Abstract
In their book Women and Leadership, two celebrated world leaders Julia Gillard, the former and only woman prime minister of Australia, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Nigerian finance minister and current head of the World Trade Organization, examine potential reasons for the dearth of women leaders in politics and the ways women leaders are treated differently to men. For decades, scholars and practitioners have studied stereotypes and beliefs about gender differences and leadership (Koch-Mehrin, 2018; Paustian-Underdahl et al., 2014), but this is the first co-authored book by such prominent women political leaders on these topics. The authors describe the starting point for the book as their discussions over several years in which they posited a set of best guesses to explain the numerical lack of women leaders in politics, as well as to how and why women leaders were treated differently. Drawing on their own life experiences and exposure to voluminous research on gender themes in their capacities as leaders and advocates, they set out to test their hypotheses in the context of current research and through interviews with other prominent women political leaders.
This book is significant for the fields of Human Resource Development and Adult Education in areas related to diversity and gender equity in leadership in organizations. The authors’ findings pertain to the issues faced by women leaders in all facets of public life including profit and non-profit organizations where the human resource department is responsible for setting policy and training in leadership diversity and practice. Adult educators will also gain insights into strategies that can be shared with women related to overcoming obstacles they will surely face in the workforce.
Overview of the Chapters
In the first chapter, Gillard and Okonjo-Iweala set the stage with sobering statistics about the dearth of women leaders. Only 57 countries out of the 193 nations recognized by the United Nations have ever had a woman hold the highest executive office and only 13 countries have ever had more than one woman leader. The authors also present statistics from cited studies of other industries and walks of life—all of which reflect the paucity in the number of women in key leadership positions. For example, in 2019 women lead 7% of Fortune 500 companies in the US, and 6% of the biggest corporations in the UK (UN Women, 2020). Despite women scoring higher than their male counterparts on most leadership skills and behaviors such as taking initiative, acting with resilience, driving results, and exhibiting integrity and honesty (Zenger & Folkman, 2019), women are still lagging behind their male peers in terms of occupying senior leadership positions, a global trend that transcends industries (Growe & Montgomery, 1999).
The second chapter outlines the framework the authors used for their investigation and its three key components. First, it is more than the story of one woman; second, it presents a worldwide perspective on the stories, issues, and research; and, third it uses available psychological research to frame the experiences of the participating women. This framework is premised on the idea that there are not inherent biologically determined differences between the leadership styles and actions of men and women who lead (De La Rey, 2005). An explicit goal of the authors is to examine the structural barriers that hold women back, often referred to as the glass labyrinth, the glass ceiling, and the glass cliff (Ryan et al., 2016; Schulz & Enslin, 2014).
Chapter 3 introduces the eight women interviewed: Jacinda Adern, New Zealand Prime Minister; Hillary Clinton, United States Presidential candidate; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia; Theresa May, United Kingdom Prime Minister; Michelle Bachelet, President of Chile; Joyce Banda, President of Malawi; Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway; and, Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank. The eight women’s stories reveal how gender and sexism affect perceptions of women as leaders and present extraordinarily difficult circumstances.
Each of the succeeding eight chapters gives a hypothesis on a topic about why there are so few female leaders and how they get treated differently than their male counterparts. The topics range from what girls are taught in their childhood, to the inordinate amount of attention women have to pay to their appearance. Every chapter contains interesting facts, thoughtful and reasoned discussion, and compelling and nuanced conclusions. The authors combine research with their own lived experiences and those of the interviewees on each topic to analyze whether their experiences are in line with or different from what research predicts and whether the hypothesis holds. In most cases they find they can confirm the hypotheses but that is not always the case. For example, in chapter 4, “You go girl,” the authors suggest that one key to enabling women leaders, is a childhood in which girls are taught they are no different than boys. In chapter 5, “It’s all about the hair,” the authors conclude that women leaders end up losing valuable time on matters related to their appearance and that judgements about women are still heavily influenced by their appearance compared with how men are judged. In chapter 9, “Hypothesis six: A special place in hell,” the authors discuss the complexities and necessity of women supporting women. They maintain that supporting women does not simply mean that women have to support a woman no matter what, but rather that there is a form of solidarity that matters.
In the final chapter of the book, the authors present suggestions on how best to overcome the hurdles that stand in the way of women who aspire to positions of leadership.
Evaluation
This is a valuable book for all women and those who work with women. The authors untangle issues that require nuance and objectivity and are driven by a desire to know more about gender issues and bias in order to put gender-based experiences in context. This book creates a safe space for a frank discussion about common gendered experiences by those who have experienced them firsthand. For the reader, it offers a significant opportunity to compare the life experiences of a group of prominent women world leaders in interviews conducted by their peers.
This is an immensely readable work full of pertinent information, humor, candor, and insights. It is written in a conversational style and the interviews feel like the reader is listening in on get togethers with accomplished and wise women who just happen to be powerful global leaders. The tone of the writing in no way detracts from the seriousness of the topic nor the academic approach outlined in the presentation of the questions, framework, methods, and conclusions.
There is much of interest to be found in the findings and the advocacy for women leaders.
The authors enjoin women to support each other in a way that “makes space for inevitable imperfections” and to make sure women never “block the next woman’s progress” (p. 233).
Recommendations
We highly recommend this book for all women and those who mentor women. It is an excellent resource for faculty who are looking to include case studies in their courses of successful women leaders, the strategies they used to overcome the obstacles they have faced, and the lessons they have learned. Given the conversational tone of the writing, this book should also be appealing to graduate students in these and other fields.
The authors supply plentiful statistics relating to the lack of gender parity in leadership positions as well as commentary as to improvements that can be made. The theory and research discussed in this book should be of interest to students, faculty, and practitioners in Human Resource Development and Adult Education who are or will be in positions in organizations to recognize structural barriers to women’s leadership, and put into place some of the practical suggestions put forth by the book’s authors and interviewees.
Finally, we recommend this book to anyone who is interested in women’s empowerment. With specific, real-world examples the authors make a strong case that no woman should encounter extra obstacles by virtue of their gender and that the world would be a better place with more women leaders in all professions.