Analyzing the Correlation between Gender Traits and the Perception of Effective Leadership

Abstract

As the percentage of women managers has risen in the workforce, so have questions of whether women could effectively manage corporations. This curiosity has yielded studies designed to analyze the correlation between gender and management. Additionally, the research has led to contrary views from one research project to another. In their article, Leadership, Education and Gender Roles: Think manager, Think '?'., Coder and Spiller (2013) reviewed three varying trains of thought from the 1970s through the 1990s to examine how various shortcomings in methodology might impact comprehension and remediation of gender issues and management. The article reviews research that appears to substantiate that when people think manager, they think male. This is followed by data, which suggests that when people think research, we think female and finally research endorsing the train of thought that when people think manager, there is no gender specific thought. Two Indexes developed in the 1970s greatly impacted gender and its correlation to management traits. These were the Schein Descriptive Index (SDI) and the BEM Sex Role Index (BSRI). According Coder and Spiller (20113) results of the Schein Descriptive Index, a test developed by Virginia Schein, indicated the characteristics of women managers more closely resembled males than females.