourage them to be different
I like that you pointed out that both men and women pay female subordinates $12,000 less than men, and I agree that this is very problematic and should’ve been talked about more in the article. If women who are in leadership positions in the workplace are not willing to go against the norms and stand up for other women, then they will just perpetuate the discrimination.