The emergence of female leaders: becoming a female leader in modern organisations.

Around the globe, many organisations are still dominated by male managerial models. In spite of the progress in the status of women in our society in the last decades, higher positions in organisations are still held by men, even though women have the capacity to occupy these positions. This work investigates many studies about the different arguments linked to organisations that researchers/authors have done on this subject. It uses narrative as a key focus to explore the under-representation of women in higher positions within national and multinational organisations. The theoretical part of this thesis enables a better understanding of aspects of leadership in organisations, and discusses the whole idea of gender labelling leadership as masculine or feminine, but also to present the principal hurdles encountered by women in organisations. Using the empirical method involves undertaking semi-structured interviews with women and men in high management positions, in order to construct a solid basis for analysis and discussion by putting forward solutions. I hope that my work will enable my readers to find some solutions, and that it can serve as a guideline for firms in order to encourage them to benefit. I will try to propose a solution for them to harness the under-utilised talent of their female employees and to pool and foster an environment of respect and equity based on merit rather than on gender