Woman Leaders: Breaking Norms and Barriers

Most people still think that leaders are usually identified as positions occupied by men. This causes a bias towards women's position in politics. But based on OECD data, there has been an increase in the proportion of women in politics. The largest proportion is in France where according to the latest data in 2017, France has a proportion of 52.9 for the representation of women in politics.

The position of women in power is often referred to as the glass ceiling. This metaphor is still valid, but as before the position of women to occupy leadership positions now has more access than before, although this position is still dominated by men. Three things prevent women from becoming leaders, this is likened to; the concrete wall, the glass ceiling, and finally, the path that allows women to become leaders but through a challenging route that is likened to a labyrinth (Eagly and Carli, 2007).

The concrete walls are parables in which the things that prevent women from being in leadership positions are explicit rules and very binding community norms. In some countries, there are still many women who do not get equal rights in voting, let alone occupy positions in politics. In parables such as concrete walls, men are required as breadwinners in domestic life and women are household managers instead. So that in this case only men who are believed to be able to have a career. Somewhat different from the parable of the concrete wall, the glass ceiling began to involve women in positions of authority in a job, only the higher-level position was still held by men. Like the parable of a glass, women can see from a distance their position to reach the peak of authority but still, some obstacles limit them to achieve it like glass. The assumption most often used by society to discredit women from certain positions is because women are still often associated with their positions as wives and mothers. This gives doubt to some parties that women will be able to survive and not leave work for the sake of their families. Whereas the labyrinth intended here explains that the glass ceiling is not too obvious in some sectors. Women have started to occupy high-level positions. But the process to achieve this is a complex process like a labyrinth. Only a few types of companies began to minimize the barrier for women to occupy high-level positions, such as companies engaged in the field of high tech.

So what distinguishes between female and male leaders in their leadership style? The fact that so many barriers and challenges that women need to face before they sit on high authority position make them more effective as a leader. Scientists at Development Dimensions International (DDI), Tacy M. Byham mentioned “Women need to do a better job of declaring themselves and becoming their advocates—speaking and acting confidently and mentally promoting themselves to a future-focused role.  With this mindset, our behaviors change. And, a woman’s impact is strengthened and improves her ability to get that seat at the table.” (Chief Executive, 2016). It could be said that with the various difficulties faced by women to reach the top position, forming them into persistent leaders. Only 5 percent of nations around the world lead by a female. Women leaders in politics tend to rise the attention to certain issues such as health, sexual violence, and the gender gap in employment and access to public policies. Differences in the focus of attention and also life experiences between men and women make the country with female leaders tend to have divergent political policies.

If we take a look at how female leaders handling crises during the corona pandemic, we will see that female leader most likely to take decisive action during this pandemic. They have taken the fight by going hard and going early just like what Jacinda Arden said during her press conference to her fellow New Zealanders. She did a fascinating job by doing early lockdown and banned travel from China in early February. And not only that, she successfully gains respect from the public when she decided to take a 20% pay cut as Prime Minister. Besides compassion in their political approach, women leaders tend to listen more to science. Just like Angela Merkel, German counselor she talked to her citizen with unadulterated facts. She mentioned bluntly during her press conference that 70% of the population in German will be infected with the coronavirus. Therefore she needs to shut down the country earlier than most of the country and she has done the testing from the very beginning. The result of her immediate action is the rate of infection in Germany is much lower than her European counterparts.