Men in local leadership roles are not aware of gender biases within various forms of leadership, new research by the University of South Australia has revealed.
Due to this unawareness, they are less likely to challenge dominant and biased stereotypes compared to women leaders.
The study, published in the journal Contemporary Social Science, found that female leaders in local leadership roles were impacted by gender leadership stereotypes on a daily basis and actively worked to dismantle these biases. Male leaders, on the other hand, tended to be unaware of gender differences, believing they didn’t exist and thus limiting their ability to push for alternative leadership styles which may lead to real change.
The thirty participants interviewed in the study held leadership positions in regional areas undergoing industrial transformation, including suburban Melbourne, northern Adelaide and Geelong.
They were directly questioned about their experiences during the closure of the country’s automotive industry in 2017, as well as gendered stereotypes that existed in their professions during the pandemic working in industries including government, business, sporting clubs, religious organisations and academia.
Lead researcher Dr Lynette Washington said that while the findings suggest that both men and women agreed on what makes a good leader, there was discrepancies in how they perceived gendered biases.
“The thing that was most striking was that when we spoke to women, they immediately identified that they were impacted by stereotypes and they undertook detailed, sophisticated work to deconstruct those ideas,” she explained. “They understood how stereotypes impacted them, they thought about that impact regularly and deeply, and it was very much front of mind for them.”
“When we asked the men about gender bias, they didn’t believe that it existed for women or men leaders. And because of that, they couldn’t deconstruct these ideas to understand how they functioned and impacted people in the workplace.”
The research was based on the concept of “place-based leadership” — a community-led method of leadership that works to improve the social and economic outcomes for a specific community.
According to Dr. Washington, the strategy focuses on the way a leader exercises their leadership, as opposed to the content of the job description. The key principles to place-based leadership include collaboration, leading through persuasion, soft power and networking.
“It’s about their understanding and care of the place,” she said. “Many place-based leaders live in the place they lead and key to being a place-based leader is having a connection or a personal investment.”
“The findings of our study suggest that greater awareness of gender in leadership would help create more inclusive and effective leadership and this could lead to fairer outcomes.”
During the pandemic, workers in the northern suburbs in Adelaide and Geelong in Victoria experienced significant disruption when the car manufacturing industry closed. Thousands of people lost their jobs.
Dr. Washington said leaders in such regional areas needed to develop a greater awareness of gender within leadership, challenge “old ways of leading” and introduce “new, more effective leadership styles.”
“This will result in more equal outcomes across the regions,” she added.
One female research participant recounted her experience of gender bias in local government: “The first time I stood up to speak in council, the town clerk said to me, “Well, that’s very nice. Now be a good girl and sit down,” she said.
Dr. Washington hopes that the latest research will compel male leaders to actively work to help deconstruct gender biases in leadership.
“If men can’t take that first step of acknowledging that gender stereotyping in the workplace is real, they can’t do the work to address it,” she said.
“Women are acknowledging it and working hard to deconstruct and change it, but part of the reason it’s not progressing in the way that it needs to is that men aren’t also doing that work to the degree that is required for change.”
“Without equality in leadership, we can’t access the full wealth of knowledge, experience and ability that exists in places. Left behind places need to access the full range of skills and abilities that they hold to ensure they can meet the challenges ahead.”