The public school superintendent is the least progressive position in education at integrating women and balancing the scales of equitable representation. Statistical data indicates there are far fewer females than males serving as superintendents. Current statistics show women make up: 1) over 70 percent of all public school educators; 2) nearly half of all principals; and 3) almost 60 percent of all central office administrators. Yet today, female superintendents in our nation total only 20 percent. Despite the perceived oppression of the marginalized, gender study research on women in the superintendent/ Chief Financial Officer (CFO) position is limited and built on a narrowly focused foundation. Most of the work on this topic has been done to study the barriers women encounter when attempting to become a public school administrator, rather than to explore their role as a modern day superintendent/ CFO. The purpose of this qualitative study will be to build on prior research, which has only begun to expose the qualitative and narrative aspects of research, and delve into the daily professional lives of three female superintendents. The study further explored their experiences as a female superintendent/ CFO in a male dominated profession. The findings of the study support that it is time to remove the institutional and personal stillness and allow women to share their stories concerning the barriers they encountered in attaining the superintendency, as well as how they continue to overcome barriers in the active role of superintendent/ CFO. The benefit of this study will be to serve as a vessel for these pioneering females to show that their perceptions and lives as a female superintendent are stories worth sharing.

Globally, and within South Africa women are not well represented in the top echelons of leadership. Maria Ramos, the current Group Chief Executive of Absa Group Limited, is ranked the 11th most powerful woman internationally as rated by Fortune magazine. A need exists to empower women. By obtaining insights into one woman's success, it may be able to be replicated, to fast track an equitable female representation at executive management levels much sooner than the 40 years currently envisioned. The research methodology is a case study, whilst adopting a qualitative approach through the use of semi structured interview questions. An analysis of Maria Ramos's career within the context of career anchors, gender barriers and enablers that helped her overcome the career barriers were performed. This study has contributed to literature by highlighting that there is no single driver for the ascendance to the top leadership position. There is evidence to suggest that there is a link between career anchors, specifically challenge incorporating the love of complexity and a rise to prominence. Androgynous leadership, positive self perception, social capital and mentoring provided a good foundation. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

<p>Business life is historically a male activity. Consequently, expectations of organizations toward their employees in terms of assertiveness, availabilities and submission to the hierarchy have always reflected male standards of living. Thus, the appearance of the leadership concept has naturally been shaped by masculine values. The progressive implication of women in the business life appeared in the 70’s. Consequently, this small universe tailor made for men involved the emergence of gender issues.</p><p>The role of the leader is to implement the right leadership style to the right situation. A popular vision promotes two traditional leadership styles: a masculine one opposed to a new feminine one. The concept is based on long-established stereotypes regarding genders. Researches tried to prove the natural tendency of men and women to apply a certain leadership style according to their gender. However, results only show very little influence of the gender on the leadership style applied, which allowed us to put gender leadership styles into perspective.</p><p>Firstly, we collected scientific data from articles and books in order to have a fair vision of concepts on this subject. Then, we envisioned the useful theories to backup concepts we used to analyze. Our analysis is also based on concrete experiences of leaders who face gender issues in the everyday life. We collected their opinions by the mean of semi conducted interviews. We concentrated on theoretical, conceptual and empirical data to explain and analyze gender impacts on leadership and organizations.</p><p>Concerning our conceptual framework, our empirical findings admit that controversies led to our contemporary understanding of gender leadership. Regarding leadership styles, the current gender stereotypic categorizations do not seem to be relevant anymore. The sexualoriented education and the gender social roles shape followers and leaders perceptions which involve the current male organizational model and a glass ceiling. In other words, women encounter difficulties to access to leading positions. Because of tacit stereotypic perceptions, the business life is a men’s world referring to masculine values and standard ways of living.</p>

According to Ibeh et al (2008) organizations with women in top management positions tend to excel financially, but if we look at recent statistics women are strongly underrepresented in those positions. In Sweden, 5 of the 291 stock market companies have a female CEO (www.skane.se, 2011). I started to wonder how this could still be a problem, when we are an equal society in many other ways. I found in my first search for literature that female networks were not as researched about as male networks which made this area both difficult to find other research in but even more important to conduct. My hopes are that this thesis will bring more interest into this field of research and have a positive impact on the development of more female leaders. What I try to find the answer to in this thesis is how female networks influence women aspiring to become leaders and how these networks could work more as supportive networks. I conducted my research by having 5 interviews with female leaders that has been successful. We had long discussions about what made them successful and how their female networks works. I have also used a great deal of literature, both literature that has done similar interviews in order to support my arguments but also literature in the subject Networks. I used an actor’s view, which means that I tried to understand what these women have experienced and tried to give them a fair picture. I found that there is a big difference between informal and professional networks and that woman were more likely to grade informal networks higher. Informal networks could be very unsupportive to women’s careers. In these informal networks I found that women tended to push each other to become "good girls" and do everything perfectly which could be conceived as very stressful and become an obstacle when women tries to excel in their career. In order to dismantle yourself from the wishes of the group that you need to be perfect I found that a high self esteem was something crucial that all of my interviewed women seemed to have. In order to "fight" the female laws that women are learned that they should follow you need to believe in yourself. The implications I found that can be done in this area is that women need to grade professional networks higher, we need to bring our profession into our informal networks and we also need to be supportive inside our informal networks in order to change this statistics. Since people are very dependent on having good relationships with other people, we are likely to listen to each others criticism. This change is not done in one day, and therefore we also need more research within this area.

In recent years we have witnessed an increasing integration of women into positions where leadership is exercised. Although some studies show that less than 10% of leaders are women, they are making their headway in the difficult field of leadership which, some years ago, was totally dominated by men. Several authors have analyzed the female’s skills in developing leadership roles. Some of them have concluded that there are differences with respect to male leadership. But others are not so clear and talk about gender equality in exercising leadership roles. Moreover, a new style of leadership has been implemented in organizations, that is, transformational leadership. This style together with the latest developments in leadership has been analyzed from a gender perspective. Several experts in this issue have come to ensure the highest skill for women to develop this style of leadership, which is based on communication, empowerment and followership. How do stereotypes cloud our claims? How does literature affirm or deny the existence of gender differences in leadership? What do women writers specializing in leadership study over the past three years? What are the latest developments in leadership? This work features a series of studies on the subject made in the last twenty years. This along with opinions of today’s leaders, insufflate fresh air to the results and invite the reader to enter in the interesting but slippery field of leadership from a different perspective.

Business life is historically a male activity. Consequently, expectations of organizations toward their employees in terms of assertiveness, availabilities and submission to the hierarchy have always reflected male standards of living. Thus, the appearance of the leadership concept has naturally been shaped by masculine values. The progressive implication of women in the business life appeared in the 70’s. Consequently, this small universe tailor made for men involved the emergence of gender issues. The role of the leader is to implement the right leadership style to the right situation. A popular vision promotes two traditional leadership styles: a masculine one opposed to a new feminine one. The concept is based on long-established stereotypes regarding genders. Researches tried to prove the natural tendency of men and women to apply a certain leadership style according to their gender. However, results only show very little influence of the gender on the leadership style applied, which allowed us to put gender leadership styles into perspective. Firstly, we collected scientific data from articles and books in order to have a fair vision of concepts on this subject. Then, we envisioned the useful theories to backup concepts we used to analyze. Our analysis is also based on concrete experiences of leaders who face gender issues in the everyday life. We collected their opinions by the mean of semi conducted interviews. We concentrated on theoretical, conceptual and empirical data to explain and analyze gender impacts on leadership and organizations. Concerning our conceptual framework, our empirical findings admit that controversies led to our contemporary understanding of gender leadership. Regarding leadership styles, the current gender stereotypic categorizations do not seem to be relevant anymore. The sexualoriented education and the gender social roles shape followers and leaders perceptions which involve the current male organizational model and a glass ceiling. In other words, women encounter difficulties to access to leading positions. Because of tacit stereotypic perceptions, the business life is a men’s world referring to masculine values and standard ways of living.

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Male stereotyping together with perception of women as inferior is hindering recognition of women in senior managerial positions. Through pervious studies regarding female leadership, conducted all over the world, the theme of women being treated differently than males is fundamentally central to all the conclusions. Not many studies relating to this topic have been conducted in South Africa and yet we are in the forefront when it comes to identifying the need to develop women into positions where they can add value on various levels. Some of the issues have even been captured in legislation. However, despite government’s intervention, it is crucial that women take ownership of their own destiny. Unless women can prove that they can add value in the positions that they are appointed, they will not be seen as leaders. To be a successful leader an individual must have certain skills and traits. Some of these can be developed over time, however the individual must first admit that there is a need and identify the area in which personal growth must take place, before a plan can be implemented. Once this point has been reached, a self-management plan can be developed by the individual to align his / her objectives. There are various components to the self-management plan and such a plan cannot always be duplicated, but the focus areas can overlap. If an individual can identify a mentor and enter into a mentoring program, it can give such an individual a huge advantage. Internal and external factors play a role in the development and implementation of a self-management plan. The problem is that one does not always have much control over these elements. Some of these elements include the corporate culture of the organisation in which females functions and the manner in which a female is able to balance work-life. This study determined that males and females agree that female managers add as much value as male managers. Further to the above, it has become evident that A Botha 344-123-44 iv males have different perceptions relating to the issues of how women are experiencing the work environment and the implementation of policies that relate to employment equity. The impact of perception must not be excluded since it can have the effect that people distinguish between leadership skills and traits on different levels. Unless female leaders can make male leaders realise that they experience the work environment and the implementation of policies that relate to employment equity differently than the manner in which males perceive it, they will not be able to get males to change the situation, since males believe that there are nothing wrong with the current situation. This brings one back to the change in culture and the issue that as a result of male dominance in the work place, it is also the males that determine the current culture. It is therefore important for females to take responsibility of the situation and where necessary change the perceptions of males to ensure that as women they are not hindered from receiving the recognition that they deserve.

Male stereotyping together with perception of women as inferior is hindering recognition of women in senior managerial positions. Through pervious studies regarding female leadership, conducted all over the world, the theme of women being treated differently than males is fundamentally central to all the conclusions. Not many studies relating to this topic have been conducted in South Africa and yet we are in the forefront when it comes to identifying the need to develop women into positions where they can add value on various levels. Some of the issues have even been captured in legislation. However, despite government’s intervention, it is crucial that women take ownership of their own destiny. Unless women can prove that they can add value in the positions that they are appointed, they will not be seen as leaders. To be a successful leader an individual must have certain skills and traits. Some of these can be developed over time, however the individual must first admit that there is a need and identify the area in which personal growth must take place, before a plan can be implemented. Once this point has been reached, a self-management plan can be developed by the individual to align his / her objectives. There are various components to the self-management plan and such a plan cannot always be duplicated, but the focus areas can overlap. If an individual can identify a mentor and enter into a mentoring program, it can give such an individual a huge advantage. Internal and external factors play a role in the development and implementation of a self-management plan. The problem is that one does not always have much control over these elements. Some of these elements include the corporate culture of the organisation in which females functions and the manner in which a female is able to balance work-life. This study determined that males and females agree that female managers add as much value as male managers. Further to the above, it has become evident that A Botha 344-123-44 iv males have different perceptions relating to the issues of how women are experiencing the work environment and the implementation of policies that relate to employment equity. The impact of perception must not be excluded since it can have the effect that people distinguish between leadership skills and traits on different levels. Unless female leaders can make male leaders realise that they experience the work environment and the implementation of policies that relate to employment equity differently than the manner in which males perceive it, they will not be able to get males to change the situation, since males believe that there are nothing wrong with the current situation. This brings one back to the change in culture and the issue that as a result of male dominance in the work place, it is also the males that determine the current culture. It is therefore important for females to take responsibility of the situation and where necessary change the perceptions of males to ensure that as women they are not hindered from receiving the recognition that they deserve.

The current study explored the impact of intellectual versus physical affirmations received over Instagram, either directly or indirectly, on females’ physical acceptance, intellectual pursuits during leisure and financial decision making. A total of 256 female students of the Claremont Colleges were recruited through advertisement of the study on the colleges’ designated Facebook page, and flyers posted around the campuses. The longitudinal, quasi- experimental study used a 2 (Type of Affirmation: Physical or Intellectual) x 2 (Mode of Exposure: Feed or Direct Message) x 3 (Phase: 1, 2, 3) fully crossed factorial design. Participants who voluntarily agreed to participate were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions. Participants exposed to physical affirmations, via Instagram’s direct messaging feature, reported significantly lower levels of physical acceptance, were less likely to engage in intellectual activities during leisure, and made financial decisions that reflected a greater desire to attend to their appearance than to their intellect, compared to participants exposed to physical affirmations, via feed. The opposite pattern of interaction was found for participants exposed to intellectual affirmations. The results support previous psychological literature on social role theory, stereotype threat, self-objectification theory, social comparison theory, and affirmation theory. The implications of this study concern female leadership development, specifically how exposure to intellectual affirmations over social media has the potential to attenuate the negative effects living in a patriarchal society has on females.