.
The Paradox of Gender.
Gender is defined many ways but in its simplest form, gender is a "social construct built of traditions, language and symbols that can create deep affiliation and deep division among people" (Walker, 1999, p. 5). Gender is one of the many aspects that concern diversity, however, it is found to coexist with profession, especially in health care. Gender is a not a determinant of whether a leader is respected and esteemed, but gender stereotypes continue to plague the workplace and have a negative impact for women in leadership. Leadership often portrays aggression, competitiveness, authority and ambition and in other words could be contemplated as masculine. Women are regularly perceived as nurturers and seldom as leaders. Catherine Walker (1999) makes a clear distinction of attributes for both males and females as she states,.
"Stereotypical qualities of women, for example, include likability, affection, remaining soft-spoken, selflessness, giving, yielding easily, compassion, listening, fairness, and process orientation. Common political stereotypes are less favorable: if a female leads in a commanding way, she can be considered overly aggressive, obnoxious, overbearing. But if women conform to the stereotypical female behaviors of passivity, nurturance, and cooperation, they are viewed as weak, submissive, and unable to lead successfully. To men we attribute competitiveness, decisiveness, action orientation, aggression, self-reliance, strength, independence, ambition, and dominance " (p. 28). This correlates with the assertion of McDonagh and Paris (2012), "the stereotype of a strong, commanding, and male leader still influences decisions about placement in leadership positions"" (p. 23). .
It was discovered that there was a positive correlation between gender diversity and the enriched performance in the workplace, which provides a convincing case for promoting women, however there is a shortage of gender diversity within administrative leadership at the executive level in healthcare.