Women Leaders: In conflict times

“Women share their power more; men guard their power,” said Michael A. Genovese, director of the Institute for Leadership Studies at Loyola Marymount University, who has studied gender and leadership. And yet when women are in executive positions, the opposite is true: They are more hawkish than men. The researchers said that could be in part because of a need to overcome stereotypes of women as weak.

Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi, all of whom governed in conflicts, were described as governing like men.

Recently, I was working on organizing some reference checks for myself. It went well! I realized, unconsciously I had curated a list which had people I had worked with, in times of conflict! The responses were so consistent that it got me interested in “How do women lead in conflict times.”

Here go my findings- have attempted to make it a relevant one for my women friends and keep my male counterparts, mildly interested if not more!

The following paragraphs are research-backed data excerpts from research reports published by McKinsey, journals of Sage Publications, Cambridge University journals, etc.

According to decades of data from around the world, women govern differently than men do in some important ways. We-men, tend to be more collaborative and bipartisan. In executive positions, women push for far more policies meant to support women, children, social welfare and national security. But research shows, these bills are also more likely to die, largely because of gender bias.

“All members of Congress have to follow their constituency, but because of their personal experiences either as women in the workforce or as mothers, they might be inclined to legislate on some of these issues,” said Michele L. Swers, a professor of government at Georgetown University who studies gender and policymaking.

Another study, of State of the State speeches from 2006 to 2008 published in State and Local Government Review, found that female governors devoted much more attention to social welfare issues than male governors did, even after controlling for political and situational factors.

Interestingly, women are less likely to vote for war or the death penalty. Women’s representation in legislatures is significantly correlated with the abolition of capital punishment. According to a study of 125 countries published in July by researchers at Sul Ross State University in Texas, a higher share of female legislators correlates with less military spending and less use of force in foreign policy.

Whether women’s policies become law is another question. Studies show they hit more obstacles than men’s policies. Evidently, it is a harder journey and it is not surprising when one reads that only 1% of bills sponsored by women passed, compared with 4 % of all bills. Research indicates, it is not so because of a gender difference in expertise or law-making ability, but because of institutional bias. What exactly is this Institutional Bias? Well, Bills on the issues that women dominate, are often gridlocked in committee, so they never make it to a vote.

It is also established that only the most talented, hardest working female candidates will succeed in the electoral process.

I have heard this said several times- by Zia Mody, a woman leader I have worked and watched over the years, “as a woman you will always have to work harder, smarter and sharper to get the same impact as a man in the court room.” 

Gender inequality has moved from being a pressing moral and social issue to becoming a critical economic one. If women—who account for half the world’s working-age population—do not achieve their full economic potential, the global economy will suffer.

 A McKinsey Global Institute report finds that $12 trillion could be added to global GDP by 2025 by advancing women’s equality. Globally, over 2.7 billion women are legally restricted from having the same choice of jobs as men. Of 189 economies assessed in 2018, 104 economies still have laws preventing women from working in specific jobs, 59 economies have no laws on sexual harassment in the workplace, and in 18 economies, husbands can legally prevent their wives from working.

To bring this to a close for you, why did my ref checks go well, I wondered. Perhaps because, I had learnt to lead like men, amidst conflict but chose to share the power over guarding it. I have also learnt, empathy and kindness always enter every situation, if you move out of the way!

Enjoy your weekend.