Female Strengths

Women should be included in leaderships

4.41/5 (22)

Women:  Panoramic View – Emphasizing Relations

Men:  Functional View – Emphasizing Effects

Women And Men Together Get The Whole Picture

Slightly more than half the world’s human population is women. Women live longer than men, and an increasing number of women reach high positions in society.

This is good, especially because female strengths add substantial benefit to the overall functioning of society.

Every woman worldwide shares a similar biological starting position, but naturally, there is a wide variation between women.

Nevertheless, women tend to be particularly strong with respect to these typical abilities: 1) Perception with a panoramic view, 2) Dedication with pro-social engagement, 3) sharing power, 4) sharing success, and 5) Networking connecting projects and people.

There is great variation between women as there is between men – especially concerning psychological characteristics.

This can be illustrated by the figure showing the marked variation within each gender producing a large overlap of the distributions for female and male characteristics.

There is only a small difference between the averages of the two distributions and the large overlap makes it difficult to identify gender-specific psychologic characteristics at the individual level.

However, women increasingly recognize and incorporate their own specific female strengths in their work.

Various sociological studies have confirmed that the strength of a woman lies in her relationship orientation; it also shapes women’s understanding of leadership.

Gender-specific differences can be detected as early as 16 months of age.

Even though many differences between men and women can be linked to gender-typical socialization, there are other differences that cannot be changed either by medical means or by socialization.

Even if females possess some typically male traits, they remain female in every cell of their body, which results in particular strengths and opportunities.

Perception

Perception is a strength of relationship orientation: Women try to take more persons and circumstances into consideration. Since women are typically very relationship-oriented, they have strong social competence.

This competence allows women to assess a situation correctly and collect information from all sides. Their willingness to consider many perspectives of a situation gives them the power of persuasion.

It becomes especially obvious in meetings that women usually supplement their goal-oriented strategies with their panoramic view.

Moreover, 80% of women think predicatively whereas most men (65%) think functionally.

The predicative panoramic view gives leadership a comprehensive perspective and potentially protects it from pitfalls. The organization will consequently be more secure and more beneficial to all.

Both predicative thinking and functional thinking are important. They can increase effectiveness when combined.

Dedication

The dedication to pro-social engagement means that women draw their self-confidence from qualities such as caring for others, maintaining personal relationships, and taking on responsibility for the physical and emotional well-being of others.

They value talking about important personal issues, listening attentively, and supporting and encouraging others who have problems.

Women try to be sympathetic, understanding, and sensitive towards others and feel committed and responsible towards others. This includes the desire to offer practical help, support those in need, give guidance, and share.

Newcomers are welcomed, informed, and properly introduced. Women clearly reveal in their behavior their need to do something good for others.

They are focused on social interactions which make it easy for others to engage with them.

Power

Women use their power to the benefit of all. They want to include everyone, which often leads to a high degree of satisfaction among employees.

When conflicts arise between ranks, women generally show more thoughtfulness because it involves relationships. They prefer to establish a hierarchy as a result of a discussion.

This serves the overall process and offers everyone involved transparency and the opportunity to contribute to the organization. Tasks are distributed according to strengths or gifting.

Women prefer egalitarian structures and think more in networks than in hierarchies.

To have power and admit weakness is not a contradiction for women.
Women can, for example, without difficulty, admit when they do not know something.

They also admit their ignorance, and seek out help, competence, and expertise; they can also withhold their knowledge when needed.

A question typical of the female style is: ‘I do not understand; why is that?’ And they can ask it without feeling they are losing face. This also serves the overall process and gives stability.

The indirect form of communication typical of women can impede their implementation of power, especially when dealing with male co-workers.

Success

Building interpersonal relationships mean success for women:

They need a certain closeness to experience and maintain confirmation and support.

Their perceived role is marked by the struggle to keep intimacy and avoid isolation …

They constantly invite participation from others. The addition of these feminine strengths is of fundamental importance to a working environment and at every level of the hierarchy.

The skills that tend to make women successful include in particular: endurance, perseverance, diligence, responsibility, and strict adherence to proven strategies.

In order to arrive at a good decision, they are prepared to deviate from their original conviction, leave the beaten path, and be innovative.

Networking

Women generally see themselves as part of a network of human relationships.

Conversations are a means of developing closeness in which affirmation and support are given and received. It is typical for women to seek agreement.

Women contribute calmness and insight to a good overview perspective. This makes them wise in assessing opportunities and, a valuable quality for a company.

The challenge today is for men and women to inform themselves about the differences between female and male leadership.

Neither the female nor the male leadership style is superior. They are of equal importance, but still different. They supplement each other.

Conclusion

Typical female strengths are their panoramic view, their pro-social engagement, their willingness to share power and success, and networking.

We should continue to work together to understand male and female leadership strengths as supplementary; they should preferably work together and accept that the challenges posed by the other gender are actually constructive for the success of the overall organization.

References:

Martina Kessler. Female leaders in the 21st century in a masculine world.
Inge Schwank. On predicative versus functional cognitive structures.
Yanna J. Weisberg, et al. Gender differences in personality across the ten aspects of the Big Five.
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox. Women Leaders had the best early responses to the coronavirus pandemic.
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic and Cindy Gallop. Seven Leadership Lessons Men Can Learn from Women.
Marilyn Loden. Feminine Leadership. How to succeed in business without being one of the boys.
CNN article: This is what a nation run by women looks like.
Article: 21 Strengths of Women That Should Be Celebrated More.