Closing the Leadership Gap Chapters 1-5

Many women are CEO’s and Executives that operate popular television stations and computer companies. However, plenty is equivalent to a few when being compared to all of the men that hold prominent jobs in the same field and even the government. Women have been trying to break the “glass ceiling” and emerge as an equal in the workforce. Marie C. Wilson gives a vast array of statistics regarding how women are slowly rising in the corporate world. Unfortunately, women tend to lead as “men” in order to hold a position as a woman.
Women are “better communicators and listeners, more nurturing, more willing to involve others in decision making, and more likely to roll up there sleeves and work as a team” (Wilson 9). These qualities are impeccable and tend to help govern things nicely. Unfortunately, it is not enough. The stereotypes that are held within genders hinder the way equality can be distributed among them. All over the media and in entertainment there are women who are seen as great leaders but because they fit the “aggressive male” persona. Women do not meet the characteristics of the “traditional male leader” and when something is not in the “norm” people tend to get nervous. However, women have to act irrational in order to gain respect. Movies such as Norma Rae and Erin Brockovich were movies that contained strong, sensitive, hard-working women that gained respect from their emotional drive for the greater good. Now movies such as Laura Croft Tomb raider and Alias portray women as being “male warriors” (Wilson 28). This is because the majority of people vision successful leadership in a masculine point-of-view.
Wilson promotes women to be ambitious, courageous in there attempt in gaining a much greater voice in the country. She talks about ambition and ability in chapters 5and 6 and how women should take the extra step to be noticed. Wilson uses Hillary Clinton as an example of being a courageous woman. Before she began her journey to the White House as a candidate, she was first at the White House as a wife. When former president Bill Clinton put her head of a committee for the nation’s health care, the project failed. It did not fail because of her qualities, it fell because of the complexity of the project and the stigma that men place on women in power (Wilson 57). Hillary was scrutinized for trying to be in politics when the First Lady is supposed to stray away from political affairs. Even though criticism can hurt, she did not let it break her. She had an ambition and that ambition took her from being the First Lady to becoming a Senator and a prominent candidate for being President of the United States.
Women are great leaders; we forget to notice that the “skills of mothering translate to leadership” (Wilson 75). There was a study done at Wellesley College that “identified a framework for understanding the roots and practices of leadership through mothering.” (Wilson 75). Mothering is a skill that is not usually taught but instilled in us. If women can automatically mother, then why cannot we lead a Fortune 500 company or the country? Wilson said that “If women can manage a group of children, they can manage a group of bureaucrats” (9). So why walk away from the opportunity to have a bigger voice in the world.
After reading these five chapters, I realized that yes; I do have to work a little harder for the job, for money and for respect. However, I know that it is not impossible for me to have it if I wanted it. I am going to accomplish the goals that I have set in my mind. This reading has empowered me to work hard because it shows that we all have the ability to lead; the obstacle is showing this to everyone else who does not believe.