The Quest For Gender Equity In Leadership

Recipient of a 2022 Most Promising New Textbook Award from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) While women in the United States account for nearly half the workforce, they continue to encounter unique personal, social, and structural dynamics as leaders. Authors Lisa DeFrank Cole and Sherylle J. Tan explore these dynamics and more in Women and Leadership: Journey Towards Equity. Grounded in leadership theory and research, this text delves into the barriers and challenges women face on their leadership journeys, including stereotypes, bias, inequality, discrimination, and domestic responsibilities. The text includes several chapters devoted to strategies and tools for overcoming obstacles, creating structural change, and moving towards greater equity.

The call for gender equity in leadership has become a global concern. From a Christian perspective, all forms of gender prejudice are sinful because they violate God's intention for creating both men and women in God's image. Although many Christian authors have published books and journal articles to address gender-based injustice, very few publications have approached the subject from an African perspective. This book is meant to fill the existing gap. With a specific reference to the African context, this book explores the phenomenon of equity in leadership from various dimensions, such as African culture and traditional religion, church tradition, biblical interpretation, as well as from the perspective of contemporary socio-economic and political realities in Africa. By giving vivid examples of success stories of men and women working together, the authors have demythologized the view that women cannot be leaders. In addition, this book is intended for general readership by Christian men and women throughout the globe. For universities and colleges that teach gender studies as a subject, the book can serve as a class text or reference resource. Seminaries and theological institutions will also find it handy for training and mentoring Christians to promote equity in the church, ministry, business, and family.

Gender inequality is one of the most serious problems facing US businesses today. Inequality lowers profits, stifles creativity, and causes high employee turnover. Companies struggle to find and retain talented women, and women who land top positions often feel alienated at work. Something has to change. Leaders need an entirely new way of thinking about gender equality. That’s what you’ll find in this book. The Dignity Mindset offers leaders an innovative, paradigm-shifting approach to facilitate gender equality. By adopting a Dignity Mindset, leaders can replace outdated belief systems with groundbreaking perspectives that recognize the common worth and needs of all employees. In The Dignity Mindset, veteran executive coach Susan Hodgkinson shows how gender-biased forces harm organizations. And her groundbreaking Dignity Mindset Toolkit provides a comprehensive roadmap that guides leaders in creating gender-balanced organizations wherein all employees—women and men—can contribute at their highest levels while maximizing business success.

This interdisciplinary volume discusses women’s global leadership and women’s rights advancement, identifying gender inequality as a persisting societal challenge and a major barrier to human development. Drawing on intersectionality as an important analytic and methodological tool, the contributors analyse women’s leadership roles across the world, featuring perspectives on the US, Israel, and Brazil, amongst other countries. The book also contributes to the growing field of leadership, presenting cross-cultural examples and case-studies of outstanding women and female leaders, as well as discussing contemporary leadership theories, and examining obstacles to women’s leadership. Global Perspectives on Women’s Leadership and Gender (In)Equality will be an important point of reference for students and scholars across the political sciences, women’s studies, feminist philosophy, business development, and history.

As ironic as it may seem, treating people kindly, fairly and humanely could just be the most innovative and competitive thing corporate leaders can do. Research links gender equality and a sense of belonging to thriving workplaces and better business outcomes. Leaders are critical to the success of DE&I. But much of the current rhetoric around 'fixing' women and blaming men, is failing everyone. Providing a GPS for everyone navigating gender bias and non-inclusivity in the workplace, this book has been designed to educate corporate leaders and coaches about the roadblocks to progress. It's also been designed to help DE&I and HR within organizations. Each chapter takes a deep dive into specific issues, business case studies, and ends with key self-reflective coaching questions. "The Covid pandemic has been a brutal stress-test of leadership, ... Broadening the leadership debate to bring in crucial issues of power, purpose and ethnic diversity as well as gender, Sarah Drijfhout's timely intervention ranks as an essential guide for leaders to an unfolding post-covid, post-#MeToo, post-BLM world." Global Peter Drucker Forum, former Observer's Management Columnist "A must read for Investors, Boards, CEOs and all managerial personnel in the workplace." Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry "... a deep dive into underlying cultural and psychological barriers to equality in leadership."ICD International Business School, ParisWhen organizations ask us to only coach their women for leadership roles, they are on the wrong track. Policies which target women in isolation miss the point of equality and inclusion. Much of the gender inequality rhetoric has been focused on white women. This has been to the exclusion of others: women of color, men as distinct individuals, instead of a monolithic group, and other minorities. Denial around institutional and social issues across gender is leading to poor outcomes in many corporate entities. And while white men mostly have the power and influence in corporate leadership, better attempts should be made at properly engaging them, and everyone, in the gender equality discussion. "This book takes a conversation that can be uncomfortable for most male leaders to have and makes it easy for them to become part of that conversation, while helping their organizations become stronger in the process." Centre for Executive Coaching"Sarah Drijfhout insightfully explores the reality that men lose too when they lead in the absence of women peers." Inclusion Leader, OhioIf you want to lead and coach in an outstanding way, you need to understand the gender dimensions in leadership. This book will dispel many of the myths around gender and help you understand how perceived gender norms impact everyone's ability to show up authentically and productively. If you are a leader looking to develop once described as 'softer skills', now regarded as essential skills for corporate leaders, this book educates you on why gender plays a huge role in that, and why you need to understand that role. Reviewing the most up-to-date research, using real-world data, based on dozens of interviews with global corporate leaders, Gender Dimensions in Leadership is an excellent resource for accelerating your inclusivity goals as a leader. It gives you the support you need to solve the gender-equity-in-leadership challenge. It's a hugely comprehensive review of material on the topics of gender and leadership, and includes many scientific studies, leading academics' and thought leaders' observations, business practitioners' experiences and global consultancy survey data. A must-have resource for leaders!

Gender, Communication, and the Leadership Gap is the sixth volume in the Women and Leadership: Research, Theory, and Practice series. This cross-disciplinary series, from the International Leadership Association, enhances leadership knowledge and improves leadership development of women around the world. The purpose of this volume is to highlight connections between the fields of communication and leadership to help address the problem of underrepresentation of women in leadership. Readers will profit from the accessible writing style as they encounter cutting-edge scholarship on gender and leadership. Chapters of note cover microaggressions, authentic leadership, courageous leadership, inclusive leadership, implicit bias, career barriers and levers, impression management, and the visual rhetoric of famous women leaders. Because women in leadership positions occupy a contested landscape, one goal of this collection is to clarify the contradictory communication dynamics that occur in everyday interactions, in national and international contexts, and when leadership is digital. Another goal is to illuminate the complexities of leadership identity, intersectionality, and perceptions that become obstacles on the path to leadership. The renowned thinkers and scholars in this volume hail from both Leadership and Communication disciplines. The book begins with Sally Helgesen and Brenda J. Allen. Helgesen, co-author of The Female Vision: Women’s Real Power at Work, discusses the two-fold challenge women face as they struggle to articulate their visions. Her chapter offers six practices women can use to relieve this struggle. Allen, author of the groundbreaking book, Difference Matters: Communicating Social Identity, discusses the implications of how inclusive leadership matters to women and what it means to think about women as people who embody both dominant and non-dominant social identity categories. She then offers practical communication strategies and an intersectional ethic to the six signature traits of highly inclusive leaders. Each chapter includes practical solutions from a communication and leadership perspective that all readers can employ to advance the work of equality. Some solutions will be of use in organizational contexts, such as leadership development and training initiatives, or tools to change organizational culture. Some solutions will be of use to individuals, such as how to identify and respond productively to micro-aggressions or how to be cautious rather than optimistic about practicing authentic leadership. The writing in this volume also reflects a range of styles, from in-depth scholarship that produces new knowledge to shorter forums that feature interesting ideas worth considering.

This practical guide offers a strategic and scientific-based approach to promote gender equality throughout the society with an historical footprint of the year 2020. You will find the latest review on the status of women in leadership in governments and public life from a national and international perspective. The book highlights the still existing gender gaps and the challenges women face in the advancement of their career. On the other hand the recommendations given along the way are identifying future opportunities for growth and aim to drive change in terms of diversity and inclusion. Through the interviews with successful women leaders from the public sector in Switzerland, the guide also offers insights on best practices and tips with inspiring career paths to follow. The policy recommendations given in the Manifesto part of the book are proposing 6 dimensions to acknowledge and bring concrete progress towards women's leadership in the public sector. It is a fundamental human rights to include more women in decision-making and public areas to shape the future of our economy. Men's proactive participation in the change towards professional equality could be decisive. The empowerment of women will only succeed if we all, as human beings, enable an equal society by taking concrete action to ensure ethical and sustainable progress for the higher good of our society.

Based on interviews and conversations with leaders and managers in Europe and the United States, this book presents seven of the most common explanations for persistent gender imbalances and shows how they are based on common stereotypes and myths about men's and women's abilities and preferences.