But on that day he became a real leader. He inspired confidence and safety and people said that it would be very hard for a woman to inspire the same. Not because she couldn’t say the same things, but because a man at the helm inspired the feeling of being taken care of. Gender lens looks subtly at the masculine coded behaviour that tends to be more aligned with leadership. Women and men are evaluated as leaders on the same set scale of skills, but men are seen to have more promise as leaders.

How would such a course be of practical use to the male students who have enrolled?
Gender lens highlights the aspects of social processes that haven’t been very visible and when you do highlight them, they are applicable both to men and women. Men, like women, also face legitimacy issues, especially in turnaround situations. The subtle dynamics that surface, benefit men too. It also helps them to understand some of the biases operating at the work place, which they might not be aware of. It sensitises him to such issues.

When we talk of gender and leadership, how much of the cultural perspective and nuances do we take into account?
I think one should leave it open for the people to work with the concept and see where they fit into and where they don’t. While teaching here at the ISB, my hunch is that the students often pay for the cost of silence.

Both men and women, don’t put themselves forward enough. Recruiters from global companies are looking for men and women who are assertive, who can speak out, ask what they want. So the question is how to help people find a way without getting offensive. I think that the cultural nuances get built in by opening dialogue. Our course is all about giving the students tools to think about how to do it.

Is there a feminine principle at work in leadership styles?
I don’t agree. People like to believe that women are more collaborative, more empathetic etc. However these behaviours are associated with low power. In a collaborative style of leadership, if men do it and if women do it too, then men tend to get more credit and women just get seen as, “well that is what women do anyhow.” A woman who has made it to the top of her organization has had to fight pretty hard in a masculine culture. She has needed to balance her feminine style with what she needed to succeed. She had to find ways to blend the two. Often women get criticised for not acting in a way that is expected of her i.e. being collaborative etc. All the research on gender and feminine principles at work, do not take into account the power dynamics that operate in an organization.

Why is gender an important demographic to evaluate performance? Isn’t age and attitude more important?
All of them matter and I think they intersect. There are many factors