Gender and Leadership in the External Environment of the Firm

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Gender and Leadership in the External
Environment of the Firm

• Susan Trussler
• University of Scranton

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The Issue

• What is the likelihood of women rising to
  leadership within the firm in various countries?
• Most work focused on the issues of leadership and
  gender in the internal context of the firm.
• I believe that we need to pay more attention to
  the role of women leaders in the external
  environment of the firm in motivating and
  mentoring women.

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Gender and Leadership in the External Environment
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How Many versus How Long?

• Age of influence teens vs forties
• If you grow up with female leaders in various
  public realms then an increased probability of
  you thinking it possible to take on leadership
  role
• Pfl(firm) Pfl(-20yrs) Pfl(-10yrs) Plf(now)

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Women Leaders in the Political Environment

• Both elected and appointed serve as role models
• Variations in numbers of women in significant
  political roles
• 57 countries have had female heads of govt.
• of lower house female highs in Northern Europe
  (gt30) lows in Middle East and SW Asia(lt5)

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What can we learn about probability of female
political leadership?

• Democracy vs Monarchy vs Both
• (UK versus Japan)
• Family Ties (I. Ghandi, B. Bhutto)
• Length of suffrage
• Cultural influences Religion
• Socio-Economic influences Education

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Religion / Cultural

• Positive and Negative influences
• Probability of exposure to female religious
  leaders as a positive influence
• Christianitygt others
• Protestantgt Catholic
• Fundamentalism and conservatism lt

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Female Leadership in Socio-Cultural Realm

• Role of Media in todays world
• Fact vs Fiction
• News vs Soaps
• Sports and athletes

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Leadership in Education

• Not just female educational levels
• Probability of encountering female leadership
  decreases with level of education
• Mentoring

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So What?

• Influences on development of women leaders derive
  from many realms external to the firm
• Influences are interrelated
• Encouraging study of these influences and their
  relationships to one another and to the firm,
  will not only help us understand the status quo
  of womens leadership, but should also help us
  identify how and where to enhance the development
  of female business leaders.