GENDER AND LEADERSHIP ROLES (GENDER EQUALITY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT)

Leadership has been a part of human experience since people formed groups to survive threats from the environment. Gender is an individual difference characteristic that is relevant to how people think about themselves. How people are thought about by others. How people act in various situations. Gender, therefore, is relevant to consider with regard to how it relates to leadership effectiveness. Company leadership around the world remains unbalanced, with women accounting for less than a quarter of management positions globally. The disparity is even greater when it comes to higher-level management positions. There is no doubt that gender has had a major impact on leadership availability and fulfillment in the workplace. Though women have struggled for a long time to effect positive change with respect to hiring and promotion practices enabling women to secure leadership positions, the struggle is clearly not over. Even though the numbers are improving they are doing so slowly. Until recently, leadership positions have predominantly been held by men and men were therefore stereotyped to be more effective leaders. Women were rarely seen in senior leadership positions leading to a lack of data on how they behave in such positions. However, current research has found a change in trend and women have become more prevalent in the workforce over the past two decades, especially in management and leadership positions. Gender must be considered to determine how each leader can reach maximum potential and effectiveness. The present paper uses this conceptual framework of leadership to discuss how consideration of gender may affect and optimize leadership development and effectiveness