FEMALE LEADERSHIP AND INTRA-ENTREPRENEURSHIP: DIFFICULTIES, CHALLENGES AND BARRIERS FACED BY WOMEN IN ORGANIZATIONS

Abstract

In all contemporary industrialized societies, women remain under-represented in meeting rooms and governments. While this gender gap has narrowed, the challenges women face in climbing the corporate and political ladder remain substantial. A male bias in the highest positions of leadership is universal. In fact, in most societies — both past and contemporary — formal political leadership positions were, and continue to be, almost exclusively occupied by men. If today women are not formally forbidden from holding leadership and entrepreneurial positions, they are still fewer or less powerful than their male counterparts. It is difficult to justify the fact that women are less likely to reach the highest echelons in politics, business, science and religion, given that there is no consistent evidence that they are leaders or entrepreneurs worse or better than men by virtue of their female characteristics. Attempting to explain the gender gap in leadership and entrepreneurship involves considering gender stereotypes, prejudice, institutional sexism, etc. This study sought to investigate this gender gap in an exploratory manner, through a literature review and interviews with women in the interentrepreneurship.