Women and Leadership (Book Reviews)

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Dear Student,
Hi and thank you for using Brainmass. The solution below should get you started. This appears to be a lengthy and complex task as each of the books you are being asked to review are all in-depth studies of women and power. For such a complex task, you need to have a simplified outline so that all you need to do is 'fill it' in with what is needed. What I will do for you below is get you started on these tasks - give you the foundational ideas that you can use as a basis. I suggest this simple outline:

Through the Labyrinth:
1. Summary of main points according to chapter (you can expand on each of the main idea from here) - 400 words
2. Opinion of ideas in relation to leadership and what was surprising - 100 words

Disappearing Acts:
1. Summary of the book - 200 words
2. On relational leadership (explanation of the concept) - 200 words
3. Comparison/contrast with book 1 - 200 words
4. Opinion on theory - 150 words

Enlightened Power:
1. Three section summary - 300 words
2. On Enlightened Power - citation from essays - 300 words
3. Relevant essay to you - 100 words
4. Most inspiring - 100 words

Reaction:
1. Reaction to the reading - 100 words
2. Ideas on leadership - 100 words
3. Relating to women - 100 words

You can also use the listed resources to further explore the topic. All the best with your studies.

Sincerely,
AE 105878/Xenia Jones
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Women and Leadership: A review of 3 Books

Book 1: Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders

Summary:
This particular book by Eagly and Carli provides a close examination of the path women take to attain power and influence in today's world. They believe that even in a world that has progressed to push for gender, ethnic and social equality, with laws protecting against discrimination, women leaders in elite power positions are rare. For them, the glass ceiling used to explain what women come up against is no longer an apt metaphor - in this book they propose that what women are presented is a maze, a labyrinth full of obstacles that stop women from truly achieving, from coming into power. They offer 7 reasons and a discussion going through the 11 chapters of the book. They study how far women have come in terms of leadership and if it is true that women leadership is resisted; they look into stereotypes and prejudices against women; they study if groups and organizations construct obstacles specific for women leadership. Drawing from a host of bodies of knowledge including psychology, sociology, business management, public administration, economics and political science - what appears is a discursive study that yields patterns of a labyrinthine construct that stop the arising and development of women leaders.

In chapter 1, the authors break down the glass ceiling metaphor, declaring it a mismatch to today's challenges, in chapter 2 they present today's women leaders - where they are, what they do, situating them in a world of men and the paths they have charted. In chapter 3, they deconstruct the 'natural leadership' notion of men utilizing psychological principles. In chapter 4 they discuss how domestic responsibilities for women at home hold them back and how men can change things by stepping up in the home front. In chapter 5 they look into the possibility that discrimination still presents an obstacle looking into inequality in a host of areas like wages and availability of organizational advancement. In chapter 6, they look at the psychological construct that presents a bias against female leadership.

In chapter 7, they look at the obstacles against women leadership in organizations - especially the elements that result to or offer resistance. In chapter 8, the leadership of women through a number of case studies and research is pitted against the leadership of men, looking into the biases against women leadership. In chapter 9, they look at the varied ways organizations compromise women leadership by creating barriers within the organization. In chapter 10, they look at specific cases of women who have triumphed through the labyrinth, presenting 2 camps - the 'act-masculine' and 'act -feminine' approaches and how ultimately, those who succeed plot a course that is multifaceted, subtle and more complicated than either can present. Lastly in Chapter 11, the authors ultimately look at the performance of women leaders - how good or bad they are as portrayed in the media, with the media becoming the constructive element to creating women-leadership image.

Opinion & Reflection:
Reading the work of Eagly & Carli (2007) was enlightening as it really drove home the idea that it is not just a simple case of 'making things equal' between men and women in legal terms that will drive out inequality and lead women to reach their potentials, to truly achieve. In a sense, for me, the legal elements are just the beginning. There is still so much to reform, to develop, to truly achieve a fair system. The women exemplified (i.e. Hillary Clinton) who have truly achieved power and ingrained their decidedly feminine construct in yielding and achieving incredible feats of steering society and organizations towards greatness are astounding. Reading through them made me appreciate the true cultural, social, political, economic and psychological barriers in place - from here I came to understand that there is no one singular ...