Do Men Make Better Leaders Than Women?

426 Words2 Pages
The statement, "Men make better leaders than women," has no scientific support. The work of Marie-Therese CLAES and other researchers is very enlightening and sheds light on the differences in managerial styles of men and women. Claes discusses gender as a social construct and the sex role theory. She elaborates that this cultural trap pressures women and men to acquire a great deal of sex role learning early in their lives so they become trapped into stereotypes/customs. She eloquently states that Whereas sex is the term used to indicate biological difference, gender is the term used to indicate psychological, social and cultural difference. Gender identity emerges from rearing patterns, and is not determined by hormones. Gender is determined by social practice, and its patterns are specifically social. Hence the masculinity-femininity spectrum is a dimension of societal culture that may be quite independent of biological sex characteristics. On the masculine side of the gender scale were the characteristics of dominion, ambition, cynicism and rebelliousness, while on the feminine side were consideration, tact, dependence, and emotion. Claes also argues that linguistic variation found between men and women may be a function of a social gender, and only indirectly a function of sex. gender differences in conversation styles are due to a dominance factor (unequal distribution of power in society favoring men) and a cultural factor (men and women learn different communication strategies and develop different conversational styles). Cultural differences imply gender differences in management styles, expressed in communication, leadership, negotiation, organization and control. “masculine” (internalizers, competitive, authoritative, directive command-and-control style, desire for power, aggressive, confrontational, dominant, assertive, forceful, decisive
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