Who Is Better To Be A Leader: Male or Female?

Medical Video: Do Women Make Better Leaders Than Men?

There is a real gender gap when discussing the leadership positions of men and women in the workplace. At present there are 18 women world leaders, including 12 female heads of government and 11 female elected heads of state (several leaders hold both positions, and royal leaders are not included), according to data The United Nations as of 2015. These women carry only one tenth of the current world leaders from UN member countries.

Today, women only occupy 14.6 percent of business executives and less than 5 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs and the same percentage of Fortune 1000 CEO positions. And the gap seems to improve in low-level management, but not really lost - in middle level management, for example, only about a quarter of managers are women.

The problem may be partly rooted in sexist assumptions. In a new study, researchers found that people consider men to have good leadership qualities, but with women, people tend to be more skeptical. Which of course then boosts the community's idea of who is more appropriate and better able to handle certain management jobs.

What characteristics should a good leader have?

Based on the PEW Research Center survey, in public estimation, some characteristics have a greater importance than others. Honesty, intelligence, and assertiveness are considered as "very important" leadership qualities by at least eight out of ten adults.

Approximately two-thirds of adults (67%) say that good order and organization are important qualities that a leader must possess. Furthermore, followed by sympathy and compassion (57%), innovative (56%), or ambitious (53%) are characters that are considered important in leadership quality.

Greater gender disparity arises in several traits that are considered less important. Women compared to men are more likely to say that compassion is an important factor for a leader: 66% of women say this, compared to 47% of men. Women also place high value on innovation compared to men. About 61% of women consider this trait to be truly important in a leader, compared to 51% of men. In addition, women are more likely than men to say ambition is an important trait for a leader (57% of women and 48% of men say this characteristic is really important). This overall gender gap is driven by a generation of young millennials - the millennium.

So, who is better to be a leader, male or female?

People see little difference between men and women in some of the leadership traits above. The majority of irons say that when discussing intelligence and innovation - based on four separate global surveys from the PEW Research Center, Harvard Business Review, Business Tech, and Business Insider - men and women display equally great quality. And almost all people do not see gender differences in ambition, honesty, and firmness.

However, there are still many who distinguish leadership qualities between men and women based on certain characteristics. For example, male leaders score higher in aspects of making difficult decisions and handling controversial or crisis issues, calmly and confidently.

Interestingly, in the Harvard Business Review survey, only three of the 12 professional categories were assessed by the public that men had a superior effectiveness over their "competitors", and two of them - customer service and administrative functions - were traditionally considered woman. In fact, the greatest advantage of women in effectiveness ranking compared to men is generally more in the functional field which is usually very dominated by men (sales, general management, R & D, IT, and product development).

The public is also more inclined to rate women as more organized and organized leaders than men, and rarely judge otherwise. In addition, according to survey findings, respondents rated female leaders as higher in leading men by becoming "examples"; better in communicating openly and transparently; more likely to admit mistakes; and issue the best potential in others.

In addition, people are more likely to judge that women are more compassionate and show competency ‘nurturing’, such as developing other people's potential and building relationships. In all survey cases, women did show higher scores than men.

And, two of the classic traits such as "taking the initiative quickly" and "working to get results" which had been inherent as men's strength, were dominated by female leaders who scored the highest score. In contrast, men are only ranked first in one management competency category, according to the Harvard Business Review survey - namely the ability to develop a strategic perspective.

One survey also found that, globally, men were almost defeated by their women - 54% compared to 46% - as the gender expected by the world population to direct us through challenges in the next five years.

What is the conclusion?

According to Ketchum Leadership Communication Monitor, this survey is not used as a hammer knock that every future world leader must be a woman, and men no longer have a place in leadership. Instead, it is time to ignore the ancient notion of society about gender roles in the workplace. Women will excel when given the opportunity to shine. Likewise with men, especially when they also feel the need to prove themselves in a non-traditional role.

The common thread of all of these surveys is that there is no gender better than others. The survey findings focus more on how men and women can develop their leadership skills and abilities, and no particular field is specifically provided for one gender or another.

What is needed to develop a great leader, both male and female, is their own willingness to develop themselves, be given the opportunity to grow through challenging work assignments, and support through mentoring and coaching from senior leaders.

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