Female leadership in organizations

: an interpretative research of the characteristics and implications of female leaders within organization

Abstract

The world is evolving into new directions and what was once considered the norm has changed. Leadership as it was formally known is shifting to new directions it ischanging mentalities.This study aspires to understand how female leadership influences employers andemployees and what is changing, and can be changed regarding this topic. Much previous research has relied on the fact that women have suffered prejudice when assuming leadershippositions as well as facing major difficulties women face when trying to emulate men. Aftera literature review, three hypothesis were put forward and thus worked through and analysis that combined a detailed questionnaire regarding leadership and interviews to male andfemale leaders.Later on in the investigation, female leadership was characterized, trying toenhance gender, in what concerns prejudice and the rise of it.Contrary to what was once assumed, we find that Female Leadership does have animpact on how organizations proceed and how the employees act towards a situation. The findings show evidence that women do suffer prejudice when in leading positions and that something needs to be changed about it. They also show that no matter what time or industrywe are in, men still dominate in leadership positions when compared to women.Organizations should be more attentive to this problematic and need to change their actions aiming at better including women into the workforce and leadership positions.

Date of Award	8 Apr 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Fernando Ilharco (Supervisor)