The Discursive Paradox of the Female Leader

• In Event: WomXn Working in the Intersections: Intersecting Experiences and Problematics of WomXn in the Workplace

Abstract

Fairhurst (2011) describes the design problem of leadership: “Leaders must figure out what leadership is in the context of what they do and, through their framing and actions, persuade themselves and other people that they are doing it” (p. 350). This design problem of leadership can be especially challenging for women. Female leaders must understand how to behave as a leader in a given context based on others’ assumptions. Further, research has demonstrated that the attributions of leaderly behavior are not always ascribed to the behaviors of men and women similarly (Powell, Butterfield, & Parent, 2002). Directive-giving male managers may be viewed as authoritative, while directive-giving female managers might be viewed as bossy.
This difference in attributions of leadership is due in part to the material nature of communication. All communication is embodied. Ashcraft, Kuhn, and Cooren (2009) explain “…communication is constrained by the body: Performances of identity are limited by physical capacities,” (p. 34). While all organizational members have agency (i.e., the ability to act otherwise) though the discursive construction of their body and identity, not all members have access to all options (e.g., female leaders cannot completely reframe the brute facts of their bodies and subsequent attributions of their behaviors). As such, this paper examines the structural, cultural and interpersonal processes that shape perceptions of female leaders. Further, this paper offers new insights for organization scholarship by employing critical feminist theory as a framework for understanding the material nature of organizational life.

Author

• Bobbi Van Gilder, University of Oklahoma