Gender in Leadership: an inequality due more to stereotypes than gender

Introduction
Social systems have mostly always been patriarchal. Men have long governed the society, leaving women in the background. But manners have changed and equality between men and women began to appear. The leadership, which was considered a male domain, has seen emerged women. More and more since the 1970’s, women have had access to higher responsibility jobs. For example, as prime minister (in Canada, India, Pakistan, Norway, etc.) and to other high government offices, according to the Bass and Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership. Masculinity had always been considered as a norm in leadership, but with the arrival of women, new models have emerged. Considered to have a different approach of leadership, women have long been seen as a different kind of leader. We will focus on leadership in the Business sector on developed countries. First of all, we will see that gender has no major influence on the leader’s behaviour. Then, we will consider the obstacles that a woman has to face to be recognized as a good leader.

Woman and Leadership
There are many definitions of leadership, but all of them talk about a process of induction between the individual leader and his followers. This issue is important because the influence is always a reciprocal process, and for this reason people are also influenced leaders. Therefore, the leader has to implement a relationship of trust with his co-workers. There are certain characteristics that people associate with the leadership function. The Santa Clara University (2005) listed the following characteristics as the key characteristics of a leader: Honesty, competent, inspiring, intelligent, courageous, imaginative… A functional leader is someone who motivates a person or a group to accomplish more than they would have otherwise accomplished without that leader‘s involvement (Christine R. Gedney, 2009). So, the qualities sought in a leader are