Saturday, March 19, 2011

Women Leaders

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peggy-drexler/women-and-revolution-what_b_837879.html

This article from the Huffington Post describes the risks that the women of the Middle East have taken in the last few months but are still not always recognized or treated fairly.

Recently, women celebrated the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day in Egypt. Despite marking a celebrated 100 years, they came across male hecklers who shouted at them to go home "where they belong". However, some can argue that the revolutions in the Middle East never would have happened without the women, that they were the brains behind the slogans, the marches, and that they were the true activists. Yet, they are not receiving the recognition or treatment that they deserve.


The Middle East has a long history of the mistreatment of women. Many countries in the Middle East do not see women as equals. However, as we learned in class, women are equally effective leaders (303). Also, the book states that women were proven to be more effective than man were in education, government, and social services organizations. But, the article describes Iraqi women's struggles to find equality in filling the seats of parliament, despite being promised that women would fill an equal amount of seats.

Women of the Middle East seem to be struggling with issues that are considered under the leadership labyrinth described in the book. As I stated above, some of the men shouted at the women to go back home "where they belong." This confrontation falls under the Human Capital section of the leadership labyrinth. The Human Capital section talks about the work-home conflict that many women face. For many, many years, women have been expected to work in the home. And in recent years, women have been diving further into the workforce, but are still expected to do all of the work in the home.Women in the Middle East are perceived to take a backseat when it comes to leadership because it is thought that they do not belong there.

Additionally, the issues women are facing in the Middle East fall under the Prejudice section of the labyrinth as well. Despite contributing tremendous efforts to the revolutions in the Middle East, the women are still not receiving equal treatment. This might be because of the prejudice that women are facing because of the stereotypic beliefs about how women ought to be. The book states that "gender stereotypes are pervasive, well documented, and highly resistant to change" (311). This means that even though women played a huge part in the recent revolutions, they are not going to see change in the perception of women because they are so ingrained in the culture of those countries. The unequal and unfair treatment of women will not change significantly from these revolutions because gender stereotypes are so resistant to change. 

After reading this article and my interpretation of the situation, what are your thoughts on how women in the Middle East should be navigating the labyrinth? What should the women be doing to overcome these issues? Do you think any additional sections or attributes of the leadership labyrinth are present?

(posted by: Kelly Yuen)

4 comments:

  1. I agree with you 100%. I have seen personally that women can be great leaders. But, what are your thoughts on the fact that these men are treating women that way because that's how it has always been (women being "house wives") in that country. For the men they might be feeling that they are right to tell them to "go home".

    Eric Dhooge

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  2. The view of women in leadership positions could be hard to imagine for some. There are many people that believe men and women have different responsibilities and for men and women to stand on equal ground, these stereotypes need to be broken. While you may not immediately see women in leadership positions in these cultures, the idea is out there that it is possible and that will lead to gradual change. In these efforts to create this change, women should be extremely resilient. The fight is a tough one, but one that is worthwhile.

    Kellen Hill

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