Gender and leadership is a thorny issue in the corporate world where studies have been conducted to compare the leadership capabilities of women and men. Dunn et al., (2014) asserts that men conduct most studies conducted both inside and outside of the academic world and often concentrate on male leadership. The consequence of this is the setting of leadership standards for academic institutions which disadvantage women seeking for leadership positions. On undertaking a more in-depth study of the article two trends and one issue emerge focusing on women leadership in this organizations.
Firstly from the author’s perspective, it is evident that leadership of academic institutions majorly comprise of men. This trend is the reason why the author has raised the issue of discriminative standards which deny women equal opportunity to participate in leadership. Secondly, academic institutions have put in place mechanisms to ensure that they get the best leaders to run the organizations. Organizations are now focusing on personal qualities that set both male and female candidates on the same level. Some of these conditions include; ability to build networks, selflessness towards the growth of the institutions, those who are task-oriented, ability to handle change and resistance that come with it and the ability to learn from obstacles for better future decision making. With the assumption that women possess similar qualities to those of men, this is an effective strategy in achieving gender balance in academic institutions.
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However, two issues arise in the setting of standards for appointment of organizational administrators and existence of other obstacles to women. Universal laws provide that all people are equal and therefore women are represented in the setting of the standards. This raises the question of the most optimal standards that will ensure women have equal opportunities in the administration of academic institutions without compromising the quality of institutional leadership. On the other hand, the existence of other problems hampering women participation in leadership means that revision of the standards to provide equal opportunities for both genders will not be effective.
Reference
Dunn, Dana; Gerlach, Jeanne M.; and Hyle, Adrienne E. (2014) "Gender and Leadership: Reflections of Women in Higher Education Administration," International Journal of Leadership and Change: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 2.
