From last week discussion on the above topic let us share research from Hannah Lee which states the following: women now make up 48% of the workforce in the US and 49% in the UK.

Record numbers of women are attending business school. However, despite the progress made over the years to chip away at the glass ceiling, stagnant growth in numbers was found in women corporate officer and top earner positions in the Fortune 500. 

Women held 15.4 percent of corporate officer positions in 2007, compared to 15.6 percent in 2006. Women in top-paying positions stayed the same at 6.7 percent. In 2011, only 28 of the CEOs of Fortune 1000 businesses were women. Researchers surmise that women who do find themselves in leadership roles tend to be unjustly measured in their abilities due to the continued presence of gender differences. 

Current models of leadership and leadership development cannot be applied to males and females in the same way. The research in organizational settings should focus on understanding the ways of ‘becoming’ and ‘being’ for males and females in order to identify strategies for each gender in terms of understanding what it means to be a successful manager from each perspective”. In fact, there is growingacknowledgement that the more relationship-centred approach commonly displayed by women may be a more effective way to manage others.

Additionally, researchers believe that embracing gender differences among leaders may be the path to success for many organizations. Companies that are able to harness the strengths of both sexes may be said to be gender ‘bilingual’ rather than gender neutral. Organizations with gender diversity at the top are more successful than others and will find their way out of the current economic crisis into sustainable profitability.

Investigation of leadership behaviours based on gender concludes that, while there are similarities in male and female leaders, the differences demonstrated are significant and appear to be tied to biology and the socialization males and females receive during upbringing. 

As a result, it seems paramount to support leaders of both genders in ways that legitimately take into account both their similarities and their differences.

Seven areas for improvement are shared among male and female leaders. Among the differences, there is a sense that women appear to hold themselves back, as seen in the areas of improvement of visibility in the organization, confidence in own abilities and decisiveness. Again, this appears to be tied to gender roles. “Since they are expected to be feminine, women who display too much ‘male’ behaviour (such as toughness, decisiveness, and assertiveness) are not well received by their peers at the top. Yet women who display too little of that behaviour are perceived as not suited for the top job.”  If we interpret the above as a request for women to become more masculine in their behaviour, a theme among the areas for improvement for male leaders could be construed as a request to embrace a more feminine approach by showing concern for others with cross departmental working, feedback, patience, and build trust. Some researchers believe that this unwillingness of female leaders to tout their own achievements or abilities may hurt them in climbing the corporate ladder even further. Female leaders also appear to have a tendency to over-extend and be too hard on themselves and others with long hours, demanding, organization/time management and stress management. And, despite their strengths and top values which point to promoting a collaborative working style, female leaders are not adequately handing things over to relieve some of this burden, as they are more likely than men to need to work on delegating and empowering. These areas for improvement may be tied to the drive among female leaders to get things done, as mentioned in the strengths. Female leaders, still in the minority, may feel that they have something to prove.

Are women better managers than men? Let us consider the following feedback received for or against the debate on the issue going on from a different background, gender and these are exact comments from both with a little modification to keep to the topic:

Frederick: To say women are better managers than men or vice versa is generalization, which in my opinion is going a bit too far because the aspects one needs to excel in to be a good manager has nothing to do with gender. Yes, one might argue that a woman's compassion make them better managers as that allows them to build a good rapport with her colleagues, but so do some men. Men are dominant and aggressive by nature, which are important qualities to make a good leader, but so do some women. To conclude, I'd end this with saying managerial skills have more to do with one's skills and personality than to do with gender

Senyo: In my opinion, there is no such work that is divided based on gender.Any work can be equally done based on their individual qualities.A manager generally needs to manage the work in a stipulated time.That solely depends on the person's management skills.If a person with good management skills can be a better manager.So where does the question of gender arise from?

Vera: Unfortunately not in my experience. I've worked with many various project managers over the years and, unfortunately, my experience of female management has been really quite poor. I've found them to be overbearing and argumentative - and less likely to see themselves as part of the team. Also, the decision-making process is somewhat clouded and there's less willingness to take responsibility for mistakes. I should say, however, that I've found that women who were not in management roles have, ironically, been perfectly rational and willing to work alongside male colleagues, rather than feeling the need to always challenge. Immediately I know that this makes it seem like my issue is with women in positions of authority. And whilst it's wrong to generalize, I can only speak from 15 years of experience in the workplace.

In contrast, I've found male managers to be more easy going, less susceptible to changes of mood. And actually, less aggressive.

I'd love to be able to say one sex is no more capable than the other, but many difficult workplace scenarios, has made me think otherwise.

Rejoice: Look, if you were to make a generalization or have a poll you will have some sort of answer. But this is a dumb stereotype, how could any brisk person say that one gender, religion, race is better in comparison to another? Nobody in the contemporary world judges on individuality because it's easier to say "I'm white and since Einstein was white look how successful we are!" So to answer your question, it completely depends on the person. People need to judge this question to the person on not some BS similarity amongst a large group of people.

Chris: Men and woman respect strong male leaders. Men don't respect strong female leaders. One side gains respect from both genders, the other does not. A strong male leader is focused, takes action, makes rational decisions, solves problems, and men can get behind this type of person and move the team forward to success. A woman see's this man as strong, powerful, and attractive too. She will work hard for him and want to impress him.

A female leader attempts to behave like a man but does not get the nuances of behavior and ends up being rude and overbearing. She acts more on feelings and takes many attempts to share your experience as a personal attack. Always on the defense. A man doesn't respect this behavior. A man doesn't respect a woman who behaves like a man. With her femininity, she could be far more influential and respected if she would just accept her true nature. She would probably be happier too being allowed to be herself instead of competing with men. On this note from Chris, appreciations go to all for the feedback and sorry for not putting all the comments here, at the end of the day the power is yours.