Although the US is easily the most liberal nations on earth, even in the 21st century, women still struggle to establish themselves its largely male dominated social-political landscape. Today, only 19 CEOs in the fortune 500 companies are female and despite having 70 female congressional representatives, the number is diminutive considering there are 535 seats. In most cases, women, despite being qualified for positions, both in the corporate and political world discover that they simply cannot rise above certain pay grades although there is no legal or professional reason for them not to (Jalalzai, 2013).
The illusion, of seeing their career objective yet being unable to achieve it is commonly referred to as the “glass ceiling”. However, despite the existence of this very real, albeit hypothetically named barrier, there are women who have challenged the stereotypes and managed to crash through the ceiling, or at least cause very big cracks to appear on it. This paper will focus on three such women namely, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Condoleezza Rice in and attempt to discuss what common characters they share and how it has enabled them to rise above the ceiling.
Boldness
In the process of analyzing these women, care must however be taken to avoid lumping them into a single category, which is a common and counterproductive mistake that only serves to reinforce gender stereotypes. One must resist the temptation to view them as “iron” women who have been successful, only because they have taken a drastically unfeminine perspective in life since the implication of that would be that, women have to model men to become successful. However, one trait that the women mentioned above appear to share is the fact that they are unreservedly bold. In a social political setting that has largely been designed to accommodate masculine ideals, it is easy for women to find themselves conforming to societal expectations and playing a secondary role to men.
Therefore, for them to stand up against men in their own turf they need to be incredibly bold and all these women have lived up to this standard in various capacities. In fact, there is little doubt that each of the women has had to take on huge odds to make it in their respective field and in addition to a lot of hard work and stamina, they have had to be extremely courageous (Palmer & Simon, 2008). Condoleezza Rice for instance held down the posts of national security advisor and secretary of state, during the Bush’s presidency. She was one of the most powerful Americans and her actions and their impacts reverberated throughout the world.
Although Hillary Clinton is not as abrasive in her approach as Rice, her career and willingness to take huge political risks engender a rare boldness. She has strived to step from under the shadow of her still popular former president husband and is attempting to smash the ultimate glass ceiling in America’s politics since it is widely believed she will be running for president in 2016. Nancy Pelosi on the other hand describes herself as having shattered not the glass but marble ceiling in her election as the first female house speaker (Palmer & Simon, 2008). When one considers that, the house of representatives is dominated by men who occupy over 85% of the seats, her running for, speaker was very bold move as both a politician and woman.
How they have demonstrated boldness
Pelosi has become successful in the highly competitive political circle because of her willingness to stand by what she believes are moral decisions irrespective of their unpopularity. She has repeatedly proven her mettle by challenging gender stereotypes and this boldness earned her the historic post she occupies. In Rice’s case, her boldness was personified in her explanation as to why the US had to be so heavy handed about women’s right in the Middle East. She was categorical that this is the 21st century and the US must be forceful to shock the conservative peoples into modern day equality and respect for women.
In addition, by her own admission, she has never been discriminated for being a woman since anyone who tried to would get a dressing down or get fired. Hillary’s was evinced in 2008 when she dared to stand against the highly charismatic Obama and although she did not win, her boldness was rewarded by over 18 million votes, which she aptly described as 18 million cracks on the glass ceiling (Carlin & Winfrey, 2009).
Explanation of their shared trait
While boldness is sometimes described as a masculine trait, these women are unique in that irrespective of their living in a male dominated world, they have not lost their femininity. To them being bold is a human and inherently female trait rather than an offshoot of a male tendency. They are bold and tough because any man who wants to hold the jobs they hold and achieve what they have achieved would need to be equally stoic.
Therefore, their boldness has little to do with their being women and a lot with their ability to hold positions of power and responsibility with courage and authority. Therefore, it would be unfair to try to compare them with any particular male leader because at their level, they have broken the glass ceiling and transcended gender politics. They are leaders in their own right and do not need to be validated with male equivalents of comparisons. After all, when people discuss Margaret Thatcher, it is on her merit as a leader not the similarity of her leadership technique to her male predecessors.
Transformational leadership
The leadership model that best fits the three women is transformational leadership especially since each of them has at some point tried to rally people behind a vision of an America that treats women fairly. Clinton has especially being passionate about rights of women, which she equated, to human rights in Beijing 1995 (Carlin & Winfrey, 2009). Both Pelosi and Rice are have a reputation for being very passionate about their jobs and they garner support in rallies and boardrooms respectively by appealing to their audience’s vision of a better America. Throughout their careers, they have sought to transform not just women’s rights, but a myriad of other social political and economic issues.
Although Rice is largely out of the political picture, Clinton and Pelosi are setting the trend by ensuring that, they bring political change through action and example. Given that leadership from the front is one of the main attributes of transformational leadership, it is evident that the two women have the potential to use their positions to improve the social and political establishments in the United States.
References
Carlin, D. B., & Winfrey, K. L. (2009). Have you come a long way, baby? Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and sexism in 2008 campaign coverage. Communication Studies, 60(4), 326-343. Web.
Jalalzai, F. (2013). Shattered, Cracked, Or Firmly Intact?: Women and the Executive Glass Ceiling Worldwide. Oxford University Press. Web.
Palmer, B., & Simon, D. (2008). Breaking the political glass ceiling: Women and congressional elections. Routledge. Web.