Gender coloration of senior positions

Few months ago, I had watched TED talk of Sheryl Sandberg on the issue of a few number of women leaders. They are vary across countries, but nevertheless women taking high positions are still little. It is also well-known, that women all over the world always have to chose between career and family; and conduct both areas, especially in some cultures, mostly very difficult. Many people can say, that recent decades the state of women in high working positions changed, however, more than half of such positions are still men's.  If you will watch the TED talk of the mentioned woman, you can understand most of our problems and she gives quite good recommendations as well.

In support of my opinion, Harvard Business Review claims that women taking high positions vary from countries to countries by their culture. For example, in countries with "strong cultures" related to women like in Japan and Pakistan, women in the Executive board differ from 1-3%, while in USA this percentage achieved 17% (Leonardelli, 2014).

Chamorro (2014) in his turn, described three reasons, why do women in higher positions are less than men. They are: firstly, disinclination to risks; secondly, women are more patient that men, that is why they are tolerate to incompetent bosses and colleagues and stay in the current work place, rather that look for a better variants outside; and thirdly, men attract market more than women, even most of women leaders are hired to the senior positions, because they have some "male character", such as impetuosity and excessive self-confidence.

Andropova (2012) in Forbes clams that success for a modern woman who is hired to the senior position is more that negotiation of barriers, it is mostly how do they achieve success. Center for Creative Leadership (CLL) decided to conduct a research on revealing guidelines and strategies of women who become leaders. Study was conducted two years with more that 60 women-leaders between the age 26-58. The study identified five key components of women-leaders' success, such as: active position, ability to be true to herself, build connections, clear self-conception and cohesiveness. 

While original source of these strategies have large-scale definitions, I would like to conclude my blog with personal opinion on this matter. Woman-leader is not only a model of ideal worker, who is strict and hard-working as a man, but it is the entire woman with component parts, such as mentioned strategies, internal motivations and a warm-hearted partner nearby (smile). 

References:

Andropova, T. (2012, April 26). Novyi vzglyad na zhenshinu-lidera (New view to the woman-leader). Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.ru/forbes-woman/liderstvo/81505-novyi-vzglyad-na-zhenshchinu-lidera

Chamorro, T. (2014, April 01). Gendernaya okraska biznesa (Gender coloring of a business). Retrieved from Harvard Business Review Russia: http://hbr-russia.ru/liderstvo/zhenskoe-liderstvo/p13525/?login=yes

Leonardelli, G. &. (2014, June 30). Harvard Business Review Russia. Retrieved from Zhenskoe liderstvo v raznyh kulturah (Woman leadership in different cultures): http://hbr-russia.ru/liderstvo/zhenskoe-liderstvo/p14263/?login=yes