I've been doing some reading and am thinking of doing some research on the topic of gender dynamics in leadership. The abstract is below. I'd appreciate any references to material I should follow up on or comments people would like to make on the ideas below or their own personal views/experience on the matter.
All the best,
Jeremy
Women & Followership
Modern brain science has spawned a wealth of new books detailing the differences between male/female responses to situational stimulus at the neurological level. This has lead to several new expositions on the differences between men and women in personal, family, community and professional life. One such area of study is gender differences in approaches to leadership. While numerous books have been written detailing the characteristics of female leadership none, to my knowledge, have been written on the characteristics of how females follow each other, or female followership. As some leadership definitions are entirely dependent on the definition of those who follow (for example: “A leader is someone who is followed”, Emmanual Gobillot, The Connected Leader, p.64) a detailed analysis of following from a gender perspective seems highly relevant. Additionally, while a leader is either male or female those following a leader will in most cases include both genders thus creating a complex dynamic. How followers respond to that dynamic and either support or hinder it, knowing or unknowingly, is critical to a leaders success. This research sets out to explore several dynamics:
1. The archetypal dynamics of how women follow women and how men follow men. This will establish the recurring patterns and anti-patterns exclusive to each gender.
2. The differences in dynamics between female and male leadership and those who follow them and how this effects the perception of leadership characteristics (for example, being seen as in charge, delegation of work, maintaining vision)
3. How the genders follow each other and how the mixture of gender related followership patterns and anti-patterns identified above may impede or support the success of leadership for either sex.
4. A special focus on the the female leader and male follower dynamic as it is the emerging modern dynamic and thus the one that is need of the most clarifying insight.
5. A special focus on misunderstandings that arise in any of the dynamics identified above do to gender related expectations.
Effective leadership requires effective followership. While the characteristic differences in leadership styles between the sexes is well on the way to being understood, the differences between how followers can best engage the differing leadership strategies seems to be lagging. It is the hope of this research that an exploration of these gender dynamics will lead to greater success for teams, communities and societies in realizing their vision and an increased sensitivity to how we can support each other by stepping outside our innate gender based expectations.