Gender Equality Involving Leadership

Alexis Seidl
Monday, June 10th, 2019

Over the centuries, femininity has been stereotyped as dependent, weak, and
emotional, hence why women have been seen as lacking in leadership qualities.
Whereas males have been stereotyped as dependent and always in control,
therefore, they are seen as “the leaders”. Today I will be explaining gender equality
involving leadership from when it all started to where we are today.

The idea of how men are superior to women in leadership originated from the bible. A
verse in the bible explains that Eve was created after Adam because she was
created to be his helper, this is proof that it was intended that Adam would be of
higher authority than Eve. Whatever your beliefs this concept was from the popular
Christian religion which paved the way for to more future issues when it came to
gender inequality.

In the early 1800s, women worked alongside their husbands and brothers at their
family businesses. Although, by the 1830’s the concept that women stayed home to
oversee the domestic duties that were carried out by servants was adapted. This was
the start of the idea of how women were to “weak” to be able to do the jobs that men
do.

By the 1900s most people did not have servants doing their housework for them,
therefore, women filled the position. Women were now responsible to stay home and
take care of the house while the men worked and provided for the family. The idea
that the men were the leaders of the household and the women followed was
normalized.

In 1914 World War One broke out. During this war, women were permitted from
enlisting in the war because they “weren’t capable” of handing a war. Therefore, when
the men left to fight for their countries the women needed to step up to the plate.
Women had to fill the shoes of the men and not only take care of the household and
the children but work the men’s jobs as well. This was a huge step for women in
leadership because they were given the opportunity to show everyone that they
could do what men could do. Once the war ended most men went back to their jobs,
therefore, the women had to go back to staying at home.

A huge step for equal rights occurred during World War Two, for the first time ever
women were allowed to enlist in the war. In the United States alone roughly 350,000
women fought alongside men. Again, this proved that men were not of more power
and leadership than women.

After World War Two ended women than again proved to the world that they could
do “men's” work, and do it well. This was the beginning of women returning back into
the workforce. At this time women were being paid 15% less than men for completing
the same tasks, but why?

Once again this ties back into the idea of gender inequality in leadership. At the time
society still viewed men of higher power than women hence why they thought they
should get paid more for the same work.

In 1968 a strike lead by 187 female workers outside a ford factory in Dagenham took
place. These women marched the streets protesting against unequal pay. This was
one of many protests fighting for the right that men are not worth more than women.

I am sure people believed that 50 years later things would’ve changed and everyone
was equal, well it hasn’t. Although, things have gotten much better there is still gender
inequality involving leadership present today. I’m now going to fast forward to more
recent years and where we stand today with this issue.

It is 2019 and both Canada and the United States have yet to elect a female president
or prime minister. But there must be a logical reason why this hasn’t happened, well
there isn’t. It is purely based upon a centuries old mindset that men are of higher
power than women and were born to be leaders. Who knows how many more years it
will take for this to happen.

Alexandria Cortez is the youngest congresswoman in American history, at only 29

years old. This was her first time running for office. Paul Ryan (former speaker of the
US House of Representatives) was 29 when he was first elected, the same age as
Cortez. When Paul Ryan was elected, people praised him for ‘genius’ ideas and
bringing a new feel to the republican party. When Cortez was elected, countless
republicans and even some democrats accused her of not knowing her place
because she was so young. Cortez has already had to deal with tremendous
amounts of sexism, and she probably will for her whole career.

The next focus is economics. A study done by the organization ‘Peace Corps’ explains
that the world’s population consists of 50% women yet they only own 1% of the world’s
wealth. This is referring to how women do not have equal economic participation,
physical security, land access, and financial resources or earnings. It has been
proven that closing gender gaps would greatly enhance women’s economic
opportunities and outcomes.

Next, to become an employee of high ranking at a business a skill that you must have
is leadership which both men and women are capable of possessing. Although,
women are promoted a lot less often than men. This is proven because women make
up 5% of CEOs, and less than 10% of women are top earners despite the fact that
women compose of half of the workplace.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the Olympics said in 1896, “No matter how
toughened a sportswoman may be, her organism is not cut out to sustain certain
shocks”. Obviously, gender inequality involving sports has come a long way since 1896
but it still is a very controversial topic today.

Research shows that in America 40% of athletes are women, however, only 6-8% of
the total sports media coverage is devoted to them. According to the Women’s
Sports Foundation, male athletes get $179 million more in athletic scholarships than
women each year.

So what makes women’s athletics less important than males? Honestly, I don’t have
an answer because there is no reason for this to be happening. Professional sports
are a way to showcase talents which has nothing to do with someone's gender.

Although, we have come a long way from where this all started gender inequalities
involving leadership is still occurring on a daily basis everywhere around the world.
Whether that be political leaders, unequal pay, economic opportunities, gender-
based promotions, and athletics they are all issues that we need to work towards to
solve.

The theory that men are of higher authority than women was brought to life centuries
ago and it is unbelievable that to a certain extent we still follow these unfair
stereotypes. Leadership is not a gender-based skill and never has been. Everyone
should have an equal opportunity to become a successful leader no matter your
gender. The world needs more leaders and if we continue with these discriminatory
habits leaders won’t be so common.