As the link below attests, for some time I’ve been interested in the question of how women’s bodies might impact their ambition and ability to lead. Specifically, do the physiological, physical, and psychological differences between women and men having any bearing on why still so few women in high positions of leadership and management?
To explore this question more fully, I agreed to write a chapter for the second edition of a volume titled, Women and Leadership: Navigating Change from Ancient Times to the Present.*
Given that women menstruate, get pregnant, bear children, breastfeed, and go through menopause, and given that men do not, I have come to conclude it defies logic to assume that these distinction between the genders are irrelevant to the gap to which I allude. This especially applies because each of the above, say menstruation and menopause, is often accompanied by physical discomforts and psychological changes that range from minor irritations and limitations to symptoms that are more severe. All challenges from which men are exempt.
I have come further to conclude that unless women take this bull by the horns, which includes breaking taboos on what can be discussed publicly without shame or embarrassment, specifically in professional situations, it will be difficult if not impossible openly and honestly to address the question of why so few women at the top.
It does no one any favors to avoid the distinctions to which I allude. To pretend they do not exist, as if women’s bodies and men’s are the same, or that the differences between them are irrelevant to the matter at hand. They are not. Which is precisely why since men are more than content to avoid the subject, it’s up to us. It’s up to us – to women – to claim our bodies, to claim ourselves, and to claim the implications for women and leadership.
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*Editors are George R. Goethals, Crystal Hoyt, and Karen Christensen (Berkshire, 2024).
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