This post is by Dr. Laila Elghalban, Professor of English Language and Literature and Head of the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Kafr Elsheikh University
Women's leadership under friendly fire
"Life is more chaotic under women leaders," " Damn are the people ruled by a woman," " Women cannot lead well because they are not mentally enough." These are some of the reasons a sample of female Egyptian university students cited when asked to write on anonymity about the topic" How do you see women as leaders?" Dr Laila Alghalban of Kafrelsheikh University considers the implications of these responses within their cultural context.
In a class of 200 students, almost all of them female, with literally an isolated bunch of barley spotted males, l started reviewing the responses.
Results
Surprisingly, 62 percent of females thought that women cannot lead, aligning with their male colleagues. They believed that women are too emotional, vulnerable, defenseless and easily manipulated.
Why?
I kept thinking about why the majority of the females aligned with the deeply rooted convictions , with almost zero changes from their ancestors, despite the fact that they are apparently different: their looks, outfits, and access to latest cell phones models, big brands, etc.
Self- contradiction
Egyptian women seem to contradict themselves: they call for gender equality, but at the same time they uphold an entrenched long standing stereotype that they are less and not enough. Women are fully submitting themselves to another stereotype of women as objects. They even enhance this stereotype by objectifying themselves, and going the extra mile to make sure that they adept to the standards, going into a chain of complicated excursions to fill their void and obey the standards. Society is poisoning women' minds on how to appear. They fall victims to a sense of self defeat which takes different forms, including body shaming, low self esteem, and shattered self confidence.
Friendly fire
Some women are sometimes the worst enemy of women. They fight against any challenges to this stereotype, dubbing those who resist it as male copiers. Ironically enough, there seems to be jealousy streaks. Paradoxically, women are competing for " hunting and pleasing men". The degree of success and failure in life is measured by the extent to which they achieve that goal.
The gender factor
There must be biological differences between sexes. Battling them has no avail. The problem is that most of what is thought to be biological differences are intrinsically culturally bound. Neuroscience has shown that the way our brains work including the neurons, synapses and neural network is culturally determined. And so are the roles each sex plays and how to play them, the way each sex views the world and shapes their identity and expectations. Nevertheless, let's put aside the gender factor for a while and regard women and men as humans. Leadership is gender neutral. It has to do the personal traits.
Women as leaders
Studies show that there are no differences between sexes when they start careers as young people. However, by the age of forty, women develop more effective leading skills.
Asked for an explanation, women said that they work more closely at all aspects to get the best results . Women are also eager to get feedback as they work. They also ask more . On the contrary, males, when turning forty, stop doing so , believing that they are already
doing well. Women proved to be willing to nurturing work competence, statistically outperforming males in taking the initiative, offering work expertise, creating better work environment, etc.
What it takes to make good leaders proves to have no relationship with the gender issue. It has to do with possessing basic leadership skills such as having a vision, ability to make hard decisions, ability to get the best of the resources available, etc.
Latest Gallup poll
shows that Americans no longer prefer male bosses, especially in the light of the continuous reports of male bosses acts of harassment and intimidation by them in the wake of the me too tidal waves that seems to wash away deeply rooted preferences of men as leaders and bosses. Results from many research bodies in the USA, which were reported in
CNBC Make it, indicate that women leaders outperform male bosses in 13 out of 15 leadership skills.
Work culture
The report states that women are not necessarily less confident. But working in a society that is always questioning women's abilities and pressuring them, women are more likely to show low self confidence and lack of competence. Empowering women would enhance their confidence and make them feel that they can do it.
A breeze of optimism
The 62% of negative responses should not drive us to lose sight of the growing awareness and trust of women's leadership prospects, which is an encouraging indicator of an ongoing change in how women judge themselves and their fellow women.
Finally, God created men and women equal and DISTINCT. So women have the right to handle things THEIR WAY and leadership is no exception.
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