“We still think powerful men as a born leader and powerful women as an anomaly.” (Northouse 2016,p.318)
This case study is about a lady named Marina Soslow who is a senior managing director at a manufacturing company who is soon to be promoted to a top executive position when she finds out she is pregnant. She is reluctant to tell her boss because many women in the same situation had lost their position in the past. Nonetheless, she mentions the fact of being pregnant with her boss and lets him know that she will need a three-month leave after her delivery. She is cut short by her boss while she was explaining how she can get everything worked out without any loss. Ross is somewhat unsupportive and says he knew this was going to happen anyway and he’ll talk about it later (Northouse 2016, p. 415).
The advancement barrier that Marina is encountering is gender bias. It baffles me how deep and wide this plague is. In my personal experience, I think women are the most stronger than men physically too, and one of the reason is that they can bear childbirth and then go back stronger taking care of not just themselves but a child as well. The mere fact that pregnancy is considered a weakness or hindrance to the performance of a women leader is disturbing and wrong. Nowadays to break this taboo many celebrities like Beyonce, Kareen Kapoor, and many others have been open about their pregnancies and their career is still as flourishing as ever if not better. On the other hand, Roy should have told Marina that he supports her and she will get the leave as she is legally accustomed to it as well under Medical Leave Act 1993 and her job will be secured too. On top of that, he should have listened carefully to her suggestions.
Roy could have made her appoint an intern or trainee or train another existing subordinate to cover for her while she will be away. She could teach him/her as well, and the company’s work and performance would not suffer either. In cases like these, the most significant organizational change that can be made is spreading awareness and educating everyone about fundamental rights like Medical Leave Act 1993. To train everyone to be supportive rather than critical of such situations. Gender bias is an urgent issue and needs to be addressed immediately, and education and practice is the key to it.
References
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.