You may have experienced how difficult it is to get a high rank in the work environment as a woman. Let alone a promotion, maybe you don't even get a simple appreciation. Gender-based injustice does not only occur in terms of neglect and denial, but also provides unequal opportunities or disproportionate rewards for women workers.
Although often underestimated, it turns out that research from Harvard reveals that female leaders are more effective in tackling crises and restoring institutions and companies, you know!
Curious how to explain? Come on, check the facts below!
Women Leaders in the Eyes of Workers
Harvard University often conducts surveys to examine the gender equality index from various sides, one of which is the comparison of the worker satisfaction index to the male and female leaders.
Reporting from the Harvard Business Review page, women are judged to be more capable of leading well by their workers. This research was conducted by conducting a survey of 60,000 male and female leaders combined. Both during the pre-pandemic and during the pandemic, women were rated significantly more positively.
In fact, due to the success of some of the world's female leaders in eradicating the pandemic and reducing death rates, the gap in the comparison between male and female leaders appears much more significant. In the pre-pandemic period, male leaders received 49.8 percent of the vote, while women received 53.1 percent of the vote.
During the pandemic, men got 51.5 percent of the positive votes, while women got 57.2 percent of the votes. These significant data indicate that female leaders are perceived to be better able to manage crises.
Female Leaders Drive More Progress
Parameters for measuring leadership effectiveness are certainly very diverse and influenced by many external factors that are difficult to predict. However, Harvard research shows that female leaders are more trusted and encourage workers' mental, psychological, and emotional advances so that workers feel more comfortable and more productive.
Women are considered to be more able to take the initiative, more agile to learn, better at building interpersonal relationships with workers and provide greater moral support. In addition, they are also able to collaborate and communicate more clearly and purposefully, are more open to differences and are considered to have a broader perspective.
On the other hand, male leaders are considered more professional in the technical field and have the courage to take risks.
Employee Expectations About Effective Leaders
From the large number of respondents studied, it can be concluded that workers really crave a leader who is not only an expert in technical matters and making decisions, but also who is able to make them feel safe, valued, and fully supported.
Statistics always show female leaders have extraordinary empathy for their employees, so workers feel inspired and loyalty to the company emerges. The workers not only obey orders, but also reflect on the personality of the leader. Therefore, they want someone who is open with new ideas, honest and with integrity, sensitive and not ignorant of mental health problems of workers.
As technology advances rapidly, the pressure from the work environment is even higher. Technical mastery is no longer the sole requirement for leaders to be able to advance the company or agency they lead, instead, the leader's sensitivity to the emotional factors of workers is very relevant to increase their productivity.
Putting aside the comparison of the competencies of female and male leaders, everyone must realize that the mentality and psychological condition of workers has become an important part that must be taken into account in business. With this awareness, it is hoped that all forms of destructive superiority will no longer apply in the workplace, for the sake of convenience and mutual benefit.