“Women’s Studies International Forum” is a journal devoted to feminist research and women’s studies in every possible field, including women leadership, equal opportunities, and women’s needs mainstreaming. “The Leadership Quarterly” is devoted to the study of leadership issues. However, given the fact that female leadership studies are popular nowadays, many of the articles in this journal are also devoted to similar topics.
Equality, Mainstreaming, and Politics
The study of David and Guerrina establishes the importance of equality for the European Union. Even though the authors mention the fact that equality is an essential feature of the EU legislative system, they devoted most of the paper to gender equality. The authors assert that the question of gender policies (mainstreaming included) is located at the intersection of culture, politics, and law which makes it a deeply rooted norm and a part of the Union’s identity.
Consequently, the author points out that retreating from mainstreaming would demonstrate the inconsistency of the Union’s politics. The authors believe that gender equality should be promoted through the EU neighborhood policy. They finish with a call for the politicians to be consistent and promote equality in every field and respect.
Female Leadership and the Inequality of Opportunities
The study of Fitzsimmons, Callan and Paulsen is devoted to the inequality of opportunities that still exist in the modern society despite the efforts directed at eliminating it. The authors examined childhood and school experiences and the career trajectory of thirty female and thirty male CEOs and came to the conclusion that men and women acquire different career-related and leadership-relevant experiences throughout their lives.
Examples of such experiences include leadership in team sports for male CEOs and overcoming adversity for female ones. Leadership-related experiences are more common for male children, which gives them a certain advantage. The access to career advantages at the workplace was also found to be deficient for female workers. The authors conclude that the problem of equality at the workplace does not depend only on the company’s strategy as the reasons for it appear to be more deeply rooted.
Equality, Gender Mainstreaming, Female Visibility in Bolivia
The study by Hippert reviews the results of the Law of Popular Participation that was adopted in Bolivia in 1994. It mandated the formerly ignored groups (including women) to express their opinions, draw the public eye to their needs, and participate in the political life of the country. The author points out that the participation of women in the political organization of the country is surprisingly high. However, the author remains dissatisfied with the stereotypical gender roles division.
For example, leadership positions are extremely rare for Bolivian women, and “high” politics is practically out of reach for them. In the author’s opinion, this is the result of misinterpreting gender mainstreaming which appears to be limited to increasing the numbers of women who participate in the governing process, while the structure of the gender relations remains unchanged and unattended.
The author concludes that a lot is yet to be done for the gender equality in Bolivia. She appears to believe that this is the mission of more liberal countries, including those of the EU.
Equal Opportunities Tool
Leicht, Randsley de Moura, and Crisp offer a study devoted to a tool of promoting equal opportunities at the workplace. It involved exposure to a counter-stereotypical leader model. The study featured three experiments the participants of which were exposed to counter-stereotypical experience. The results showed that, while the initial reaction to the counter-stereotypical model could be rather negative, in general, the tendency to rely on stereotypes while choosing the leader was decreasing.
The authors also express the opinion that promoting equality in an organization is not a “luxury” or a secondary goal. According to the authors, the choice of the leader must not be misguided by biases. They advocate the idea that counter-stereotypical experience can improve the open-mindedness of employees, in general, which may lead to a more positive perception of innovation and change.
Works Cited
“The Leadership Quarterly.” Elsevier. Elsevier B.V., 2015. Web.
“Women’s Studies International Forum.” Elsevier. Elsevier B.V., 2015. Web.
David, Maxine, and Roberta Guerrina. ‘Gender And European External Relations: Dominant Discourses And Unintended Consequences Of Gender Mainstreaming’. Women’s Studies International Forum 39 (2013): 53-62. Elsevier BV. Web.
Fitzsimmons, Terrance W., Victor J. Callan, and Neil Paulsen. ‘Gender Disparity In The C-Suite: Do Male And Female CEOs Differ In How They Reached The Top?’. The Leadership Quarterly 25.2 (2014): 245-266. Elsevier BV. Web.
Hippert, Christine. ‘Women’s Spaces, Gender Mainstreaming, And Development Priorities: Popular Participation As Gendered Work In Rural Bolivia’. Women’s Studies International Forum 34.6 (2011): 498-508. Elsevier BV. Web.
Leicht, Carola, Georgina Randsley de Moura, and Richard J. Crisp. ‘Contesting Gender Stereotypes Stimulates Generalized Fairness In The Selection Of Leaders’. The Leadership Quarterly 25.5 (2014): 1025-1039. Elsevier BV. Web.