myth busting

Historically, women have been excluded from political and religious leadership positions, and denied the right to vote or participate as equal citizens. While women have far more rights now, than they did even ten years ago, there are still many countries, religions and cultural groups that deny women the right to enter into leadership positions. This can be linked to the gender-binary in which qualities that are thought to make good leaders are often assigned as ‘male’ qualities that their ‘female’ counterparts are unable to attain. As with all stereotypes, this belief has been constructed by people (this is also known as social construction) and communities over decades, and even centuries, and the reality is that effective leaders can be all genders.