Does female leadership exist? And if so, what are its characteristics?
Leadership is the art of leading individuals, human beings, collectively or individually, towards a given goal, whatever it may be. It can be achieved by persuasion or force. Traditionally, strength is a supposedly masculine quality, while persuasion is equated with feminine qualities. But this approach is a little simple, even simplistic. Things get more complicated when we look at transpersonal psychology and gender identity. What is a man or a woman, or more generally, masculine or feminine? Can gender identity be limited to physical appearance? And does physical appearance unconsciously impose a certain type of behavior? I don’t think so. Things are more complex than they appear, and a leader, male or female, will only succeed in leading his or her teams if he or she is aware of the qualities he or she possesses (or doesn’t possess), in a given environment. And in my opinion, possessing such and such qualities – allegedly masculine or feminine – is not linked to gender, despite the stereotypes that have long been taught.
Die hard clichés. Many people believe this, whether out of convenience, fear or a refusal to question their upbringing. A woman is said to be receptive, conciliatory and emotional – and woe betide anyone who strays from this preconceived image! Just as we oppose the emotional right brain to the rational left brain, we tend to oppose masculine and feminine behavior. We forget that everything is in everything, that we’re made up of duality and complementarity: we’re all carriers of so-called masculine or feminine traits, whatever our physical appearance. And I doubt that it’s the qualities usually associated with women that come to mind when we think of leaders like Mrs. Thatcher or Mrs. Merkel. More and more often, I see men around me taking on the feminine qualities that make up their personalities, for example, by looking after children as a caring mother would.
So can we still talk about female leadership ? I don’t think so! In any case, it wouldn’t be associated with values attributed to women, because what struck me about all the women leaders I came into contact with – business leaders, doctors, politicians – was that they shared the same characteristic: rigor. Rigor towards themselves, but also towards others. And while rigor is a strength, it’s not necessarily accompanied by violence, nor does it necessarily express virility. Women leaders know how to set up a structuring framework in which teams, or even peoples, can act and organize themselves towards a given goal. They are “women-makers”. But there are also “men-matrices”.
Rigor is a feminine quality. I think we all share it to varying degrees, because it’s essential for building trust. Rigor is just as necessary for leadership based on force as it is for leadership based on persuasion. However, in a world such as ours, where the use of force has become increasingly unaccepted, rigor is a quality that requires courage. Indeed, in a non-threatening environment, the easy thing for a leader to do would be to trade rigor for seduction and compromise, and thus to resort to so-called feminine values. However, in my experience, women leaders resist this temptation, which can be a political mistake, as it can lead to soft compromise.
So I don’t think we can speak of female leadership.. Leadership qualities are not linked to a physical identity, even if the expression of these qualities can be influenced by this identity, since it’s often easier to act in accordance with what’s expected of us. Can leadership be learned? It’s a posture that’s the result of a set of predispositions combining interest in others (more than in oneself), a taste for risk (as opposed to the quest for security), but also a sense of team spirit, endurance (particularly in the face of solitude), willpower and so on. This cocktail is not specifically feminine or masculine, but the very essence of a person and his or her experience.
Feminine or masculine are not linked to a physical aspect, but to universal values to which it is very difficult to assign a gender.
Elisabeth Carrio
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