Female Leadership in Early Churches

This empirical research explores adult identity formation through work experiences, gaining insight into structures and practices which allow women to thrive in leadership within the evangelical church ministry context. This qualitative research explores adult identity formation and gender role stereotypes in leadership domains within the evangelical church context on the West Coast. Twenty-five ( n = 25) women in vocational church leadership, aged 25–71, revealed what impedes or contributes to female leadership adult identity formation. Key findings revealed women leaders thrive and gain identity strength through agency found in union with Christ; hold back identity components and skills available to church leadership teams to fit the male work context; contextual factors impact women’s well-being in leadership including assumptions and mindsets adverse to women leading; and lead pastors and supervisors’ beliefs about women in leadership are critical to healthy identity formation. Therefore, this research is an exploration of what experiences assist women leaders to thrive or not thrive in evangelical vocational leadership on the West Coast and how their identity in Christ empowers their leadership.

"We Are the Ones Who Are Out in Front": Women'sLeadership in the ImmigrantRightsMovement RuthMilkman and VeronicaTernquez A striking feature of the contemporary immigrant rights move ment in the United States is the extensive presence of women in formal leadership roles. Women are not only highly visible as grass roots and mid-level leaders but also as executive directors of lead ing immigrant rights organizations and in other high-level positions. In this regard, the immigrant rights movement is an anomaly, since men dominate the top leadership roles in most US social movements and the organizations linked to them.1 The immigrant rights movement is national in scope, as was revealed by the massive 2006 street marches across the nation pro testing proposed changes to US immigration law. Prominent female immigrant rights leaders can be found throughout the United States.2 We focus here on the role of female leaders in Los Angeles, where a disproportionate share of immigrant rights organizations are head quartered. Home to the nation's single largest concentration of unau thorized immigrants, southern California has the immigrant move ment's deepest base of popular support. And unlike regions with more diverse foreign-born populations, the immigrant community in the Los Angeles area is highly cohesive, due to its relative linguistic homo geneity: Mexicans and Central Americans comprise the majority of the area's foreign-born population and an even greater proportion of its unauthorized immigrants.3 In recent years, moreover, Los Angeles FeministStudies38, no. 3 (Fall 2012). © 2012 by Feminist Studies, Inc. 723 724 Ruth Milkman and Veronica Terriquez has become the nation's leading laboratory of immigrant labor orga nizing, especially among Latinos.4 The LA immigrant rights movement includes four major seg ments: (a) service-sector labor unions with substantial foreign-born memberships; (b) immigrant hometown associations (HTAs) and ethnic organizations; (c) community-based organizations (CBOs), including "worker centers" as well as umbrella organizations that func tion as coalition-builders; and (d) student immigrant rights groups.5 The nature and extent of women's leadership varies considerably among these segments, as we show below. The variation enriches our analysis, exposing the dynamics of women's leadership in the move ment as a whole. Our inquiry focuses specifically on Latinas, who pre dominate among top-level female immigrant leaders in Los Angeles. The contemporary immigrant rights movement has two key dimensions. It is a civil rights movement, seeking a path to legal status and other fundamental rights for the nation's unauthorized immi grants. But it is also a labor movement, in the broadest sense of the term, promoting economic advancement for immigrants and their children. However, women's prominence among high-level leaders in the immigrant rights movement differentiates it from other US civil rights and labor movements, in which women are typically lim ited to intermediate and lower level positions while men monopolize the top leadership roles.6 In earlier Latino movements, similarly, men comprised the overwhelming majority of high-level leaders, as for example in the United Farm Workers and the Chicano movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Why is the immigrant rights movement different? We propose a three-pronged explanation. First, an ample supplyof female leaders has been generated by the migration process itself—which, as many commentators have noted, often improves the status of female immi grants and draws them into the public sphere. Second, because the immigrant rights movement is relatively new and has grown dramat ically since the late 1980s, it has generated extensive demandfor new leadership—in the context of a late twentieth century political cul ture that is broadly supportive of gender equity. The third factor is the feminist consciousness of immigrant women leaders themselves. Although more often expressed behind closed doors than in public, feminism Ruth Milkman and Veronica Terriquez 725 has served as a vital resource for many of these women, helping them overcome obstacles along the path to leadership roles. Gender and Migration The literature on the gender dynamics of immigration from Latin America to the United States offers a starting point for our analysis. One key finding in that literature is that, despite the difficulties asso ciated with the migration process, it...

IntroductionThe issue of underrepresentation of women in medical leadership roles, particularly in their retention and long-term engagement, is a pressing challenge in healthcare. Despite advancements in women’s initial entry into...

This article deals with the struggle for women to be included in the policy-making structures of the Reformed Church of Zimbabwe (RCZ). It describes the empirical research, carried out between 2001 and 2003, to fathom the views and attitudes of both men and women on the issue of women in church leadership. The answers received in the interviews were analysed and discussed. As such, arguments presented re cultural, biblical and church tradition came to the fore, as well as related customs in the Shona culture that dehumanize women. This research, amongst others, eventually led to policy changes.

The imperative for an ongoing review and comprehension of the challenges and methodologies for enhancing diversity and inclusion of women in senior leadership within higher education is well-documented. This study aims to illuminate the perspectives of Emirati women regarding their leadership trajectories, evaluating the effectiveness of current policies, the obstacles encountered, and strategies to advance women’s leadership in higher education. Utilizing a concurrent mixed-methods approach, we collected and analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data from 103 female Emirati leaders in higher education institutions across the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The findings reveal a prevailing sentiment among participants that policies intended to promote Emirati women’s inclusion in senior leadership roles are mostly ineffective. Key challenges identified include barriers to career progression, disparities in institutional support, and pervasive gender biases. However, participants also offered insights into potential strategies to enhance the inclusion of Emirati women in leadership positions, including leadership training programs, robust policy development, and initiatives to improve work–life balance, networking opportunities, and reward systems.

Research on the backlash effect predominantly investigated penalties men and women incurred when they violate gender norms in the domain of achievement‐oriented aggressiveness. We investigated backlash reactions towards female versus male leaders' attempts to manage follower emotions using one of two gender‐stereotypic interpersonal emotion management strategies, cognitive change or expression suppression, in a 2×2 vignette experiment in which undergraduate students as participants acted as followers (N = 206). We hypothesized that followers high in explicit or implicit prejudice towards female leadership would be motivated to show backlash in the form of negative attitudes and anger when female leaders use an expression suppression strategy and when male leaders use a cognitive change strategy, violating gender norms. We also explored the role of followers' gender as a boundary condition of backlash reactions towards leaders of the same versus opposite sex. Male participants with negative explicit attitudes towards women leaders in general expressed higher levels of anger towards a female leader who utilized a suppression strategy. Female participants holding implicit stereotypes reported negative attitudes for both female and male leaders who utilized a gender‐incongruent emotion management strategy. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and research on the backlash effect.

Purpose –Leadership in building organizations by men and women has its own strengths and weaknesses, but the lack of women's leadership in Indonesia represents gender equality has not been achieved. This study aims to determine the pattern of women's leadership in Indonesia to create gender equality in building a sustainable organization Methodology/approaches – This type of research uses a social research strategy with a simple mix method approach. The target population in this study were members who worked in various private organizations in Bekasi district with female leaders with a sample of 50 respondents. The data statistical method used is descriptive statistics and Partial Least Square (PLS). Findings –This result was confirmed by a data source triangulation approach, namely by interviewing three existing data sources. The results of this study indicate that the pattern of female leadership has not been able to mediate the concept of ideal leadership or the concept of ideal gender equality towards sustainable organizations.However, this research also shows that the concept of ideal leadership and the concept of ideal gender have a positive and significant effect on leadership patterns Novelty/value – women's leadership patterns reflect the concept of ideal leadership and the concept of ideal gender equality needed in a leadership that can lead an organization. Keywords: Leadership pattern, women, gender equality, sustainable organization

This compilation of scholarly reviews and personal reflections on women and leadership styles focuses on multicultural and organizational issues—empowering information that female leaders can use to break through the glass ceiling. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor are just two of the most visible examples among the hundreds of thousands of women nationwide today in leadership positions. Female leaders at the grassroots to global levels are everywhere, lending credence to the idea that the glass ceiling for women may finally be thinning. This two-volume work provides an exhaustive examination of the scholarly research on women leaders and the leadership philosophies that have enabled their success. Volume one ofWomen as Transformational Leaders: From Grassroots to Global Interestspresents an overview of stereotypes, attributions, and stigma about women leaders that focuses on social and psychological reasons for discrimination against women leaders. The second volume addresses cultural and organizational issues, including global leadership to eliminate violence against women and international insights on women and transformational leadership. The subject of transformational leadership in viewed within several disciplines, including women's studies, religion, the public sector, and private sector, documenting how far women have advanced—and how their leadership style typically differs from that of men.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a competency framework that incorporates the key leadership competencies required of female leaders working in male-dominated industries by putting particular emphasis on the male leaders’ point of view.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative research combines a thorough literature review on important leadership competencies with ten in-depth, semi-structured interviews with male leaders from the Telecommunication and ICT industry, two typically male-dominated industries in Germany. All the interviews were transcribed and analysed through qualitative content analysis based on Mayring.FindingsFindings revealed that success of female leaders within male dominances is shaped by not only their exceptional professional expertise but also the complex mix of behaviours on a professional and interpersonal level.Practical implicationsThis study contributes to the academic debate on why only a few women reach the top of organisations in male-dominated industries by considering the perspective of male leaders. A competency model is proposed that incorporates both professional competencies and expected behaviours on a personal and interpersonal level and therefore enables leadership professionals to better understand the male leaders point of view on the complex mix of competencies expected from female leaders operating in male-dominated industries.Originality/valueThe need for more women in leadership has become a global business imperative, yet little is known about the competencies required to succeed in environments shaped by male leadership styles and the understanding that women are less capable leaders. Assessing the point of view of male leaders, who dominate these working environments, provides new and valuable insights into the complex issue of women in leadership for the academic debate and the practitioners’ point of view.

An increasing amount of literature has demonstrated that party leaders affect voting behavior in parliamentary elections. However, the electoral impact of female leadership of political parties has been under-researched. The gender affinity hypothesis suggests that when women run for presidential or prime ministerial office, women are more likely than men to vote for them. Using data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems project, we tested gender affinity effects between female voters and female party leaders in mixed-sex legislative elections, that is, elections involving at least one female party candidate for prime minister, in parliamentary and semi-presidential systems. We analyzed 50 elections held from 1996 to 2016 in 24 countries. The results showed that female leaders were better evaluated by women and that women were more likely than men to vote for them. However, the gender affinity effects were small and not largely conditioned or not conditioned at all by other factors, such as some voters’ characteristics and electoral setting.

Today the public relations industry faces the challenge of championing and executing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Women leaders in public relations are well situated to do this work and drive meaningful change. A grounded theory approach was chosen to analyze narratives from the honorees of PRWeek’s Women of Distinction classes from the last three years. We argue that female public relations leaders are advancing the conversation related to DEI initiatives to empower their organizations and, in turn, shape the larger societal discourse on DEI. Our thematic analysis of narratives by female leaders in public relations resulted in four broad themes: 1) practicing empathetic leadership and building meaningful connections, 2) reimagining the workplace and workplace culture, 3) showing a commitment to and celebration of DEI efforts, and 4) championing purpose-driven work and organizations. This project contributes to the limited work on public relations, diversity, and leadership, and presents important theoretical and practical implications.

Although there has been a shift from a restrictive to a more egalitarian view regarding women in leadership in Norwegian and Swedish Pentecostal churches, new research has shown that relatively few women are actually ministering as pastors and elders. Although there are no pronounced theological obstacles for women as leaders, many Norwegian and Swedish women still view the movements as male dominated. This article traces the recent debate about women in leadership in Norwegian and Swedish Pentecostalism and highlights some of the female voices that have spoken out against the negligence of male leaders to promote women into leadership positions or as speakers in national conferences. The article further reflects on the relationship between gender issues in society and the situation of female leaders in the Pentecostal Movements and concludes by giving a number of suggestions of how to overcome the status quo.

While South Korea has experienced remarkable economic growth, it still ranks near the bottom globally in terms of gender equality. For instance, the number of female leaders, particularly in senior positions, remains significantly lower than that of their male counterparts at all levels of Korean society. Several studies suggest that this discrepancy is not due to women being less capable or performing less effectively as leaders than men, but rather stems from deeply ingrained social stereotypes surrounding women and their leadership abilities. Sex stereotyping involves generalizing characteristics of an entire group of women onto an individual simply because she is a woman. Stereotypes about ‘what women are like’ or ‘what women should be like’ can lead people to believe that women are unsuitable for leadership positions or to denigrate women leaders who defy gender stereotypes. These gender stereotypes can significantly impede women from attaining leadership positions and hinder their effective performance as leaders. Despite the rising participation of women in the workforce and the increasing number of women leaders in Korea, there remains a notable gap in research on women's leadership. Specifically, the majority of studies on women leaders have been conducted in non-management fields, such as women's studies, highlighting a crucial need for attention from the management community. This study aims to stimulate interest within the Korean business administration community in women's leadership and gender stereotypes. It seeks to accomplish this by thoroughly identifying recent empirical findings that address stereotypes associated with women's leadership. To achieve this objective, the study begins by scrutinizing theoretical frameworks elucidating the impact of sex stereotypes on women's leadership. Subsequently, we delve into global research trends on sex stereotypes and women's leadership, with a specific emphasis on empirical articles published in prominent international journals within the organizational behavior field over the last decade. A distinct chapter is dedicated to empirical papers published in South Korea. Finally, practical suggestions and future research directions are proposed.

This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of 10 retired female senior enlisted leaders assigned as first sergeant (1SG) and command sergeant major (CSM) in initial entry training (IET) to ascertain if their experiences shed light on the underrepresentation of female leaders in the basic combat training (BCT) environment. Data collection emphasized factors that led to success in the IET environment, as well as challenges and barriers they faced. The theoretical framework underpinning this study included the social role theory, which holds that the expectations for men and women are based on sex differences that regulate behaviour in an adult’s work and family life, and the role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders, which suggests women do not reach top-level positions because they are less capable than men and because women are judged more harshly when they are in leadership roles. Having to prove oneself, reaction to female leadership, family obligations, and fighting stereotypes emerged as barriers and challenges. Attributes needed for success in the IET BCT environment included Army values and toughness and tenacity. Coding of positions and male perception of female leaders emerged as barriers that preventfemales from attaining 1SG and CSM in the BCT environment. The findings support the social role theory and role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. The results extend research on the representation of women in senior leadership positions because they illuminate female leaders in a nontraditional educational environment in the largest branch of the U.S. military. Keywords: women, leaders, U.S. Army, basic combat training, glass ceiling, women in leadership; leadership theories

Sustainable development and women’s leadership: A participatory exploration of capabilities in Colombian Caribbean fisher communities