Leadership and gender diversity at age five

New research on leadership in young boys and girls shows that gender differences are often already established from a very young age. While the emphasis has sometimes been to try and change women to be like men in order to succeed at work, the research says we should be looking at how to bring female thinking and leadership into organisations. So how does leadership thinking and behaviour differ between the sexes?

This was a small part of a unique study carried out over two years by Hilarie Owen, Executive Director of Renew, Register of Executive and Non Executive Women, and founder of the Institute of Leadership in 5 to 18 year olds to explore leadership in young people. It was found that children as young as five and six years said there was a difference between how girls and boys practise leadership. They said: ÖBoys donít play with Barbie dollsÖ.Girls become nurses and boys become doctorsÖ.Boys want to be active and play at ëwarí and girls want to talk and include everyoneÖ..

At age 9 boys said: Girls can be fussyÖ..Girls are too kind and loving -they need to be tougherÖÖ Girls are weak and wimpishÖÖGirls are interested in make up and how they lookÖ.. The girls of 9 said: Boys get into clubsÖÖ.Boys think of themselvesÖÖThey think of war and push their weight aroundÖÖ

At age 10 ñ11 the youngsters said: Boys are bossyÖÖGirls work in teamsÖ.Boys have physical strengthÖ..Boys are only interested in winningÖ.Girls stop and thinkÖÖGirls are more concerned with their appearanceÖ.Boys are action orientedÖ.Girls have self doubtÖWe have different methods for example, in war men go straight in while girls think of the best way forwardÖÖ.

Does all this matter? This research helps understand why so many women still have obstacles to overcome in their careers. There has been much emphasis on the external issues such as organisational barriers, stereotyping and male chauvinism but we also have to understand internal barriers and RENEW ñ the Register of Executive and Non Executive Women, which aims to promote the appointment of women onto boards of companies - is uncovering new evidence that also affects the low number of women on boards. The importance of this comes from part of the research here. When asked whether they considered themselves to be a leader only 18% of girls said yes compared to 46% of boys.

The most consistent reason for not being a leader from the girls was: Iím not bossy. Being a leader was perceived as a negative image for most young girls today. However, this was also an issue for many boys but not because of self- image, rather their barrier was fear of responsibility and taking on work that was too hard.

Do these findings change with older pupils? The findings from age 11 to 18 remained consistent. Girls said: Boys are tough, girls are usually softÖÖ Boys want to start World War Three, girls like to play gentlyÖ..Girls stick at thingsÖÖ..Girls stop and think, boys just go straight into somethingÖÖBoys want war, girls donítÖÖ..Boys fight, girls try to reasonÖÖGirls try to make friends with the group they are leading, boys just get on with itÖÖ.Girls work as a team, boys tend to take it on by themselvesÖÖGirls think more and are calmerÖÖ

Boys said: Boys like action, girls are more into their appearanceÖ..Boys are stronger than girlsÖÖ..Boys will get in a fight, girls use wordsÖÖÖBoys follow one, girls decide in groupsÖÖ..Boys are braverÖ..Boys are more direct, girls think moreÖÖÖ.Girls are less confident, boys are more competitiveÖ

In this older age group it wasnít unusual for boys to say they preferred the female way of leadership but not one girl said she preferred the way boys lead. When the study included girlsí private schools, it was found that, although the girls were more confident the majority still did not consider themselves to be leaders. However girls in private schools are far more likely to believe that leadership can be learned.

What can we learn from this research that is relevant to the make up of a companyís executive board? Leadership for girls is more about relationships with those they lead while boys perceive leadership as expressing themselves in a certain way. We see this throughout the workplace and the research has shown that we need organisations and leadership development that allows for gender differences. Do we want boards to all look and behave the same? In a fast changing, global world we need diversity at board level more than ever before. Where women are included on boards their male colleagues say the women bring both fresh, new perspectives and passion to meetings. If women can express their own leadership on boards it will improve their output and results giving a competitive advantage. Isnít it about time we valued our differences rather than tried to diffuse them?