Women in Leadership: Comparing Developed (The UK) and the Developing (India) Corporate Economy

“Women must live up to collective expectations of what makes a leader, while at the same time remaining true to certain gender expectations.” Over the centuries, femininity has been stereotyped as dependent, submissive and conforming, and hence women have been seen as lacking in leadership qualities. The male bias is reflected in the false conception of leadership as mere command or control. As leadership comes properly to be seen as a process of leaders engaging and mobilizing the human needs of followers, women are being more readily recognized as leaders. And thus, the topic of "women in leadership roles‟ has received considerable attention in the past two decades. As women symbolize over half of the worldwide talent pool, it is clear to us that they should be at the spearhead of the economic and social scene, not just out of a sense of fairness, but to ensure that the most prominent minds, men‟s and women‟s, analogous, are brought together to address the challenges that our societies face. Achieving equality for women in corporations, at all levels, is a long and demanding journey, which requires the implication of the whole company and the strong commitment of the top management. This disproportion in regard to women voices at the leadership position is more apparent in developing economies as compared to developed economies. The cultural, social, political and organizational factors play a pivotal role is this disparity. This paper aims to throw light on leadership issues faced by women in leadership roles in developed economies (the United Kingdom), as compared to issues faced by women in developing economies (India), which are traditionally male dominated. Furthermore, this paper aims to develop an understanding of the similarities and differences between leadership issues faced by women in the two different types of economies (the UK and India).