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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 4

Publication Date: April 25, 2021

DOI:10.14738/assrj.84.10035. Matziouri, A. (2021). Women Leadership: Advancing with or without his support. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(4).

339-360.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Women Leadership: Advancing with or without his support

Apostolia Matziouri

PhD, MA

ABSTRACT

The present paper is built on data collected from our PhD thesis which addressed

the burning issue of Women Leadership and which took the form of a census in the

region of Western Macedonia and Thrace, which consists 10,7% of the total Greek

territory and 5,7% of the Greek population respectively. More specifically, the

information provided here resulted from the investigation of one of the seven topics

that constituted our questionnaire and by which we tried to figure out the personal

life of women-leaders in the Greek educational system, how they manage/cope with

their multiple roles and responsibilities, whether their spouses are supportive (and

if so how) or competitive. As with all studies, there are areas that I have been unable

to tackle. One such area is the multidimensional issue of maternity. The latter will

be exposed analytically in a forthcoming article.

Keywords: women leadership, census, husband’s support, multiple roles,

competitiveness, path analysis.

INTRODUCTION

If “behind every successful man, there is a great woman, then who is behind every female manager?

Looking at the combined hours of paid and unpaid work, it seems that the answer is no one”

(Eurofound, 2018:14). This is why, when a woman wishes to advance in her career, to climb up

the highest rank in the pyramid of Maslow (Maslow, 1954) for self-actualization, she walks

alone the lonely path of success.

So far, woman has been seen as complementary to man and, since man is primarily active in the

social field, a woman must be involved in household chores or in children caring, so as for men

to maintain full involvement in their work. It has been suggested that traditional terms of

socialization, which stress that, though the psychosexual dimension of female identity permits

her training in professional and social roles, a woman’s goal in life is to become a wife and a

mother (Erikson, 1974a), have kept women’s ambitions in check (Mousourou, 1993:113).

This is why the big majority of women adapt their professional plans to the needs of their family

life, without renouncing their traditional roles (Bournoudi & Psalti, 1997; Ingesi 1997:11). If

they prioritize building a professional career, conflict between work and family roles has been

reported, resulting in couple conflicts (Eurofound, 2018:12).

Multiple occupations, apart from causing burnout, prevent women, who do not lack

qualifications, from focusing mentally and spiritually in one job sector, with the highest

probability of professional success.

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 8, Issue 4, April-2021

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

This mechanism of disintegration ultimately acts as a brake that reduces the degree of woman’s

advancement, so that success is never beyond the limits of mental exhaustion. Women’s

attempt to enter the forbidden area of leadership is again controlled by strategies that lessen

the threat of violation.

All the above, explain why back in 1983, in the acknowledgements of the book “Breaking

Out: Feminist Consciousness and Feminist Research”, the authors Liz Stanley and Sue Wise,

thanked those doing the “laundry” for them.

DEVELOPMENT OF SEX IDENTITY

The child at the age of 6-7 is able to differentiate the sexes, their qualities and also the

hierarchical scale of the values of Western civilization (Brown, 1956; Bandura et al., 1963;

Ward, 1968; Bandura, 1969a). This is why at the age of 5-8, girls prefer games and activities

associated with boys (Brown, 1956; Bandura, et al., 1963; Bandura, 1969b). Strength and

prestige appear as the main characteristics of the stereotypical male role, while baby care is

attributed to women. Nevertheless, these differences have been proved to derive not that much

from different anatomies as much as from different education (Kohlberg, 1966:99, Barry H. III

and al., 1957). Family is a key factor in the socialization of children in terms of gender roles

(Mannheim & Seger 1993) and people tend to conform to the expectations of others (Mischell,

1966:76).

Therefore, though according to social learning theories, child’s natural tendency is to imitate

someone of the same sex to form its sex identity, girl faces serious obstacles, when she realizes

that she is bound for less important duties.

It has been suggested that women organize their psychosocial identity around the axis

"connection with others" (affiliation), while men focus on social achievements (Pollak &

Gilligan, 1982:160). This has a negative effect on woman’s development, as the moral values of

caring for others (children, family members) and the priority put on interpersonal relationships

(values on which female identity is built) are confused with the socially predetermined

woman’s caring for others’ needs and demands and prevent the recognition of a woman’s own

needs (Gilligan, 1982:127). Inevitably, the female personality contains a sense of social gender

inferiority, resulting from the psychology of addiction (Gilligan, 1982:82) and social reality

(Thomson, 1941:276).

For Chodorow (1974:43) “the critical differentiating experience in the development of men and

women stems from the fact that women worldwide are responsible for the early care of children

and (at least) for the subsequent socialization of girls”.

This particular experience explains the differences in personality but also the asymmetric

status of the sexes (Chodorow, 1978: 8-9; Rosaldo, 1974; Ortner, 1974) performed through the

mechanism of absorption: "Certain features of the mother-daughter relationship are absorbed...

as essential parts of the female ego (though not necessarily what we normally mean by

femininity)". This is a process that is completed in the first two years of life, when the inner core

of racial identity is formed (Guntrip, 1961; Stoller, 1968, 1973).

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Matziouri, A. (2021). Women Leadership: Advancing with or without his support. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(4). 339-360.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.84.10035

On the contrary, mother encourages "masculinity" and independence of boy (Chodorow, 1974:

48), while, even when the father figure is absent, the boy identifies with a vague and idealized

male role. In addition, the process of identity formation of the boy takes place by rejection of

the mother and identification with something non-feminine (Chodorow, 1974: 50). Therefore,

the boy rejects all that is feminine or refers to female occupations and female roles and

emotions.

Thus, according to this scheme, upbringing and socialization in accordance with gender roles,

build and strengthen the largely unconscious formation of the sexes, on the basis of the different

primary relationship each sex has with the mother and her maternal role (Chodorow, 1978:

87). The role extends to women's caring for men and for their sick and elder relatives. As a

result, boys and girls learn to consider caring and devotion to be maternal duties, female

personality’s qualities which are embedded and not acquired. However, offering help to others

is a non-profit activity and, therefore, something which is taken for granted and is unpaid and,

in the era of late capitalism, it is certainly not appreciated as a productive procedure

(Kravaritou, 1996:85; Delphy, 1982). “Moreover, unpaid work is recognized as a means for

perpetuating women’s obedience” (Hartmann 1976).

This Oedipal relationship between a girl and her mother discourages the development of self- esteem and constantly leads to acts such as self-denial, confused self-image and disorder of self- perception. Any attempt for self evolution is accompanied by feelings of guilt. She is exposed to

social control and symbolic violence (Bourdieu, 1996) from her early childhood through a

system of prohibitions and rewards (Bandura, 1977:43) and through the projection of the

future impact of her violation (Bandura, 1977:21; Mischell, 1966:62; Nasiakou 1982:87). This

guilt may be manifested as “fear for success” (Horner, 1970b:1), success that may lead to

femininity loss (Krueger, 1984: XIII), cause social rejection, rejection from the opposite sex or

spouse; the latter may develop feelings of competitiveness due to the fact that someone else

assumes his traditional role.

All the aforesaid, explain the extreme resilience of traditional forms, despite ideological

rearrangements, modernization and feminist awareness.

As written by D. G. Brown (1958:235): "It is obvious that our culture is and remains man- centered... and the most basic... social institutions perpetuate the shape of the male deification".

METHODOLOGY

Our research was carried out from September of 2015 to March of 2016 and it took the form of

a census throughout the administrative region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace which

constitutes 10,7% of the Greek territory and includes 5,6% of the Greek population. More

specifically, our population comprised of 58 subjects, 45 of which were School Heads, 1

Directress of Education, 11 School Consultants and 1 School Consultant Supervisor.

Census is not common in Social Sciences, as it is time-consuming, very costly and the huge bulk

of gathered data is difficult to be managed (Mason, 2009). However, given that in our previous

research on Intercultural Education, significant differences and peculiarities were observed

within the same Regional Unit, we considered it correct to have all women of Eastern

Macedonia and Thrace who held a position of responsibility in this area included in the study.