Why Men Are More Dominant Than Women In Leadership

Why Men Are More Dominant Than Women In Leadership
Why Men Are More Dominant Than Women In Leadership

Video: Why Men Are More Dominant Than Women In Leadership

Video: Why Men Are More Dominant Than Women In Leadership
Video: What is Dominance? Are Men REALLY More Dominant than Women? | Submission | BRAIN SNACKS 2024, March
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From the point of view of human history, women's equality is a new phenomenon. In Russia, women received the right to vote in 1918, in the USA in 1920, in Spain in 1931, in France only in 1944, and in Switzerland, women's rights were legalized in general only in 1971. For such a period, women's achievements are very impressive.

At present, women have succeeded in competing with men, they have begun to earn enough to support themselves and their children. Today women are better educated than men: their share among university graduates is higher, their level of knowledge exceeds that of men. In the lowest management positions, they quite successfully compete with men: among line managers, 40% are women. Then the flow weakens: at the level of vice-presidents there are already only 24% of them, in the highest executive power - only 19%. Only a few make it to the top, in the largest companies the share of women in top positions is about 5%.

We may not even look at the results of sociological studies aimed at studying the ratio of the number of men and women in leadership positions in order to say with confidence that both in politics and in business, men still play the leading roles.

So what prevents women from climbing the career ladder today?

1. Biological differences between men and women.

Steven Goldberg, in The Inevitability of Patriarchy, argues that inequality arises not from a deliberate desire to leave women in a lower position, but based on biological differences. Women are not lower and not higher than men, they are simply different, but it was these differences that led to the enthronement of patriarchy. The hormonal system of men, according to the law of probability, gives him advantages in those situations of social life where aggressive behavior leads to success. "Hormones determine social behavior … The higher the level of power and prestige, the higher the proportion of men in any area: politics, economics, professional or religious activity"

We women are dependent on the functioning of our hormonal system, changes in which lead to the appearance of a number of psychological and psychosomatic symptoms: increased emotional sensitivity, tearfulness, depression, disorientation, confusion, lack of concentration, irritability, headache, dizziness, heart palpitations. Sometimes women become intolerant, anxious and fall into hypochondria, self-esteem goes down. What kind of career is that ?!

Men do not have such problems because testosterone decreases very slowly and gradually, so men look confident, reliable, stable and predictable, which gives them an advantage when they are appointed to a leadership position.

2. Transformation of the role of women in society.

Let's turn to a story when a large family of several generations lived in the same house and everyone, both men and women, worked for the common good. Men were employed in agriculture and women in domestic production and played a very valuable and necessary economic role. They spun yarn, weaved fabrics, sewed clothes, cooked food, helped cultivate the land, took care of domestic animals, and raised children.

As a result of the industrial revolution, the population was concentrated in large cities, and the house ceased to be a production unit, the labor of individuals, and not the whole family, began to be used. Consumer goods were already produced outside the home, only the production of goods and services that could be sold (exchanged for money) began to be considered real work. Since that time, the work done by women at home and the birth of children have lost their economic value.

In addition, scientific and technological progress made domestic work easier and gave women more free time, effectively depriving them of their field of activity. As a result, women lost their "status", turned into housewives, and this occupation was little appreciated, did not bring satisfaction and, as a rule, caused great frustration.

The fruits of homework are short-lived, the same thing repeats from day to day. The housewife's work is not paid, which makes it impossible to assess her contribution to society. Due to material dependence on a man, a woman feels humiliated, it seems to her that she is not considered.

Motherhood has always been considered a woman's realization opportunity. And now it is so idealized and prestigious from the point of view of society that, having fulfilled this function, a woman can feel complete and feminine. In addition, the very understanding of motherhood has changed over time. Today, the concept of a good mother is different from what it used to be. At present, the role of the mother is clearly defined and has great social prestige.

But it is impossible to limit a woman only to motherhood, she has other opportunities to realize herself. No one hunts mammoths for a long time, and the phantom role of "keeper of the cave hearth" is deeply rooted in the mass subconscious and continues to sabotage the development of women.

Oddly enough, the industrialization of society has dramatically affected a woman's life, making her weak, defenseless, underestimated, lost, devoid of any idea of how to find herself.

3. Lack of motivation.

Another important factor is the lack of motivation among women to further advance the career ladder.

For men, power and status play a big role. It's different for women.

Working at the very top becomes not so interesting when managerial competencies are maximally developed, and after a certain threshold, a person no longer responds so easily to material incentives. Many women, having achieved high achievements in their careers, unexpectedly leave the race: they either go into their own business or change their profession, especially after the decree, when new meanings appear.

In one of the studies, 59% of successful women admitted that they do not strive to rise to the highest level of management; most women consider further promotion for themselves quite achievable, but not very desirable.

I know women who deliberately hinder their careers and hide their success at work from their husbands in order to keep their families together, because many of us still have a strong and powerful stereotype in our heads that “a woman is the keeper of the family hearth, and a man is a breadwinner ". The family has been built on this principle for centuries. Such things cannot be abolished by law. Remember the suffering of Gosha from "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears" when he found out that the woman he loved was higher than him in social status ?! The same "double load" is the most important brake on a woman's career. A woman is still expected to play the role of “mother and guardian of the hearth,” or at least that she will be successful on two fronts at once: in the family and at work. In any case, it is difficult to find a business woman who would not feel guilty towards her own children because of her constant employment.

A woman has a hidden constant self-doubt, she always seeks the approval of others, it seems to her that everyone doubts her. She has to constantly “prove something”: that she can be a good wife, a good mother, that she can perfectly cope with this or that job, that she has enough responsibility.

Men, on the other hand, easily find a certain balance between their work, family, children and leisure.

Women usually fixate on one thing and this becomes a mental fixation for them. Appearance, social recognition, home, crazy search for the "ideal man" - all these are those manic goals that upset their emotional balance and do not allow them to do something more important and meaningful for their development.

What to do?

One of the solutions is to introduce gender quotas in the management.

The mixed composition of management makes sense not because women are "not worse" than men, but because they are different. The masculine and feminine complement each other. In any management committee, it is better to have carriers of both qualities. If you want to check the impact of the presence of women on the profit and the value of the company - we have no other tool but quotas. It has been proven that if the size of any group of people is less than 25%, it is always discriminated against by the majority. So one or two women will not make the difference. Of course, you don't have to go to extremes and impose quotas on development teams, but when it comes to management, this is not such a bad idea.

Only equality of rights with men can be protected by law. But no law, no regulation of the state or international organization can allow or prohibit the individual development of a woman.

Self-realization requires desire and determination from a woman, as well as a clear understanding of the psychological and social mechanisms that keep women in a subordinate state. All you need to do is achieve psychological autonomy and develop your own potential.

Elena Evgrafova, ex-editor-in-chief of Harvard Business Review - Russia, spoke well on this issue: “Anyway, there is no definite answer to the question of how to deal with the lack of women in managerial positions. You can introduce quotas, you can leave everything as it is and wait until society matures. You can do something in between, which we see in most companies. In the end, women who want to get to the very top, one way or another, make their way. The rest do not really need it - no one will be offended."

Photo by Pixabay

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