GENDER
In Yukl’s text, Dr. Yukl states, “Gender
egalitarianism is the extent to which men and women receive equal treatment,
and both masculine and feminine attributes are considered important and desirable. In cultures with high gender egalitarianism,
there is less differentiation of sex roles and most jobs are not segregated by
gender. Women have more equal opportunity
to be selected for important leadership positions, although access is still
greater for public sector positions than in business corporations. In the absence of strongly differentiated
gender-role expectations, men and women leaders are limited in their behavior,
and there is less bias in how their behavior is evaluated by subordinates and
by bosses.” (Yukl, 2013)
In my experiences, I have witnessed
this while living in Europe. I saw woman
in public office and positions of authority such as police and military. Conversely, I have witnessed less of this in
the United States, especially in the military.
For years, women have not officially served in combat roles and were not
allowed access into “male only” jobs. However,
this is changing. According to the New
York Times article by Matthew Rosenberg and Dave Philipps, “In a historic transformation
of the American military, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said on Thursday
that the Pentagon would open all combat jobs to women.
“There will be no exceptions,” Mr.
Carter said at a news conference. He added, “They’ll be allowed to drive tanks,
fire mortars and lead infantry soldiers into combat. They’ll be able to serve
as Army Rangers and Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps infantry, Air Force
parajumpers and everything else that was previously open only to men.”
The groundbreaking decision
overturns a longstanding rule that had restricted women from combat roles, even
though women have often found themselves in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan over
the past 14 years.” (Rosenberg and Philipps, 2015).
During her April 2, 2010 Harvard
Business Review interview, Rosabeth Moss Kanter discusses how there is still a
pay gap between men and women. She believes
that it has taken a long time to get women into top positions in certain
occupations. It takes dedication and
commitment to hold these top positions.
People are juggling lots of other responsibilities and they align
themselves to be placed in these positions but Ms. Kanter believes that
companies still discriminate based on gender.
Moreover, she believes that women are not equally compensates although
they hold the same positions as their male counterparts. She informs the viewer that women’s median compensation
moves very slowly and has actually slowed even more over the last ten
years. She indicates many reasons but
what it boils down to is sex-based discrimination. (Kanter, 2010).
According to Yukl, “Widespread
discrimination is clearly evident in the low number of women who hold
important, high-level leadership positions in most types of organizations. The strong tendency to favor men over women in
filling high-level leadership positions has been referred to as the ‘glass
ceiling.’ Only a small number of nations
have female a head of state (e.g., prime minister, president), and the number
of women in top executive positions in large business organizations is also
very small, although it has been increasing in recent years. In the complete absence of sex-based
discrimination, the number of women in chief executive position in business and
government should be close to 50 percent. (Yukl, 2013).
References
Yukl, G.
(2013). Leadership in Organizations.
(8th ed). Pearson: Boston
Rosenberg,
M. and Philipps, D. (December 3, 2015). All
Combat Roles Now Open To Women, Defense Secretary Says. Retrieved on March
6, 2016 from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/us/politics/combat-military-women-ash-carter.html?_r=0
Kanter, R.
M. (April 2, 2010). Harvard Business
Review: Woman, Ambition and (Still) the Pay Gap. Retrieved on March 6, 2016
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhquUOlBuOY&feature=youtu.be&t=5s
