Womens Roles in Leadership Positions free essay sample

The roles of women have been evolving for the last 100 years. Many women have shattered the stereotype that a women’s role is to be in charge of the family and have become leaders in a walks of life. Women have proved that they can be effective as business and government leaders. Although there are still gender biases that can exist, it is much move covert then it was 40 years ago. Oddly enough, some of the characteristics that have been viewed as the most necessary for leadership in roles of men, those same traits were viewed as negative characteristics of women in leadership roles. The role of the women has been evolving for many decades. In times, way before my own, a woman’s role was to be the caregiver for her family. Although women, many have sought out an education, their main lifetime focus to be to support her husband and raise her children. We will write a custom essay sample on Womens Roles in Leadership Positions or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Many women still choose this role today, but the point is that now they are allowed to choose a specific pathway in life rather than being forced to carry out established roles. This change of women’s roles has been occurring in the United States for the last hundred years. Although this may seem like a long period of time, it is not. When roles are changed or reversed, this does not necessarily mean that everyone instantly converts to the new ideas and philosophies demonstrated by a group. Often times, there is a great deal of protest both within the changing group as well as those outside of the group. Despite the evolved roles of women in society, women still face many challenges in leadership positions. There are qualities that women possess that seem to help them rise to the top echelon of leadership positions, but there are still biases that exist that may inhibit women from reaching their goals. Women won the right to vote in the 1920’s; however, it wasn’t until the 1960’s that the â€Å"Women’s Movement† began. Granted women’s roles had been changing for 40 years prior to the Women’s Movement, it was clear that this was not a natural evolution. Many people, both men and women, challenged the idea of a woman as an independent, productive citizen. Many women were ready to be seen and valued differently, but just because a group wants to be seen differently, does not mean that that is going to happen. This is usually the pivotal moment for most movements in History. A group seeks changes that others are adverse to seeing happen. The women’s movement called for fundamental changes in the roles of women. No longer did women want to be seen as the caregiver of the home, they wanted to be seen as independent people who could make important decisions and choose their educational and professional pathways. Today, in the United States of America, women are on a more equal footing with men in most cases: often by necessity, where women cannot complete in the workplace for jobs that were one traditionally held my men, also in light of two –parent working households. Although most career and professional opportunities are open to women in this country, there are still major discrepancies in the leadership positions that women hold. Among the US population 25 and above, 34 percent of women have obtained a Bachelor’s degree compared with 30 percent of men. Of Graduate degree’s held, women dominate that group with 39 percent of Graduate Degrees being held by men. Versus 21% percent, which are held by men. It would be appropriate after viewing these statistics, that one could assume that women hold the same, if not more, of the top leadership positions in business and politics, but this, in fact, is not the case. Forbes Magazine (2011) created and published a study with an emphasis breakdown on women’s roles in top leadership positions. Only 6 percent of Fortune 100 CEO’s are women †¢ Only 8 percent of technology startup companies are lead by women †¢ Only 9 percent of contributors on Wikipedia are women †¢ Women account for only a tenth of the voting power on the words’ key interest rates †¢ Only 13 percent of the top 100 billionaires worldwide are women †¢ Only 15 percent of senior industry management positions belong to women. †¢ Less than 18 percent of Congressional seats are held by women. Clearly, this poses a question about why women are still not sharing equal roles with men in the top leadership positions in this country. There are many different reasons for these statistics. One reason for this â€Å"leadership gap† is that women just don’t ask. This idea is explored by Babcock and Laschever (2007) in the book Women Don’t Ask by Babcock and Laschever. When Babcock questioned many graduate male students were teaching their own course while women were taking on the roles of assistants, her dean stated, † More men ask. The women just don’t ask. † It turns out, that women are just more likely than men to ask for promotions or raises. This may be due to the facts that some women aren’t aware they should be asking and other women are fearful or damaging relationships. One interesting point to note is that a leadership characteristic that is identified differently in men and women is aggression. Many people positively define aggression as a positive leadership trait in men, but that exact same trait is viewed as negative in a women. Therefore, a women many sense that being aggressive may cause more harm than good when trying to obtain a high level position. Research published by Northhouse in his book Leadership, has also shown that women are more likely to take a passive role in obtaining leadership positions. They are more reluctant to be assertive in asking for positions, and try to obtain those roles through relationships and opportunity. (p. 357) In essence, it is a â€Å"double edged sword for a woman†. There is also no question that gender stereotypes still exist. Oddly enough, these stereotypes may produce more harm in the 21st century because they are more covert and hard to recognize. The show, Mad Men, shows how women were treated in the workplace. The sexual harassment and belittlement of women was obvious and apparent. Women were expected to fill certain roles in the workplace and men had no issues openly expressing their ideas on women’s roles. Now, there is to be no such divide between genders. In fact, gender discrimination is breaking the law, so no longer can discrimination exist in any work place. However, this does not mean that these biases and feelings don’t exist. On the contrary, there may be many people who feel like women are not capable of performing certain tasks, but because gender discrimination is illegal, these ideas are not openly shared, but that certainly doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. Despite these things, many women have found success in the political and work setting. Interestingly, Dominance, aggression and assertiveness are not viewed as positive traits in women leaders, but these are the traits most people would identify with the top echelon leaders of the world, both politically and financially. So, what are some of the attributes that are seen in successful women? Five characteristics that most successful women share are: determination, resourcefulness, ambition, confidence, and the ability to create a maintain relationships. A successful woman is determined to have it all and make things work. At www. Successful Women. com, a guest writer describes the attributes of successful women†¦ determination, resourcefulness, engagement, ambition and confidence. Determination means having a strategic plan to accomplish a goal and now allowing anything or anyone to get in the way of that goal. True leaders know their best resource is in the hearts and minds of the people they are leading. There’s not much more that causes distrust then a leader who claims to know everything about everything. A good leader must be able to be resourceful and find answers and solutions quickly. There is no question that ambition plays a large role in the making of a successful female leader. Women without ambition rarely achieve greatness. Queen Elizabeth I gave up the chance at a family (and had her own sister imprisoned) in order to rule England. Susan B. Anthony and many other suffragettes risked being ostracized and thrown in jail in order to spread the message of women’s equality. Throughout history, the most successful women have been willing to take control of their own lives and do whatever was necessary to reach their goals. Probably the most important character trait of a female leader is confidence. Of course, it is imperative for someone to have the skills, but most people will argue that confidence is the key to becoming a successful leader. Imagine trying to get a group to follow someone who lacks self-confidence and shows fear for a task. A leader with confidence acts with decisiveness and passion, which cause subordinates to feel like they can count on their leader. Another key trait is the ability to create and maintain appropriate professional relationships. Women must show enough empathy so that their subordinates feel supported, but not too much emotion as to get over involved with ones co workers, colleagues or subordinates. This is the â€Å"make it or break it† trait for many female leaders. People seem to be more conscious of the relationship that a women has with her subordinates. If a woman is seen as too empathetic, these may be seen as a weakness. If a women seems void of emotion, people may not feel comfortable or like they are able to â€Å"fit in†. Women’s roles have been evolving for over 100 years. The road has been paved for a woman to make decisions about the course she chooses to live her life. The roadblocks for women have been moved out of the way. Regardless of gender biases that may still exist, a woman can be whatever she chooses to be. This does not meet that the leadership role is easy. For men and women alike, begin an effective leader is challenging ad requires special and specific characteristics to be effective.

St. Thomas Aquinas Confirms essays

St. Thomas Aquinas Confirms essays Through out the Middle Ages, Theology was considered the most important science and because of this greatly scrutinized. Although people accepted their beliefs, they wanted something to both explain and augment their faith. At this time, many of Aristotles writings were translated from Greek and Arabic into Latin, making them a great deal more accessible to people. This broadened knowledge profoundly influenced the people, who began to ask the question of what relationship existed between Christian revelation and Greek philosophy. St. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest and most significant philosopher of this time period, tried to make Aristotles philosophy compatible with Christianity by interpreting and explaining it in a way that they were no longer viewed as a threat to Christian beliefs (Garrder 180). St. Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican monk and lived an active life of listening to the people and teaching. When asked by the people, Whether God exists? he felt responsible to answer. The outcome of this attempt is known as Article 3. of the Suma Theologica, Whether God Exists?, in which he provided two objections to Gods existence, his Five Ways that prove the existence of God, and finally his replies to the fore mentioned objections. Aquinas begins with two objections to Gods existence. The first objection provides reason for claming that God does not exist and states that if one of two opposites were omnipresent, the other would be completely annihilated. Due to the fact that God is defined as He who is infinite goodness, if God existed there would be no evil in the world. There is evil in the world, and therefore God does not exist (Aquinas 1). The second objection states that there is no reason to conclude that a God does exist, for everything present in the world can be explained for by reasons other then God, for natural things can be reduced to the principle of nature while volunta...

Individual Behavior and Performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Individual Behavior and Performance - Essay Example The annual feedback on the work of each of the employees is required from the manager, for to define, whether the current position of the worker is right for him. Performance appraisal is used for to evaluate, whether the employees labor is worth of the money the company spends on him, and whether he is used rationally in the company. Performance appraisal defines whether the workers performs his tasks fully, whether he is suitable for the type of work he is doing, it evaluates the quality of his work. It is the tool that lets the administration see which of the employees deserves the promotion or/and a pay rise, and which one has to be fired because of the incompetence or the poor quality of work. The characteristic feature of aviation is that there the team work is of vital importance. For to satisfy the clients, the plane's crew has to work together, aiming the same goals. Thus, the performance appraisal of the crew is also conducted, apart from the personal performance appraisal. The task of the manager, which performs performance appraisal, is to define the list of the employees goals, and chores, and then evaluate the quality of fulfilling the chores, and to define, whether the worker reached the goal that were set before him. ... They consider the individual performance appraisal to be the most effective and significant, and make their conclusions about the best place for the person in the company guided by them, forgetting that even the best worker will lower the productivity of the group he is employed in case his team work skills are poor. Performance appraisal is quite a complicated managerial technique; it requires the deep knowledge in business, management, and some other social sciences. But interpreting the results of the appraisal, deciding what should be done for to improve them, or what is the best position for the worker, requires the background in psychology of the relationships on the workplaces, and the motivation strategies. The performance appraisal techniques foresee the existence of the form, which is the same for every worker. These forms usually don't consider the existence of the individual differences, the peculiarities of the each worker. Thus when making a conclusion considering the performance of every employee, the manager has to consider his individual features, and define, what should be done to improve his/her performance. The goal each manager follows is to increase the productivity of his employees. The authors of the book Creating Workplace Community: Motivation Solutions, Ideas and Philosophies for Motivating Ourselves and Other, note, that Performance is considered to be a function of ability and motivation. Thus it is vital to motivate the workers for to reach the maximum productivity. John Marshall Reeve offers several techniques for motivating the employees: Positive reinforcement / high expectations Effective discipline and punishment Treating