The Australian Financial Review — Page: 66 : 25 September 2007
Original article by Catherine Fox
LexisNexis Summary
Women in leadership positions face a number of dilemmas. These dilemmas are to do with the stereotyping of leadership qualities as “male”. US research firm, Catalyst, has published a report on women leaders called
“The Double-Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership“.
1. Women are either seen as too tough or too soft and never quite right in leadership roles.
2. Women have to be more competent than men to get a top job, but are then paid less.
3. Many competent women leaders are disliked, because they are perceived as “aggressive”. Those women leaders who are liked are seen as too “passive”.
The fault is to do with gender stereotyping in the workplace. Catalyst argues that educating staff about this stereotyping will help to fix the problem. So-called “soft skills” should be used by both men and women.
