photographist

“I worked practically night and day for three years on the subject of women and leadership to be able to defend my thesis and then get my first job as lecturer in Toulouse. For this work, I used a meta-analysis, which identified all work carried out on this subject and produced a statistical result which gave us the scale of the difference between men and women in terms of leadership style, and also a survey – known in human resources as a 180° survey – in which the leader was interviewed on the basis of a self-assessment of his/her leadership and his/her employees were interviewed on their own perceptions. In gender studies, there is the matter of the influence of perception bias and stereotypes. I was able to see that the employees had the same perception of leadership from a man or a woman as long as the individual was efficient.

The main stereotypes regarding women leaders lead to a two-fold problem: either they are not considered as adequate leaders and they are said to lack drive, charisma and decision-making skills, or, on the contrary, they are accused of being over the top – being too authoritative, too anxious, too caught up in emotions, etc. To move away from this stereotype, research results show that having a neutral or androgynous style allows them to counterbalance stereotypical expectations. Combining both masculine and feminine characteristics, this style allows them to access power and to have leadership, without entering into gender-related expectations which go against them. This notion of androgyny is also an injunction for men because we notice that the successful, efficient and lasting leadership model is that of a leader who is both attentive and perceived as charismatic."

Sarah Saint-Michel
Lecturer at the Institut d'Administration des Entreprises de Toulouse

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