Male Versus Female

The battle of the sexes has been going on since the beginning of mankind. Women were once stereotyped as mere housewives, and the men were labeled as breadwinners. Over time, the title given to the so-called weaker sex has evolved up to par with that of men. Now, they almost stand on equal footing as them. When it comes to leadership though, I believe that females outshine their male counterparts in almost every measure. According to Rochelle Sharpe (2003), it has been approximately twenty-five years since women have started pouring into the labor force and have been trying to be more like men in every way. They now wear power suits and go out on golf luncheons with board executives, but despite them doing all the copying, new research is beginning suggest that men ought to be the ones doing more of the imitating. As discovered in an in-depth performance evaluation conducted on the year 2002 by Hagberg Consulting Group in Foster City, California – out of the four hundred twenty-five high-level executives that were evaluated, the women executives got higher ratings on fourty-two of the fifty-two skills measured. Despite all of this growing progress for females everywhere, it is still obvious that men have continued to dominate a majority of the business world. According to the Labor Department, as of the year 2004, only two of the nations five hundred biggest companies have female CEO’s and of the one thousand largest corporations, only six were being run by women. The reason for this male dominance is simply because women are not given an equal stand as men when it comes to job opportunities. Some businesses view women only as workhorses, or in a sense that they are well suited for demanding careers in middle management, but not for prime jobs. As a result of this, most women get stuck in jobs that involve human resources or public relations – posts that rarely lead to the top. (Sharpe, 2003) Both men and women have different styles of leadership, and the actual difference lies between how much listening is done. When it comes to women, they are naturally more open about sharing information and take the time to communicate with people and to hear what their inputs are. It is through this that they are able to gather more information that they can effectively analyze then implement into a plan that uses the best of the ideas presented. On the other hand, men do not take time to stop and smell the flowers – instead, they have the tendency to go straight to their point of view and present it in a ‘as a matter of fact’ manner. This way, they save time and have everyone agreeing to their plan of action. Well this is because men are not as flexible or willing to interact with others. (Grenberg, 2004) As a result, male leaders may actually tend to force their perspective and use their position influence others. Despite this being the quicker way of getting things done in a non-sloppy manner, it ironically does not make it as efficient as the way the opposite sex works. The manner that females work is by most of the time, simply listening. They take the initiative to gather ideas, research, and so forth from the people they are working with. They do not force their ideas on them, but rather, improve them with teamwork. It is because of this that they are able to produce better outputs and are more effective leaders than males. From the very start, women have often been associated with being a mother figure; therefore, even female leaders tend to be seen more as caring mothers rather than strong-willed heads. In relation to this, there are companies who assume that people skills are not business skills, which basically undermines their strengths. (Fletcher, 2002). Men though, are then associated with being the breadwinners of the family – a person who knows how to lead. Male leaders are seen as powerful members of society who have a good head on their shoulders and are tough enough to handle anything that comes their way. The notion that women are not as tough, is only something that is assumed. Although the majority may not be as physically strong as their counterpart, they are on the same level in terms of intellect. Women are associated with mothers, which means that they know how to take care of those working for them. Because they know how to deal with the most energetic of children, they can put their motherly instincts into motivating people – they are gifted with inborn people skills. According to the book Disappearing Acts: Gender, Power and Relational Practice at Work, written by Joyce Fletcher in 2002, employees that feel cared about by their bosses or are inspired by them, often produce higher-quality work; and supervisors who know how to deal with conflicts get better results. The conclusion can only be that by taking care of their employees, they are not only taking charge of them subtly but producing greater output in the process. In the present, the number of women that posses high-ranking positions may only add up to a mere fraction of the male population in the same position but it does not prove that the latter is more competent but rather that the former is being viewed as incompetent. The never-ending bias against female leaders has been going on forever, but they have been fighting back little by little. Women have come a long way from being a gender with no equality with the other sex, a gender that had no rights to vote, and a gender that had been stereotyped as a housewife. They have fought hard all these decades, and still continue to fight for the equality that they deserve. But despite the evident inequality, I still believe that female leaders outshine their male counterparts in almost every measure.