WOMEN LEADERS ACROSS THE WORLD
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Cultural differences:
Considering the wealth of skills women have, one would expect to see a significant number of female leaders? According to Leonardelli and Toh, this is apparently not true at the moment.
PewGlobal conducted a survey to analyse how people around the world saw women as leaders. Western Europe, North America and Latin America had the highest proportion of respondents who rated men and women as equally good leaders. In the United States, fully three-quarters agreed that men and women make equally good leaders, and that opinion is even more widespread in Western Europe.
By contrast, majorities in Mali (65%) and Kuwait (62%) say men make better leaders than women.
Different cultures have placed various constraints upon the emergence of female leaders, depending on the 'tightness' of a nation's culture. In tight cultures (those that have strong norms and little tolerance for deviance), there are fewer female leaders. In Pakistan, less than 10% of leadership positions are held by women. This is because tight cultures reinforce conventions which favour male leaders. In contrast, loose cultures tend to have a higher ratio of women emerging as leaders, being more accepting of changing values. In New Zealand, over 35% of corporate leadership positions are held by women.