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Gender and Authority

The consideration of gender's relationship to authority is important because aspects of gender overlap with the location of authority in society. It is important in the context of leadership because leadership incorporates concepts of authority as well as characteristics associated with gender. Although all cultures and societies have had and continue to have authority figures of both genders, there have traditionally been more male authority figures than females in most cultures at most times. In general, males have held authority in the public arena, whereas if females did hold authority it was in the domestic realm (as mothers), the field of education (as schoolteachers), and in the literary world.

Gender and the Development of Gender Roles

The researchers Eleanor Maccoby and Carol Jacklin write, “the simple fact that a child is, and is known to be, a boy or girl sets powerful forces in motion” (Maccoby and Jacklin, 1987, 283). They argue that gender classification is one of the two major and most primitive bases for classification among human beings (the other is age). If differential treatment of children according to gender begins at birth and is established in early childhood, as many argue, then this is a highly significant factor in children's developing leadership attributes and choosing authority figures. Walter Mischel, a social learning theorist, believes that sex-typed behavior is learned, like any other behavior through a combination of reward, punishment and models ranging from mothers and fathers, siblings, teachers, peers, television and book characters, to state leaders.

The researcher Carol Martin identifies gender schemata that individuals use to help organize incoming information and filter out what they will not process: The resulting gender knowledge consists of gender stereotypes and the attributes associated with females and males. Gender knowledge is used in different ways depending on its salience, the values of the individual concerned, and situational demands.

A gender stereotype is one in which categorized ideas of the individual are based on their gender. Female stereotypes include being compliant, caring, soft, and relational; male stereotypes include being strong, powerful, dominant, confident, and authoritative. Gender stereotypes teach children that boys are generally the authoritative ones in the public sphere.

What is Authority?

Authority is the power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior. Authority is possessed or seen in relation to others; it has to be made legitimate by others. People gain authority in modern Western society through occupying roles or positions, by dominating the media, and through having expert knowledge. They might be an authority in a subject area or in an organization. To be a figure of authority one requires and gains power. Factors such as culture can play an important role in how authority is interpreted. An example of this is the concept of mana (a concept of the Maori of New Zealand), meaning power, prestige, or spiritual essence. For the Maori all things have mana, irrespective of gender.

Traditionally, positions of authority have been gendered; in Western cultures members of police forces, priests, and military commanders, for example, have been male. Women have been allowed to be leaders in the home, but being “authoritarian” carries negative connotations for a woman. The scholar and novelist Carolyn Heilbrun remarks, “Unfortunately power is something that women abjure once they perceive the great difference between the lives possible to men and to women and the violence necessary for men to maintain their position of authority” (Heilbrun, 1988, 16). The poet Adrienne Rich suggested that authority implies a stereotypically male style of relating to others.

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