Perceptions on gender-based differences in educational leadership

Abstract

This descriptive, qualitative study aimed at identifying disparities in perceptions of males and females regarding gender-based differences in educational leadership. Data were gathered purposively from 20 renowned male and female educationists having a long experience of leadership in various institutes of Pakistan. An open-ended questionnaire was used as a research tool to express their perceptions. Data were thematically analyzed under pre-defined categories borrowed from different leadership theorists. The results showed that both male and female respondents perceive that males have more leadership qualities as compared to females. It is especially true about abilities of decision-making and empowering the employees.

Keywords

Educational leadership disparities quality of a leader

Introduction

In Pakistan, there is a general perception that teaching is the most suitable profession for females and it is depicted in school based statistics. The UNESCO and ITA’s (2013) data show that the number of female teachers in the country is 773,332, that is 56.23% of the overall number of teachers. However, it is important to notice that the situation is not the same across the whole country. It is also notable that the number of female teachers is higher in private schools. Andrabi et al. (2005) noted that among private schools the majority of teachers are female. It is observed that although female teachers have an immense majority in private schools, females do not usually occupy top positions. Even if the school principal is a female, she does not have power to make long-term decisions. Her role is limited to manage day-to-day affairs. The leadership role lies with the school administrator, chief executive or the school owner who is usually a male. Overall, the situation is the same across public and private sector institutes. Shah (2015) opined that leadership has been concomitant with males, a convenient conversion of male-controlled structures from the social to professional domain, which is supported by various leadership theories coupling male personality, characteristics, abilities and styles with leaders.

In higher education, there is a considerable number of female teaching faculty. The Economic Survey Pakistan (2010) reported that the ratio of female teachers to male teachers was 1:8 in 1990–1991 and almost 1:5 in 2002–2003. In the absence of no updated, gender disaggregated statistics on university teachers (British Council Pakistan, 2015), it has been commonly observed and noticed that the number of female teachers have clearly increased in the disciplines of social sciences, management sciences and humanities. However, men usually occupy the leadership positions like Dean, Director, etc. The British Council Pakistan’s (2015) report “Women in Higher Education Leadership in South Asia” shows that the number of women professors in Pakistani universities was 116 in 2006. This made up 19.7% of the total professor population in universities. However, the percentage of female deans was 8.5%. It was 42% less than the number of deans in the year 2000 when the number of female deans was 14.6%. Similarly, university vice chancellorship is a men’s position. Badat (2014) noticed that while women are beginning to ‘break the glass ceiling’ in all sectors of industry, those positions in higher education remain as the preserve of men. In the history of higher education in Pakistan, females have become vice chancellors of women-only universities or newly established general universities. No established universities have ever given this top slot to a woman. It can be speculated that the reasons for a lower percentage of female leaders may be many such as culture, lack of trust, motivation, social status and their competencies.

The question which initiated this research was how are women trusted and perceived for leadership roles in Pakistan? To get the answers to this question this research study was designed to explore perceptions of the people who were holding some key leadership or management position in various educational organizations at higher educational level. The reason for selecting these respondents was that they were competent authorities to select people for managerial or leadership roles. Their perceptions about women leaders were important to the consideration of gender-based differences in educational leadership. It was also assumed that the perceptions would show if female leaders are really trusted by competent authorities for leadership roles or not.

Theoretical framework

Addi-Raccah and Ayalon (2002) found that teaching had become a female occupation while men retain dominant leadership positions. Similarly, McNae and Vali noticed “women’s overrepresentation in the teaching population, and their under-representation in educational leadership positions” (McNae and Vali, 2015: 288). Lennon (2012) found that in America’s higher education, 57% of students were females. Among the faculty, women had more entry level faculty positions such as lecturers and/or instructors. At the degree-granting institutions, women account for 43% of the full-time faculty. However, the number of women steadily declines as they move up the ranks. Lennon (2012) mentions that women occupy 24.53% of leadership positions in doctoral institutions. The notable presence of women in teaching but not in leadership positions may be explained in terms of the role congruity theory (RCT) (Eagly and Karau, 2002).

Rooted in social role theory, the RCT proposes that people “tend to have dissimilar beliefs about leaders and women and similar beliefs about leaders and men” (Eagly and Karau, 2002: 575). The perceivers blend the information associated with a gender role and a leader role resulting in women encountering more disapproval than men in a leadership role (Eagly and Karau, 2002). Gentle and communal behaviors are expected from female leaders. If they exhibit agentic behaviors, they create a conflict in the perceiver’s mind. Heilman et al. (1995) found that study participants generally described successful female leaders as more hostile (e.g., bitter, quarrelsome, and selfish) and less logical and rational than successful male managers.

Eagly and Karau (2002) argue that there is a difference between men’s and women’s perceptions of leaders. Men have lesser experience with female leaders therefore, they have a more masculine perception of leadership. Male perceivers show a stronger tendency than female perceivers to view women as less qualified than men for leadership (Eagly and Karau, 2002: 577). Role congruity also seems the major reason for lack of gender-based leadership studies. As leadership is viewed to be synonymous with men, therefore gender has not been a prominent dimension in the leadership literature. Alimo-Metcalfe and Alban-Metcalfe (2005) asserted that in the past 60 years no serious attempt had been made to include fairly equal number of males and females in a study on leadership. Bensimon (1993) attributed the nonexistence of gender in leadership to the masculine concept of leadership.

The concept of leadership has evolved over the years and nearly 500,000 books have been written on the subject (Smallwood, 2009). Traits, skills and styles of leadership are the major focus of the leadership literature. Researchers and leadership theorists have identified different leadership traits and skills as a leadership repertoire. Regardless of gender, Bennis and Nanus (1985) found four aspects common in the successful leaders. They were: vision; communication; trust; and self-knowledge. Goleman (2000) notes that the most successful leaders have high strengths in emotional intelligence competencies, that is, self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, and social skill. Goleman (2000) has identified empathy, organizational awareness and service orientation as components of social awareness while vision, influence, developing others, communication, conflict management, building bonds and teamwork as part of social skills. Smallwood (2009) has identified five principles for leadership, viz. shape the future; make things happen; engage today’s talent; build the next generation; and invest in yourself. The Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) has identified decision-making as an important leadership skill and “an essential competency for Advanced Leaders”.

This study has explored educational leaders’ perceptions regarding the following leadership competencies among female and male leaders to see if they are congruent with gender specific roles. The competencies are: decision-making; vision; self-awareness (self-knowledge); adaptability (flexibility); achievement orientation (commitment to organizational growth); developing others (empowering people); communication; and conflict management (resolution).

Methodology

The study was done under the paradigm of feminism and with tenets of naturalist inquiry. The study design was descriptive qualitative research as “qualitative description is especially amenable to obtaining straight and largely unadorned answers” (Sandelowski, 2000: 337). The study investigated the following question:

How are women trusted and perceived for leadership roles in Pakistan?

Based on the main research question two probing themes were derived to examine gender-based differences in educational leadership.

How males perceive gender-based differences in educational leadership;

How females perceive gender-based differences in educational leadership.

Population and sample

All male and female employees working in some top management or leadership positions in all higher education institutes of the country made up the population of the research. Ten males and ten females were selected for the study. They were educationists who had and had been working at top positions from different universities and training institutes at higher education level. The sample was selected conveniently and purposefully. The respondents’ experience on management or leadership position varied from six years to twenty-three years.

Procedure for tool development and data collection

The researchers carried out a small quantitative research study and collected data through a survey from 300 educational leaders to know about essential competencies of the leaders. The competencies identified by them were noted and matched with Goleman’s (2000) competencies. Seven of the competencies matched with Goleman’s framework and one with the ALI. Only those competencies which were considered essential by educational leaders in Pakistan and were also supported by literature were included.

The open-ended questionnaire was developed in the light of the preliminary survey and the theoretical framework. Data were collected through open-ended questionnaires. The open-ended questionnaire is the best tool to explore the views, experiences, beliefs and motivations of individual participants. When there are no limits placed on the responses, individuals provide anything they feel is relevant and anything they want researchers to know. The open-ended questions were based on the literature review and objectives of the study.

The researchers distributed the questionnaires among the respondents and asked them to fill them in. They were not required to write their names. Each questionnaire had a different code from R1-R20 (whereas ‘R’ meant ‘respondent’). The participants mentioned their gender after the code.

The participants were requested to answer the questions in detail and they were given a week to complete the questionnaire. Few respondents did not complete the questionnaires in a week. They were requested again. Researchers collected data from them in the following week. Twenty questionnaires were distributed. The response rate was 100% as researchers contacted them repeatedly.

Data analysis

Data were analysed through the content analysis method under pre-defined categories. Along with pre-defined categories some new categories like “chauvinistic thinking” and “experience” also emerged from data which were included in the findings.

Findings

Findings of the research were as follows:

Vision

All male respondents (10) maintained that male leaders are more visionary as compared to female leaders. Half of the male respondents mentioned that men are generally more visionary and far-sighted as compared to females. This quality can be seen in their leadership too.

“men are visionary and this quality benefits them in leadership positions too” [R1-M]

Another respondent wrote that “men are innately visionary”. [R2-M]

On the other hand, the female respondents came up with diverse responses. Some said that males are more visionary, some believed that women are more visionary while others said that both are visionary as both have vision of their life, their family and professions. The female respondents who believed that males are more visionary, mentioned different reasons to justify their responses. Some said that the organization trusts a male leader more than a female leader so the male leader is in a position to give a vision. Others said that men have a dominant role in their families and they have experience of doing long term planning for their families. Such an experience makes them more visionary. The female respondents who mentioned that females are more visionary also came up with different reasons. Some said that girls struggle much more in their lives in Pakistan as compared to boys and their struggle has some vision. One of the respondents wrote:

“Girls fight at a number of fronts to get education particularly higher education. This is the vision of girls which makes them committed towards their education. Now there are many more female students in universities as compared to thirty years before. I believe that females are really visionary because of their life experiences.” [R6-F]

Communication skills

Half of the male respondents mentioned that male leaders are better in communication while half of them said that females are better at communication. Among the female respondents, the majority said that females have better communication skills while some said that male leaders have better communication skills. Only a few of the female respondents perceived both males and females as equal in their communication ability. The reasons provided by male as well as female respondents for their perception were almost similar. The majority of male as well as female respondents who perceived female leaders to be better at communication reasoned that females generally have better language skills and this helps them in communication.

Some female respondents mentioned that females are good listeners and this quality makes them better leaders.

The respondents who perceived men as better in communication believed that men are more logical and clear headed. One of the respondents mentioned that:

“Male leaders have logical thinking. This makes their communication clear and meaningful.” [R2-M]

Flexibility

The respondents came up with mixed responses regarding their perceptions about the flexibility of male and female leaders. A large majority of the respondents (male as well as females) believed that both can be flexible depending on the situation. A female respondent wrote:

“I have worked with very flexible male leaders and female leaders. I have also seen rigid male and female leaders. I think flexibility is not a gender related leadership quality.” [R8-F]

A male respondent maintained:

“Both are flexible rather they have to be flexible. One cannot sustain a leadership role without being flexible” [R12-M]

A few female respondents perceived women leaders as more flexible. A female respondent wrote:

“Females cannot survive without being flexible. Flexibility is women’s second nature. I have experienced that female leaders are extremely flexible.” [R3-F]

One of the male respondents questioned if flexibility is really good for a leader. He wrote:

“A leader should make a decision carefully and then should stick to that decision. I do not think flexibility is really a leader’s quality.” [R2-M]

Self-knowledge

A large majority of the respondents (males and females) maintained that all successful leaders whether males or females have self-knowledge. No specific reason had been given by the respondents in this category. For example, one of the female respondents mentioned that:

“Male and female leaders both have self-knowledge. This is what have I seen in my job in past 23 years.” [R12-F]

A male respondent wrote:

“Both (male and female) leaders should have self-knowledge otherwise they will not be aware of their strengths and weaknesses. It might impact their decisions.” [R4-M]

Commitment to organizational growth

The majority of the respondents perceived that both male and female leaders are committed to organizational growth because that is the demand of the position.

“It is the requirement of the position to work for organizational growth” [R7-M]

Some of the male respondents perceived that male leaders are more committed to organizational growth because men are more motivated. The major reason identified by females for men’s commitment to the organization was availability of time and no role conflict.

“Men are more committed because they do not have to look after the children and other family members”. [R14-F]

Decision-making

All respondents (males and females) perceived that male leaders have better decision-making skills as compared to females. However, the reasons given by them varied. Nearly all females said that men have more exposure regarding decision-making. One of the female respondents wrote:

“Male leaders are good at decision-making because they get plenty of opportunities to make decisions before reaching the leadership position” [R3-F]

Another female respondent mentioned:

“Male leaders are better. Men are the family heads. Though females make day to day routine decisions. major decisions are taken by men. This gives them confidence.” [R8-F]

On the other hand, male respondents attributed decision-making skill of male leaders to their traits like visionary, critical thinking, clear headedness, etc. One of the male respondents mentioned:

“Men are generally more clear-headed. This quality makes them good at decision making.” [R7-M]

Another wrote:

“Men are better than women leaders because they are more visionary” [R2-M]

Conflict resolution/management

Respondents came up with mixed responses with varied reasons. Some said that male leaders are better at conflict resolution while some perceived female leaders as good at the skill. Some respondents did not find any difference among male or female leaders regarding their ability to resolve conflicts. The major reason identified by the female respondents was females’ experience of resolving their children’s conflicts and their own role conflict. One of the respondents wrote:

“Female leaders are much better in resolving organizational conflicts because they have polished their skill over the years. A working woman is all the time resolving conflict between her role as a mother and as a professional.” [R6-F]

A few male respondents mentioned that female leaders are good at communicating and this helps them in resolving conflicts. The responses mentioning both leaders as good at resolving conflicts did not mention any explicit reason except that they have observed this.

Commitment towards empowerment of the employees

Like decision-making skills of leaders, all respondents maintained that male leaders are more committed towards empowering their employees. The major reasons identified by the respondents regarding their perception were their own observation, vision and organizational trust. Some of the responses are:

“Male leaders provide more opportunities to empower people. I have observed throughout in my experience.” [R12-M]

“Male leaders. I think their guidance is taken more seriously by the people.” [R4-F]

“Male leaders are more empowering because they are not questioned for their decisions. Women leaders are not given complete power.” [R8-F]

Discussion

The study findings are in line with the RCT (Eagly and Karau, 2002). Decision-making skill has emerged as a ‘male leader’s skill’ in the study. All male and female respondents perceived male leaders as better decision-makers. Such a finding is in line with the general perception of associating leadership and masculinity (Blackmore, 1999). Male respondents attributed the decision-making ability of male leaders to logical thinking and clear-headedness while women viewed it as a matter of experience. This finding is consistent with Eagly and Karau’s (2002: 577) study who found that men often have a more masculine construal of leadership than do women. It is also interesting to note that perceptions of the respondents are contradictory to the findings of Huston (2014). They found that under normal circumstances, when everything is low-key and manageable, men and women make decisions about risk in similar ways. However, under stress women make better decisions. Situations for leaders are not always smooth. It is certainly important to make appropriate decisions under stressed circumstances and neuroscience research puts females in a better position to make decisions under stressful situations. The study finding is also contradictory to the finding that men excel in tasks that depend on sheer processing while women show relative strength in tasks that call for assimilating and integrating separate pieces of information (Benko and Pelster, 2013). The study findings may be attributed to cultural experiences where males as well as females see men taking decisions and they have internalized this phenomenon as a ‘norm’. Eagly and Karau (2002) also highlighted that cultural milieus influence perceptions of female roles and leader roles.

The responses on decision-making competency of male and female leaders may also be attributed to the level of confidence of the two genders. In male dominated societies, generally men are more expressive, assertive and confident. Such qualties are wrongly seen as important leadership competencies. Chamorro-Premuzic (2013) believes that the main reason for the uneven management sex ratio is our inability to discern between confidence and competence. That is, because we (people in general) commonly misinterpret displays of confidence as a sign of competence. The underlying reason for viewing male leaders as better decision-makers could be the level of confidence of the male leaders. One of the respondents mentioned it too.

Paustian-Underdahl et al. (2014) noticed that people perceived women as more empowering because of their personal traits to adopt collaborative and empowering leadership styles. In this research, empowering others was not viewed as a personal trait of female or male leaders but as an outcome of masculine leadership. The reasons provided by the female respondents indicate men’s acceptability as leaders. For example, one respondent wrote that “male leaders are more empowering because they are not questioned for their decisions”. Another mentioned that “male leaders’ guidance is taken more seriously”. The reason provided by the male respondents was their observation or experience. The cause behind reporting the mentioned reason could be that they had only worked with the male leaders. Eagly and Karau (2002) found that men generally had less experience with female leaders, therefore, they have a more masculine perception of leadership.

Perceptions regarding vision of male and female leaders have appeared gender disparate. Vision is generally considered as the most important competency of a leader. Male respondents perceived only male leaders as visionary while female respondents came up with mixed responses. This indicates that in gender discriminatory culture, perceptions of the dominating gender are uniform and favor the dominating gender. There could be multiple underlying reasons such as the male respondents might have seen only men in top leadership positions or they are confusing confidence of men with visionary traits, etc. Whatever is the reason, the study shows that men’s perceptions regarding visionary traits of male and female leaders puts females at disadvantage of being selected as a leader because the selectors are mostly men.

Regarding communication skills, male as well as female respondents have perceived conflict resolution ability, flexibility, self-knowledge and commitment level of male and female leaders as equal. The reason might be that these competencies are usually not perceived as very important for leaders. It is also notable that though the responses of males and females did not differ on the mentioned traits, the reasons given by male and female respondents varied in some instances like communication skills and commitment to the organization. Female respondents thought that women are good listeners that make them good at communication while men thought that women have better language skills and that makes them good at communication. Similarly, some male respondents thought that men are more motivated and therefore committed to the organization while females thought that men have time to be more committed to the organization. Though the reasons are different for perceptions, the findings indicate that female leaders are perceived as equally competent on a ‘relatively less important set of skills’.

The study findings reflect chauvinistic thinking too. Statements like “men are innately visionary” or “men are more clear-headed” signify sexist perceptions regarding leadership. Chamorro-Premuzic (2013) noticed that generally men tend to think that they that are much smarter than women. It seems that the embedded patriarchism of centuries is controlling thinking patterns. Such thinking is keeping women at disadvantage. The World Economic Forum (2015) has reported that only six percent of organizations in Pakistan have females as top managers. As there are more men in leadership positions, their perceptions favor males and ultimately men occupy leadership positions.

Conclusion

Overall, the findings of the study indicate that in Pakistan, male leaders are perceived to be more competent than female leaders. As a result, male leaders are trusted more and this could be the possible reason for appointing male leaders to top leadership positions in universities and other educational organizations. Such a state would continue until the societal mindset changes or the ratio of female versus male leaders’ changes.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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