Breaking Gender Barriers and Communication in the Workplace
This paper examines gender barriers in the workplace, tracing their roots to women's entry into the workforce during World War II and analyzing how they persist today despite legal mandates for equality. Drawing on research in leadership style, biology, and organizational behavior, the paper contrasts male and female leadership tendencies and identifies the scientific and sociological factors that reinforce these differences. It then outlines practical, cost-effective strategies — including open communication, awareness training, seminars, and workshops — for reducing gender bias and fostering a more equitable workplace. The paper concludes that embracing diverse leadership styles, rather than viewing them as obstacles, can strengthen organizations as a unified whole.
- Introduction: Gender Barriers and the Modern Workplace: Historical roots and persistence of workplace gender barriers
- Male vs. Female Leadership Styles: Scientific and sociological differences in leadership between sexes
- Pinpointing and Eliminating Gender Barriers: Strategies using open communication and awareness training
- Looking Toward the Future: Reframing gender differences as complementary workplace strengths
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its argument in peer-reviewed and organizational research (Eagly & Johnson, Catalyst, Riggio), giving empirical weight to claims about leadership style differences.
- It maintains a constructive, solution-oriented tone throughout, moving logically from problem identification to practical remedies rather than simply cataloguing inequalities.
- The use of concrete examples — seminars, workshops, in-house speakers — makes the recommendations actionable and relatable to a general business audience.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective synthesis of multiple sources to build a layered argument. Rather than citing each source in isolation, the writer weaves together biological, sociological, and organizational findings to show that gender barriers are multi-causal. This technique allows the conclusion — that awareness and open communication can address those causes — to feel well-supported rather than prescriptive.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a historical framing that contextualizes modern workplace gender dynamics, then pivots to a research-driven section on leadership style differences. A third section identifies specific barriers and proposes communication-based strategies to eliminate them. A brief but purposeful conclusion reframes gender differences as complementary rather than problematic. This four-part arc — context, evidence, strategy, resolution — is a reliable and clear model for short argumentative essays in business or social science courses.
Introduction: Gender Barriers and the Modern Workplace
Gender barriers have existed within the workplace ever since women in America left the home and entered the workforce during World War II. Like any new experience of empowerment, when the men came home, the country's women were wholly a changed group. Women had entered the workforce, and they were there to stay, despite the misgivings of much of the male population. While the working environment today is certainly far different — and far improved — from those initial days, the truth remains that gender inequality within the business world is still vastly relevant, despite mandated government equality rules. Though men and women enter the same workplaces every day to do the same jobs, certain gender barriers continue to exist. Understanding this facet of the business world allows us to better consider how these barriers can be remedied or eliminated by examining the scientific differences between men and women in terms of leadership styles, and by working to utilize those different styles to strategize for complete gender equality in the workplace.
Male vs. Female Leadership Styles
While men and women have been considered equal within the workplace in the eyes of the law for quite some time, the scientific evidence remains that male and female leadership styles differ significantly from one another. It is in this way that conflicting leadership styles between the sexes can be viewed as a significant gender barrier within the workplace. Because neither sex typically knows the idiosyncrasies of the other's working style, developing an understanding of these differences can help bring the sexes — and the workplace as a whole — to a common ground, building upon that foundation for improved employee interaction and mutual understanding.
Research has found that a leader's sex does not often have a significant influence on subordinate satisfaction or productivity, either by itself or in interaction with leadership style or follower sex (Price, Schmidt, and Stitt, 1983, p. 31). Why, then, is such a barrier still a widely noted issue within many modern workplaces? Research has found several core reasons to suggest that male and female organizational leaders — even those who occupy the same position — may differ to some extent in their leadership style, despite structural forces that push toward minimizing differences between the sexes (Eagly and Johnson, 1990, p. 234). These reasons include biological factors such as greater prenatal androgenization of males, childhood experiences such as sex-segregation within schools and peer groups, and "gender-role spillover" — defined as a "carryover into the workplace of gender-based expectations for behavior" (Eagly and Johnson, 1990, p. 236).
Such research suggests that despite individuals' intentions to break free of past stereotypes and promote equality in their own minds and lives, science itself may hinder this progression. For the majority of people — of either sex — gender roles defined by society and internalized within ourselves often cause us to act in specific ways, no matter how hard we may resist. In a sense, conforming to the norm is far easier than consistently trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Additionally, these scientific differences contribute to the perception that female leaders are generally more nurturing, empathetic, and responsive than male leaders, while male leaders are perceived as more action-oriented and focused on task completion (Riggio, 2010, p. 1). Such an idea is difficult to argue against concretely, as more and more research concludes that "women take care and men take charge" (Catalyst, 2005, p. 1). These gender differences and tangible variations in leadership styles affect many individuals in the workplace, fostering gender barriers and creating unnecessary problems. However, with the right understanding and strategy, these barriers can be minimized in order to build a more productive and equal future.
References
Catalyst. (2005). Women take care, men take charge: Stereotyping of U.S. business leaders exposed. Retrieved from
Eagly, A., and Johnson, B. (1990). Gender and leadership style: A meta-analysis. Center for Health, Intervention and Prevention (CHIP). Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010
Price, K., Schmidt, S., and Stitt, C. (1983). Sex of leader, leader behavior and subordinate satisfaction. Sex Roles, 9(1), 31–42. Retrieved from http://temple.academia.edu/stuartschmidt/Papers/527541/Sex_of_leader_leader_behavior_and_subordinate_satisfaction
Riggio, R. (2010). Do men and women lead differently? Who's better? Cutting Edge Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/201003/do-men-and-women-lead-differently-whos-better
Russell, S. (2010). Gender communication issues in the workplace. Retrieved from
Sanders, J. (2000). Beware of gender stereotypes in the workplace. Empowerment Enterprises. Retrieved from http://www.hodu.com/stereotypes.shtml
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