5. The Conundrum of Gender Stereotypes

Gender stereotypes are ideas about how people will and should act according to their gender. Gender stereotypes associate men with achievement, competence, ambition, and independence. Women, on the other hand, are associated with caring, nurturing, and concern for others. Gender schemas are unconscious assumptions we have about women and men. Women are assumed incompetent until proven otherwise and it’s the opposite for men. These assumptions impede women’s professional development because women are not seen as leaders. They impede men’s emotional development because in order to be regarded as manly, strong, independent, men need to reject and deny any vulnerabilities. A common gender stereotype pattern, a conundrum, emerges where men need to dominate and assert their power in order to confirm gender stereotypes, while women resist and struggle to break through stereotypes. This struggle makes visible different styles of leadership, domination and collaboration. The conundrum that emerges is that we look for autocratic traits in our leaders but value a democratic work environment.