Abstract

This study is to explore female leadership in business under the growing discussion regarding female power and the positive characteristics of women in leadership. The previous period in business has been the masculine period, where males have had the primary roles in leadership and work; However, with the increased education of women, and their new roles and skills in the various fields of work, the discussion regarding women's leadership has intensified as an important factor to help eliminate many of the problems that are associated with male attributes in leadership. This study will highlight the advantages of women’s essential participation in business, both practically and economically. It will highlight the female characteristics that are of benefit to the needs of the ever changing, innovative, flexible business world today. In this context, this study confirmed that female leadership still faces many challenges such as women and their stereotype at work, the glass ceiling phenomena, male alpha syndrome, and women and ethics.

1. Introduction

Today women are present in many work areas and managerial levels, yet they still have a long journey ahead of them in order to share with the male gender all the roles and contributions in life and participation in the progress of their community. Every decade there are new sites that women advance in and occupy. The old, dangerous and outdated stereotype of women suggests that they are subordinate to men; however, there is a new image that is emerging, shaped by the fact that women can take every opportunity to be successful leaders. So what does this mean? The answer is simply that there is a new world that is fundamentally based, not on sex as a biological concept that distinguishes between men and women, but rather on the basis of the social, economic and managerial function of gender. It does not distinguish between individuals as males and females. This function can develop according to inclusive circumstances. In this arena, women can gain new roles in a balanced relationship between their traditional roles at home and their new roles of specialized, certificate-based, and managerial work, based on seniority and experience, and more importantly, new roles for women in leadership.

The development of women in their roles and success as leaders, have achieved outstanding performance, not due to the empathy of men who see them as the mother, sister and daughter, nor because of the awareness of the need to reduce the forms of sexual discrimination against women; But rather, due to the more important crux of the issue which is that women have the necessary positive characteristics needed in the business world today, and have proved to be performing equally as well, if not better than men in areas traditionally occupied and operated by men.

The authoritarian leadership, despite all factors of change, still dominates rules and methods of work and relations prevailing in companies today. The impact of new feminine characteristics have developed a new model or approach to leadership that can address the many problems that have arisen and that have been exacerbated by the traditional leadership style that is still practiced in companies today. Companies are constantly looking for alternatives to reduce problems and dilemmas, to increase efficiency and effectiveness, to enhance innovation and employee satisfaction, and perhaps one of these alternatives is provided by the feminine leadership style of women. Feminine leadership style is based on the positive characteristics of women and their use of cooperation and participation with their employees, rather than the traditional masculine authoritarian style.

As stated by Steven Appelbaum in Emerald Insight, “Women’s leadership style is different from men’s but men can learn from and adopt women’s style and use it effectively as well.” He goes on further to say that women’s style is “more effective within the context of team based, consensually driven organizational structures that are more prevalent in today’s world” ¹. Women’s leadership style is a new factor, which is expected to be the driving force in management, for the coming period. Women in leadership positions can be a source of added value needed for organizations to succeed.

2. Women and Work

The increase in women's work cannot be viewed as mere numbers coming from workers of the opposite sex who change the sexual composition of work, but must be accompanied by the re-structuring of positions and roles, as well as force and influence. Those who spoke of women's power did not refer only to the proportion of females versus males in the national labor force in different countries, but also to the increasing influence of women on corporate policies, methods and ethics and some of the missionaries of the New Age or the feminist age, who spoke of a new world that women call the Women's World ². The attention to women's leadership is due to several factors that can be identified as follows:

First: there is the so-called women's economy, which indicates that women have great power at work and in the market and this does not depend on the stereotype but on the facts. A company with more women in higher management is more profitable. Research shows that “gender diverse companies outperform their competitors” ³. According to Yoni Blumberg of CNBC (2018), “there’s substantial evidence that gender diversity at the management level enhances a company's performance” ⁴. The book "Women's Economy", published by Clare Shipman and Katie Kay, has pointed out that this women’s economy is based on two pillars: the first is that the majority of women demand new rules of employment; and the second is that women, due to professionalism and the feminine characteristics they enjoy, have become hot stuff at work today ². It is obvious that when there are more women in management then there will be more diversity in recruitment, selection and development of employees, which would necessarily mean more creative problem solving and decision making, which would in turn lead to more organizational success. A study of around 22,000 publicly-traded companies in 91 countries conducted by researchers at The Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington DC-based think tank found that “If you're a firm and you're discriminating against potential female leaders, that means you're essentially doing a bad job of picking the best leader for your firm,” said Tyler Moran, one of the study's three co-authors, in an interview ⁵.

Second: the increasing number of women in various workplaces. Although women did not represent a large proportion of the work force at the beginning of the 20th century, and their work was mostly in the home, they have begun to constitute a high percentage of the total labor force worldwide. In some countries of the world, as in the United States, the percentage of women in the labor force has steadily increased.

The British magazine, The Economist, wrote about what is called Women Power. “Women now make up almost half of American workers (49.9%). They run some of the world's best companies, such as PepsiCo, Archer Daniels Midland and W.L. Gore. They earn almost 60% of university degrees in America and Europe” ⁶. The article further states that this progress has not been uniform all over the world. In Italy and Japan for example, employment rates for men are more than 20 percentage points higher than those for women. Although Italy's female employment rate has risen in the past decade, it is still below 50%, and more than 20 percentage points below those of Denmark and Sweden. Women also earn substantially less than men on average and are severely under-represented at the top of organizations ⁶. Therefore there is a lot of room to grow for women to use their skills and their abilities, and organizations will have to change diversity and inclusion policies in order to absorb them and gain from their abilities and talents.

Third: In the field of science, women have become scientists and Nobel Prize winners in various fields (there are twenty women Nobel laureates in science) and in some areas were chosen to compete with hundreds of their men counterparts, because of their excellence in their projects ⁷. According to the Nobel Prize Organization, The Nobel Prize and Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded to women 52 times between 1901 and 2018. Only one woman, Marie Curie, has been honored twice, with the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics and the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This means that 51 women in total have been awarded the Nobel Prize between 1901 and 2018. Furthermore, 70 out of the 100 students studying biology may be women, but very few go on to pursue careers in science. This inconsistency reflects a worldwide trend: “women are still underrepresented in research and development in all parts of the world, accounting for only 28% of researchers overall.” According to data collected by the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, 54% of students who get a Bachelor's degree in science are female, but women account for only 49% of doctoral students and 39% of researchers.” ⁸. These numbers reflect the great untapped abilities of women in such areas as science and economics, which are slowly changing and evolving since women are beginning to increase their participation in all areas of life. These untapped abilities would add to the development of economies all over the world.

Fourth: the development of education in general and higher education for women in particular, has increased the participation of women today in all sectors, public and private companies and specialized professions, as well as at all organizational levels, including higher organizational levels. Although this is not commensurate with their size in the population, or at work, which makes women a source and choice of corporate options in all administrative and technical areas. In all developed and developing countries, the percentage of women in the labor force is increasing.

The contribution of women has increased continuously in all OECD countries, between 1951-2001, and the trend is still continuing, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The contribution of women at work has increased in all age groups (excluding the category of older persons 65 years and above) during the period 1979-2008 ⁹. The increase in female populations at work can only add to the benefits of diversity and creativity in organizations, both of which are essential to ensure success in the highly uncertain and competitive work environments of today.

Fifth: The transition to a knowledge society and knowledge economy with all characteristics based on mental ability, not muscle strength, collective action, cooperation and partnership, rather than individual action or competition or the concentration of communication and information at the top, has made a need in leadership for new characteristics that are closer to those of women and the feminine leadership style ¹⁰. It seems that women managers possessing certain distinct feminine talents and characteristics may be better prepared to cope with the challenges of the future than many traditional males ¹¹. Businesses today are in need of the new feminine style of leadership, after companies have traditionally unilaterally exercised economic responsibility at the expense of social and moral responsibility and profit priority over all other goals. According to Steven Appelbaum, in his paper in Emerald Insight, “The assessment that a women’s leadership style is less effective than a man’s is not fact based but rather driven, by socialization, to perception that certainly persists” ¹¹. Chicago Booth Professor Marianne Bertrand makes the point that “In a world where talent is distributed equally among women and men, an economy that does not fully tap into the leadership skills offered by women is necessarily inefficient.” Furthermore, “Talent is left on the table when women are not placed in leadership positions, and the economy suffers” ¹².

Sixth: The emergence of women entrepreneurs in many fields, including the business sector, as one of the main trends in labor economics. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), as part of its orientation in the strategies of promoting sexual equality, encouraging women entrepreneurs who do small business and e-business ¹³ women's entrepreneurship is a new type of entrepreneurial initiative by women, where they are the owners and leaders, and they take risks. As an example, in the Arab world where men dominate the work environment due to cultural and social norms,” One in three startups in the Arab world are founded or led by women” “By 2025, women could add an estimated 2.7 trillion US Dollars to the region’s economy” ¹⁴. Women are entering the tech industry since it is new and has no legacy of being driven wholly by men. These examples shed light on the affect women can have on financial productivity in organizations and on their regional economies.

Seventh: The wide feminism movement in many countries of the world has gained great popularity and has had important effects. Encouraging the inclusion of woman in various traditionally male dominated fields and in positions of leadership, without discrimination. It must be said that the struggle to reach leadership could have kept women out of leadership positions, but the feminist movement created great pressure to correct the general situation in favor of women. Women's presence in leadership positions was required for the general development of society, groups and companies. Although feminists have fought to establish and vigorously enforce guidelines and laws prohibiting sex discrimination in employment, they remain a long way from equality in the ranks of business. Further gains depend on getting more feminists into decision-making positions and creating new strategies for change. In the next paragraph, we shall attempt to shed light on the dimensions and trends of the feminist movement.

3. Women and Leadership

Women are half of the population in each country however, according to Jared Keleher in Expert Market ¹⁵, on average it seems that women account for 30 to 40 percent of managerial positions around the world. Furthermore, women are still limited from participation in executive and senior management positions. It’s interesting to note that the industries’ most lacking women among hires for leadership roles in 2017 included manufacturing, energy and mining, software and IT services, finance, real estate, corporate services, and legal ¹⁶. In the education field, according to the Global Education Monitoring Report (2018). “The feminization of the teaching workforce in most countries is a well-known phenomenon, but less attention is paid to the continued imbalance in men’s favor in education management and related leadership positions” ¹⁷. Women in education leadership positions provide role models that can help encourage female student retention. This imbalanced situation found in management of educational institutions affects future female participation in upper management in all walks of life. Indeed, this situation, had been accepted in the past, but with the advancement of women in education and different disciplines, and with the increasing presence of women in the workplace, it is no longer an acceptable phenomena. It has become necessary to reconsider this unjustified distinction in many areas that have no logical reason for the continuing disparity.

4. Concept of Feminist Leadership

Feminist leadership does not only mean that women are in top influential positions leading organizations, but also means the development and articulation of a shared vision and values and new roles in the practice of leadership. Women's leadership is a leadership style that has a high proportion of women's characteristics and preferences, which in many respects do not resemble the characteristics and preferences of men’s leadership styles. Recognizing that the business environment should create the same pressures and impose the same trends on corporate leadership for both males and females, this seems to point out that the mechanism of response and stereotyping in dealing with these pressures and trends is not equal and that male leadership does not exercise its role in constructively influencing and interfering in this environment.

In the special edition of the journal "Organizational Change Management," it was emphasized in the editorial that women's leadership in the 21st century is post-heroic leadership, rather than the dominant type of leadership ¹⁸. Does this mean that companies and employees are looking for a new type of leadership based on the feminization of leadership and working methods directed at gentle relationships, apart from what they have previously developed from rigid administrative hierarchies, coercive power relationships and command chains? This means that the leadership we know has been defined by certain characteristics that are closer to those of men rather than women, and the time has come for new characteristics offered by women. This may lead some to talk about the "feminization of the economy", where women offer a way to understand the economy contributing to the development of the economy's function that distinguishes them from men ¹⁹. Within this trend, there is also talk of the "feminization of leadership". It must be said that women's leadership does not raise the idea of bilateral leadership where leadership becomes either women's leadership or men’s, but instead, is a kind that emphasizes on certain characteristics and priorities. In women's leadership, priority is given to the soft, understanding and cooperative approach, while men's leadership gives priority to the hard, tough and competitive stance. Women in leadership can offer a model based on reciprocity, solving shared problems and profit-at-work strategies ²⁰. “Women tend to use a broader, more effective range of leadership styles to motivate and engage people” ²¹. Some modern leadership experiences require them to be based on knowledge and participation, which calls for the adoption of skills similar to those characterized by women in leadership. Based on the above, it can be said that the characteristics and preferences that characterize women can be the key to determining the characteristics and dimensions of feminist leadership.

Geert Hofstede developed one of the most widely referenced approaches to helping managers understand differences in national cultures. One of the dimensions he pointed to was the difference and importance of masculinity versus femininity attributes in different cultures. According to Hoftstede’s definitions “Masculinity stands for a society in which social gender roles are clearly distinct: Men are supposed to be assertive, tough, and focused on material success; women are supposed to be more modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life. Femininity stands for a society in which social gender roles overlap: Both men and women are supposed to be modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life ²².

The rise of soft power in organizations will make leaders more effective, and it will open the door more widely to women. Research shows that teams perform less well on assigned tasks when led by people who equate leadership with power, dominate discussion, and discount the contributions of other team members ²³. Studies suggest that as demand grows for skills suited for more democratic, younger, flatter organizations, there is a need for feminization of leadership “Emotional intelligence, people skills, and flexibility, traditionally regarded as more feminine leadership skills, will be particularly highly valued,” ²⁴.

The female sex, is also linked to more productive teamwork. Women on average are known to score higher than men on social perceptiveness—correctly reading emotions. Researchers were looking to see if a team’s collective intelligence equated to the average of the IQs of its members. IQ turned out not to be a key factor. However, the teams with more women had higher scores, demonstrating a stronger collective ability to solve the problems and achieve the goals ²⁵. Such studies seem to point to the importance of feminine skills in leadership today, since organizations are moving to the need of more participation, innovation and team work for success.

This is what we find in Werhane et al., who, having presented 22 examples of women's leadership in many parts of the world concluded in her third conclusion that there are common leadership styles between these models. Women’s leadership in these models is characterized by being a command-less command. It is not a leadership that knows the answers to everything, and it is not the one-person leadership or transactional leadership style to swap promotion and reward for good performance and punishment for poor performance. Leadership has functions in inspiration rather than just guidance, and development of staff to reach their potential. Feminist leadership is therefore a participatory leadership rather than an authoritarian leadership orientation ²⁶. Werhane further suggests that “the most effective global leaders will be those who are not only visionary, but who are used to working with a diverse population collaboratively rather than in a traditional leadership-follower dynamic” ²⁶. This distinction in the characteristics of men and women is the key to understanding women's leadership compared to the leadership we have known in the context of men's business management and leadership for more than two centuries.

5. Characteristics of Feminist Leadership

This paragraph can begin with some questions that help to understand the female characteristics of leadership. We can ask the following questions:

- Will women's leadership be a duplicate of the leadership exercised by men with the only difference being the representative leadership and the spokeswoman?

- Is feminist leadership a new pattern of leadership that can be added to the patterns known, or is it a repetition of new and defined patterns that took its final forms?

- Finally, can women's leadership provide new solutions to business problems associated with traditional leadership patterns or will they be just another problem added to the problems of leadership in business?

Leadership as we know it is based on principles and methods developed by men, and some may assume that women, no matter how they work, will return to these principles and methods if they want to succeed in leadership ²⁷. Indeed, these principles and methods have led to many successes in many cases, but have led to many failures in other cases. It is this leadership that has led to wars and tragedies in some cases and created hierarchical relationships - based on power, unilateralism and repression. Therefore, leadership as we know it is not all without mistakes or sins. Just as companies need to continuously develop and change such things as technology, organizational structures, and work methods, there is also a great need for change and development in leadership, principles and methods. Therefore, women's leadership can be an important development in a new leadership framework that is closer to participation and pluralism rather than individuality, cooperation instead of competition, and working on the basis of social needs rather than on individual needs. Consideration of society and social responsibility to be included as part of strategy, not for individual leadership and singular success without regard to the effects on society both internal and external. Kokopeli and Lakey described the feminist approach as one of 'shared leadership' ²⁸. Leadership was seen as a number of functions rather than just a single attribute, one that could be shared flexibly among members. Adding the morale function as a central part of the feminist model of leadership is what distinguishes it greatly. Leadership functions could be divided between goal-setting and goal accomplishment and morale functions which would focus on nurturing the group through attention to process and the emotional climate. A valuable contribution of the feminist model was to make morale functions a central part of leadership ²⁸.

Feminist leadership is therefore likely to take a lot of women's characteristics, not to make them duplicate versions of the male patterns we know about leadership and without necessarily indicating that women have to leap over all previous leadership experience. Instead, it should be considered as adding on and developing rather than beginning from zero. The continuous need for learning and innovation that is supported by all forms of business will be able to recognize previous experiences and their importance, contrary to the usual images of leaders of men who are haunted by the idea that the era of the former ended and is required to remove the effects to fill the new era vacuum in its own way! The description that can be provided to women at work can be defined as follows:

1. Women have the legal basis and social acceptance and self-readiness in order to be partners in leadership and work in all sectors and different areas, especially those areas of modernity based on specialized service and knowledge.

2. Women have become aware that work is a mission and that participation leads to benefits to society and progress. Work is not to compete with men for employment opportunities and challenge them in qualifications and abilities.

3. Women have a degree of intellectual energy. Some women's energy is focused on vision, not on existence, some focus on the long term, others on short-term goals. The same can be said of men at work, as they vary in focus.

4. Women, as do men, have a sense of mission and commitment within the limits of ability and qualifications. They are ready to take responsibility and risk, including facing obstacles and overcoming them by self-help and constructive methods resulting in new solutions to the various problems faced, and from a special feminist perspective. This is needed under the new shifts in business. This is why they strive to make a difference in vision and relationships in their work methods used to solve complex, novel and unique problems.

5. Women know how to excel in management and work well and support the efforts of others giving full recognition and instilling confidence in all employees, regardless of gender.

6. Women as leaders may be effective in some areas, and may not be effective in others; the same is true for men. It is important to stress that for women to excel; they are not required to become another version of men in command work. What is required is to achieve the real victory of preserving the identity and the new vision that women offer to address business problems that arose from the nature and characteristics of men and their methods of work, many of which are intolerable and not productive in the new economy.

The characteristics of women are closer to understanding, cooperation, participation, teamwork and recognition of the efforts of others. These characteristics are closer to business needs in the knowledge economy and network relationships that are closer to white-collar and gold-collar workers consisting of highly specialized professionals who are more knowledgeable, experienced and capable rather than in the development of the quality of blue-collar workers working on machinery. The reality today is that of the upside down pyramid, where the manager’s job is that of support to the employees so they are better able to serve the customer. The current situation in business is of professional individuals, representing the highest human capital who have new workforce expectations and a need for empowerment, delegation, participation and trust. Work situations that are still engaged in the command and control era of male dominated masculine skills, are threatened to lose professional individuals who represent their highest intellectual capital. In such cases, the leadership either develops itself or faces the new problems that come with the new economy and knowledge management. Women are more likely to have a greater chance of adapting to such demands. This is not because women are in positions of subordinates, but because their own characteristics are closer to these new demands in business. It makes complete sense to activate these feminine skills to arrive at better success in the new business world today.

In 1990, Judy Rosener published a famous article in the Harvard Business Review arguing that women managers were now feeling that they could leave the masculine styles that had been the norm of successful leadership and that the first women executives had felt pressured to follow in order to succeed. The traditional masculine leadership style had been focused on command and control, using organizational hierarchical levels and manipulation of rewards (something discussed in the 1970s as a 'transactional' form of leadership) ²⁹. Rosener found that women were now focusing on their interpersonal skills to motivate others through sharing information and power, through encouraging participation and recognizing the contributions of others. The women she interviewed constantly referred to making people feel part of the organization, something Rosener described as an interactive and inclusive style of leadership. She argued that women were succeeding, particularly in fast-changing and growing organizations, because of the characteristics generally regarded as 'feminine' and previously regarded as inappropriate in a leader ³⁰.

6. Problems Facing Feminist Leadership

Women's leadership, despite all the qualifications and abilities, as well as the ambition for equal opportunities, including leadership opportunities, still faces obstacles and difficulties that continue to be burdened by the long-standing negative perceptions of women and their capacities. Research evidence indicates that a “good” manager is still perceived as predominantly masculine ²¹. Negative presumptions are still strong and represent real problems for women leaders to face as additional demands for women in leadership arise. We present the following problems:

The stereotype of women at work continues to be a major obstacle to women in many areas. If we look at the stereotype of women in what can be called "social sex division" in society, this picture is based on "women at home, men at work". This image has many extensions in language and education as well as in other roles such as in politics and law ³¹. In Britain, for example, the curriculum has changed, but the exams in 17 subjects or courses found that most applicants in personal and social education, religious education, and home economics were women. While most applicants in vocational education design, technology, information technology, and physics were men. For this reason, some have spoken of male chauvinistic discrimination as an illustration of the traditional stereotype of men's dominance of basic domains ³².

With economic development programs and extensive movement in community modernization, women's roles are evolving in all areas. However, stereotypes at work are still exerting influence, which can be seen as follows:

A. In the areas of higher specialization, women are still employed in a limited proportion. This means that there are areas where the presence of women is greatly felt, such as in literature and humanities as opposed to a symbolic presence of women in scientific fields, such as medicine and engineering in many societies. The stereotype can also be seen even in scientific fields such as medicine, where, women work in obstetrics as a typical medical specialty and work less in surgery which is considered a typical specialty for a male doctor. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges’ 2017 Report on Residents, 82.7 percent of residents in obstetrics and gynecology are female, whereas 85.1 percent of residents specializing in orthopedic surgery are males (AAMC, 2017). These trends are not related to quantity and quality of knowledge required for each specialty, they are both important fields of medicine, yet stereotypes exist.

B. In companies, the scarcity of large-scale female participation continues to exist for the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), President, General Manager and the like. Time may be working to correct the imbalance in the occupancy of these sites, but the stereotype remains rooted in thinking and culture of repeated choices in favor of men in filling such sites. As stated earlier, according to the Fortune 500 list of companies, only 25 of the 500 have women as CEO’s in 2018 ¹⁴.

C. The stereotype still works in dealing with women on the basis of the aesthetic dimension - the decors at work. The Secretariat is still an ideal picture of the presence of women in the offices of senior and central administrations. These options still represent the blatant pattern of stereotypes. According to the U.S. Census, the most common job for women today remains the same as 60 years ago. Between 2006 and 2010, about 4 million people in the United States worked as “secretaries and administrative assistants” and 96 percent of them were women ³³. The title of secretary has been exchanged with the title of administrative assistant, however the job is the same and it is overwhelmingly occupied by females. The stereotype of secretaries being women is accepted because it has always been so, which seems as blatant sexism.

The question is how to deal with these stereotypes? The answer is that equal rights must be taken into account as an objective basis for correcting this picture, but they also need to take into account certain specificities in the social-administrative function of women, that is, women are neither required nor appropriate in all circumstances wherever there is a man. The idea of female or male dominated jobs should be dissolved and replaced by placing the right person in the right position based on skills and abilities and regardless of gender.

Organizations must explore the strengths that both women and men bring to an organization and the barriers they face in contributing fully to organizational efforts ²¹. More importantly, it is the recognition that women can do what men can when organizations gradually embody this in their rules, policies and procedures; furthermore, society must be inclusive in its laws, customs, values and culture.

For women, an important issue is the glass ceiling or rock wall they face with regards to pay and when they upgrade. High-performance women work hard all the time, facing the glass ceiling. While less qualified men jump to higher pay levels with ease ³⁴. The definition of the glass ceiling is “the invisible barrier that separates women and minorities from top management positions” ²¹ as a rule, women face the glass ceiling in instances such as the image of the male manager as a rule and not an exception. Men being managers is nothing new, however what is regarded as new is to see women managers. Why? Because men have long been participants at work; seniority took precedence over skills in promotions; and the stereotype worked in favor of familiar business trends rather than in favor of new situations. These are some of the reasons why the glass ceiling phenomena was perpetuated.

After women enjoyed the appropriate level of education and preparations to take responsibility at work, they entered the workforce and looked forward to promotions, at which time it became clear that they were met with unforeseen obstacles to access administrative centers in middle management, as well as executive centers in senior management. Known as the Glass Ceiling, it is the ceiling that can clearly see higher positions from below, but there are invisible obstacles to access. This ceiling is reflected not only on discrimination in job opportunities, but also in wages paid. Top positions, dominated by male managers are paid on a different scale. Women’s wage ceiling is low in comparison to men’s. Numerous studies and statistics have revealed the existence of a glass ceiling. In Fortune 500 companies, 95% of executives are men and only 5% are women ³⁵. Women account for less than a quarter (24%) of senior roles globally ³⁶.

The problem of stereotyping of women in many respects does not tell the entire story. Public culture in society also adds to the discrimination of women due to concepts related to the biological nature and differences between men and women. This is what is seen in the Alpha Male Syndrome. The alpha male is a term used in the animal kingdom to refer to the dominant male, protector, and warrior. When an individual has an alpha-type syndrome, he is likely to be mathematically active, full of confidence, fearless, and boundless and unstoppable. Alpha is a Greek letter used to describe the first in the order of the group. In some species the alpha describes only males. In humans, the Alpha male is the one who fights fiercely and he fights at all times becoming more aggressive and therefore more dominant. Alpha is a certificate of biological quality as a natural feature of a species. While the concept of women is used as a beta which is the second Greek letter to refer to the position of the order of women, in other words that the alpha man comes first and the beta woman comes second ³⁷.

Some use the expression of alpha women to refer to other features and characteristics in females such as beauty, attention to social status and acquisition, attention to mental capacity, emotional depth, and the ability to develop. In modern societies, the most common male definition is alpha. Among the male models in entertainment are: James Bond, Captain Kirk in Star Trek, in the business world, alpha male syndrome is a natural component of discrimination between men and women ³⁸.

The alpha males are the legends of life who run large corporations and leaders of small businesses, the aggressive horsepower of domination. The Alphas are human beings with full control over their strengths, respectful of their colleagues, and of workers. The business world needs the alpha males who, when they use their energies tirelessly and in a combat spirit, become natural leaders and fit in the environment with competitive attitudes. But the failure of companies due to incapable leadership and moral corruption indicates that the alpha male sometimes carries the factors of weakness and the results of bad choices. Thus, according to Ludman and Erlandson alpha males can represent valuable organizational assets or they can represent organizational risks ³⁹.

Alpha males, when they can use their exceptional powers in an inappropriate manner, which pushes them to maximum levels, can turn into tragic imbalances, which lead to the transformation of trust to resistance, stubbornness in conflict, and competition to fight to death. This can become dangerous because alpha males inspire followers by fear and resentment instead of trust and respect, and they cause costly problems to their companies because of stress and tension to impossible dimensions. This is the reason that the concept of the alpha male has become disruptive in companies. The prevalence of alpha male traits in many of these companies where the subordinates are viewed as individuals and not partners resulting in suffering from tension and health problems associated with stress and loss of loyalty and motivation; all tremendous costs to the organization. This means that alpha males are associated with personal crises tactics and authoritarian pressures that generate moral pollution for workers. While what is required is training and learning to be in line with the needs of their members and addressing their quality of work life which is what modern companies are in need of. Acceptance, participation, clarity, commitment and innovation are all essential interpersonal relationships required for business to excel in today’s highly competitive business world ³⁹.

Males can be identified with the following characteristics: having lack of patience, forgive their own mistakes, do not need other’s consent to move forward, therefore quite individualistic. Such characteristics were perhaps acceptable and needed previously in business, when muscle strength was the focus at work. Today, mental strength is required at work and in leadership; skills such as negotiation, acceptance, innovation, change and commitment have become the focus in leadership ³⁸.

Historically, women in companies and departments dominated by alpha men seemed to need to be confrontational in order to prove themselves at work and in leadership positions. In today’s business world, in order to succeed, women should confront the traditional concepts and methods of authoritarian leadership and characteristics. In many cases, these concepts and characteristics appear to be appropriate for the competitive environment and the battles of wars. The result is the Alpha Female, based on the characteristics of the female-manager and the many new roles associated with that, copying the roles of male-managers; however, the added value can be through highlighting the characteristics and roles of female managers that limit the organizational risks of the alpha male while highlighting the new needed skills of the alpha female. The new characteristics that businesses need are patience, co-operation, common interest, humility, acceptance of the other's involvement and the gentle touch in exchange for reducing the organizational risks of the alpha male. Fletcher points out that the so called post-heroic leadership has much in common with feminist practices in organizations, shifting 'from individual to collective', 'from control to learning', from 'self' to 'self-in-relation', and from 'power over to power with' ⁴⁰.

Rosabeth Kanter, a Harvard business professor, published a book called “Men and Women of the Corporation” more than forty years ago, which discussed the disadvantages women experienced at work as being not attributed to their lack of ambition. She stated that women aspired to leadership as much as men, but that organizations often placed women in jobs that would not have much room to grow in their careers ⁴¹. The unfortunate situation is that, these facts are still true today.

Businesses and government institutions have seen a major development in women's work, which has been incorporated in some management centers, so that women's presence is felt in senior management or as managers of quality departments, or advisory sites. They are also increasingly involved in the creation of small businesses, as business and rural women are everywhere working for themselves and occupying traditional economic roles. Both the developed and developing countries are experiencing a large increase of women entrepreneurs ⁴³.

The impact of women in business is increasing, posing important questions about the relationship of sexual division of individuals in ethics. Will the increasing involvement of women in employment and employment in managerial or horizontal posts in professional and advisory positions be an additional factor in strengthening management ethics or will it be an additional factor in further violations of ethics? Is the manager the man who is really more motivated by his self-interest at the expense of the interest of his company? And will the female director be less impulsive and more inclined to balance organizational and employee interests and be less tolerant of questionable and immoral decisions? Or will the model of female leadership be the model presented by the leadership of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher or Theresa May or perhaps Germany’s Angela Merkel, who were and still are women who compete with men and are formidable, phenomenal forces. Unfortunately, it should be noted that even these powerful women leaders get criticized and watched for what clothes they wear, something no man would have to face ⁴⁴.

It may be useful to refer to the socially dominant cultures that can be distinguished through masculinity and femininity. More masculine cultures value self-assertiveness, focus on tasks, work, and perhaps adventure, while more feminine cultures tend to pay greater attention to relationships, humanities, and quality of life. Therefore, the more male cultures are interested in progress and change, unlike the more feminine cultures, which are more receptive to the status quo, sustaining the relationship and improving the quality of life. The former is more competitive and the latter more cooperative. Will the development towards more women's participation in management and work be a new addition to the ethics of management and business, improve the legitimacy of business and add a more human touch to it or will it not?

Before discussing these aspects it should be pointed out that, to date, women have been confronted with two immoral attitudes: discrimination in treatment and sexual harassment. Discrimination in treatment is manifested in various forms, including the reality of giving men the opportunity to appoint and promote men has led to the fact that some areas have restricted certain positions from women, women are given lower wages, and the numbers of women in higher positions are not proportionate to the total number of women in the company. Women are considered as vulnerable groups, the last to be recruited under normal circumstances and the first to be laid off in recession. “Companies in cutting mode see the roles that women and minorities tend to have as expendable. For the most part, if they’ve made it into management they’re either junior to midlevel, recently appointed, or working in areas such as human resources, legal departments, and public relations — functions that are beneficial but aren’t usually perceived as core to the business. When women and minorities are in line positions, they often work on small, nonessential product lines that can be jettisoned fairly easily” (Dobbin and Kalev, 2016 “Why Diversity Programs Fail,” Harvard Business Review, July-August issue). These facts not only shed light on the reality that women are the first to be decruited and thus more vulnerable, they also result in less diversity within the company, which in itself is destructive to organizational performance and success.

As for sexual abuse, women face this practice in the private and public sector. Perhaps the most serious ethical problem is the severe sexual harassment pressure on women in business and the few cases where offenders are punished. The Badaracco and Webb study points to a young director's comment that no one has been punished for the sexual abuse of men against women at work. However, the reference was that women could lose their professional reputation in an organization if there was a fuss and complaint presented about harassment ⁴⁵. The Me Too movement developed to fight and bring light to sexual assault and harassment of women especially in the workplace. The Me Too hashtag was used in 2006 and then began to explode in usage in 2017 (Erickson, A. 2018, “In 2018- me too and its back lash – went global.” The Washingnton Post, issue 14/12/2018. ⁴⁴ It is obvious that women have faced unethical sexual abuse and harassment at work since the beginning of time, and the fact that it is still being discussed today is a very sad reality. The sexual harassment of women does not just occur in developing countries, it occurs in all nations. Higgenbottom, K. Dec. 20, 2018. #Me Too Movement has Put Organizations on Alert. NJ: Forbes ⁵² It is very important to teach children that gender differences are not reason nor right to harass.

Ethics in business is doing the right and the good thing. According to Shermerhorn, ethics in business is “establishing standards of good or bad, or right or wrong in one’s conduct” ⁴⁶. The question is, whether there is a gender difference in what is considered ethical behavior in organizations.

A study was conducted regarding ethical discrepancy between women and men, with an expanded survey of 2,856 male and female students in 28 American universities which indicated that female students were more interested in business ethics than their male counterparts ⁴⁷. This study supports a relationship between ethics and gender differences between women and men. Sixteen (16) statements on ethical issues on a seven-point Likert scale were presented to the students. The results reflected that the male students were more inclined to take more lenient attitudes and tolerance than the female students with respect to moral aspects. Female students were less lenient than male students about stuffing expense accounts and more adamant with regards to hard-work and occupational safety issues for employees. The male students were more accepting than the female students of the shortcomings and defects in the design of products, and furthermore, the male students were more selfish and focused on self-interest rather than on companywide interests when compared to the female students. The female students were less tolerant than the male students of seemingly unfair business practices: discrimination, favoritism, and nepotism. While male students stressed that such practices are useful as a way to build team spirit and harmony, facilitate communication and increase trust and loyalty ⁴⁸. A great deal of research has been conducted that has found women to have higher, more steadfast ethical standards and to act more ethically than men in a variety of behavioral realms ⁴⁹. Such results suggest that new hires at work and in management should be females, which would lead to the much needed positive boost in the ethics of management and in turn result in an ethical organizational culture. Ethical organizations are those that last longer and enjoy better success.

There is no doubt that due to stereotyping and cultural influences, the general tendency of women is towards less challenging or less adventurous jobs and towards jobs that are more smooth and quiet and may lead to less mobility and change compared to men who have a tendency to seek jobs that are more challenging and adventurous, more difficult and perhaps more moving and changing. This may be one of the reasons that women were not pressured to make immoral decisions, while men who have had the opportunity to design jobs and do business as they see fit, initiated moral scandals and dubious and unwarranted business practices. Faced with these realities, women may be a positive factor of balance and calm and may strengthen the ethics of management and work.

The moral effect of women will be more felt when they are in leadership positions, where responsibility is higher and the challenges and calculations are greater. Therefore, feminist leadership is likely to be closer to moral leadership and values-based leadership than to a leadership that does not hesitate to succeed, by any means possible, through any illegal and immoral violations. “Ethics is a part of an organization’s culture, and it’s becoming even more critical for business” ²¹. Customers demand ethics, society expects ethics, and therefore an organization prospers by being ethical in its decision making. “An ethical organization achieves greater profits and better shareholder returns” ²¹.

7. Discussion

It must be emphasized that business success is not a congenital trait, but rather a social function and managerial result achieved according to certain agreed upon criteria. Leadership success is available to all, whether male or female, when the necessary conditions are met and the desired results are achieved. There are successful victorious male leaders as well as failed disastrously defeated leaders who are men. Of course the same can be said regarding female leaders, it is highly expected that there will be successful female leaders and there will be others who fail and are defeated in a resounding way.

The new female entrepreneurial leadership phenomenon should be treated as a measure of balance based on correcting of the existing situation of unequal treatment and unfair discrimination. It must also be seen from the perspective of the advantages gained from diversity, which allows novel outside of the box innovative thinking, instead of repeating the old box ideas built by males who have become captive to its aged characteristics and experiences. The time has come to leave the old male box and create a new innovative adaptable box more suited for today’s ever changing, uncertain business environment. Diversity enhances decision making and allows for innovation and change. Diverse companies enjoy greater sustained success and profits.

It has also become necessary to view the new female inclusive leadership as more in line with the needs of the new economy, the management of knowledge and the essential use of the internet which are based on the importance of new ideas and as the new source of competitive advantage. The basis for success has become experience based on innovation and continual idea development, implementation and change, the new experience economy ⁵⁰. Attention to information and the new capacity required to gather and analyze this huge amount of physical and numerical information into useful digital information is the basis of the experience economy.

Feminist leadership with its humanitarian dimensions can provide a model of cooperation and an added moral perspective in the relations and effects of companies and the environment, which may remove much of the suspension of competitive companies based on the short-term perceptions and the record of violations of moral and environmental issues, some of which were disastrous and for which humanity is still looking for solutions and treatments. As in the problem of climate change, with all the options involved in working on the brink of a major disaster based on the destruction of everything. Previous organizational leaders were not concerned with ethical decision-making with regards to the environment; their focus was on the short term benefits of doing anything to beat the competition. Customers, employees, organizations and governments today realize that business decisions must have long term ethical considerations and that their effects can be felt for many years to come.

In this context, we hope that women's leadership will be the new and improved business addition. We point to the need to enhance leadership with new concepts, characteristics and methods that are more responsive to the characteristics of high-caliber subordinates and to the risk of companies being unable to maintain their best employees. Knowledge workers with intellectual capital are being stolen by competing companies because they are not receiving the recognition they need from the old style of management and managers. Indeed, companies are adopting a vision of ownership in relation to their members. Therefore, the leakage of the company's members to the competing companies is tantamount to taking over its most important resources which warrant prosecution. This is what 3M did when it recently sued former AWS executive for joining rival Google, accusing it of stealing its trade secrets, confidential information disclosure and competitive intelligence. So it does not seem surprising that today we are talking about the leaders of charities, innovations and strategies that are distinguished by vision, new tasks and physical characteristics. Zichy has identified eight patterns of female leadership in her book Women and Leadership Q ⁵¹. Women can add a lot of talent to the leadership pool and it would be extremely ineffective and inefficient to ignore their added value due to the fact that they are females. Business is built on being dynamic and adaptable in the globalized open system that exists today. It is important to gain from both the male and the female perspective of leadership. However; excluding fifty percent of the population that add economic, ethical, practical, and humanitarian value to the business, is an extremely short sighted and economically unsound decision.

References