41
Chapter 10 –- Diversity (pp. 409 – 428)
Article: “Ways Women Lead” by Judy B. Rosener (pp. 411 – 419)
Rosener points out that now that women have been in management positions for several years, they
are freer than ever before to demonstrate a different form of leadership from that demonstrated by
men. While the leadership style of men is typically described as “transactional,” the leadership style
of women is characterized as “transformational.”
More so than men, Rosener finds that women engage in an interactive leadership in which they
encourage participation, share power and information, enhance the self-worth of others, and energize
others. She indicates that most women executives interviewed indicate that this style of leadership
comes naturally to them with its roots in the ways that women are socialized in modern Western
society.
A survey conducted by the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) showed that when organizations
accept non-traditional leadership styles, these styles can be equally or more effective than traditional
ones. It is believed the rapidly changing face of business will allow women’s styles of leadership to be
more readily accepted.
Article: “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See
Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies” by Peggy McIntosh (pp. 419 – 428)
In her article, Macintosh talks about the fact that she has always been aware of male privilege. That is,
it has often seemed to her that men are treated with more deference, especially in a professional
setting, than women. However, it is only a recent revelation to her that she is the beneficiary of white
privilege.
She posits that this is because whites are taught not to recognize white privilege, and this allows her to
empathize more with men who are also taught not to recognize male privilege.
She goes on from this to recognize also that there is a privilege associated with being heterosexual in
our society.
She includes very interesting lists of both white and heterosexual privileges in our society. One can
conclude that a similar list of male privilege would be no less enlightening.
42
Teaching Hints: It may be interesting to try “the sticker game,” where a sticker describing the type of
person someone is portraying in the game is placed on each person’s forehead (soothers can see it
while they cannot). After getting the reaction of their classmates, see if students can tell what race,
religion, gender, or sexual orientation (or combination thereof) they were portraying. This may be
especially beneficial if your group of students generally believes that true equality already exists in
society.
Discussion Questions
1. You are a young executive at a bank. To sound more folksy to the customers, the manager
always refers to you as “my boy” or “my girl” – is this behavior ever appropriate? Why or why
not?
2. You notice that the service personnel in your company always address white executives as
“Mr.” or “Ms.” followed by their last name, and that they address executives of color by their
first names. No one else seems to mind or even notice this, but you have. Should you do
anything? What?
3. The men where you work generally compliment their female co-workers when they wear a
new dress or get a new hairstyle, often they will also touch them such as by putting a hand on
their upper arm or shoulder while delivering the compliment. Is anything wrong in your
workplace?
Resources for further study — Film, Literature, and the Web:
Http://www.learnaboutcultures.com/lac/articles/index.html
http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/management/story/0,10801,108361,00.html
(June 1, 2007)
http://www.leader-values.com/content/detail.asp?ContentDetailID=346 (June 1, 2007)