This paper represents a broader study which explores how South African women business leaders construct power in their life and leadership narratives. The research was approached with a feminist paradigm in its review of constructions of power and their potential for transformation of patriarchal power dynamics.
The purpose was to critically analyse emerging models of power among South African women business leaders to include their perspectives in the process of theory building.
Women in senior leadership positions are not necessarily enabling the transformation of organisations to include greater representation of women at senior levels. A critical understanding of women’s models of power may highlight unconscious processes contributing to this as well as emerging models that can facilitate change.
Qualitative research was conducted within a feminist social constructionist framework, using the method of discourse analysis of narrative texts to identify emerging models of power. The 10 women in the study included executives within corporations across a range of industry sectors in South Africa.
The findings may guide approaches to gender transformation efforts in organisations and raise women leaders’ awareness of their conscious and unconscious impact on gender empowerment.
A novel contribution of this study is the emerging transformative model of power and the tensions women experience in asserting this power.
Women remain under-represented in South African corporate leadership along with the rest of the world, despite legislation promoting gender equity (Mall,
Women leaders’ discourse of power needs to be better understood to enable a more conscious approach to gender transformation that takes women’s perspectives into account. This article will review women leaders’ construction of power within a feminist framework which recognises that leadership and power theories are not neutral because they have been developed within a patriarchal context, resulting in the performativity of gender against restricted set of norms (Butler,
There is substantial international research focusing on women’s experience of power within organisations (Anderson & Shafer,
The research objectives relating to this purpose were to understand:
How women narrate their awareness of power
How women leaders view and use power in their leadership role
How women leaders challenge or perpetuate the leadership culture of their organisation
This article reviews the feminist perspectives on power and leadership, which lead to the research objectives and choice of qualitative methodology. It then proceeds to highlight key findings of the research through an emerging model of power.
In this study, power was defined as both relational and personal. Views of power being vested in social relationships such as the control of valued resources as well as agency affecting the attitudes of others (Avelino & Rotmans,
Feminist theorists illuminate the hegemonic nature of collective thought in relation to power, which has prevented women from defining the concept in their own terms (Ledwith,
Over a decade ago, Freeman and Borque (
Women themselves often feel internally conflicted over power and are reluctant to acknowledge their status as either powerful or powerless (Stead,
Gender stereotyping remains at the heart of the challenge women experience in asserting alternative models of power. Much of the literature on leadership compares ‘male’ and ‘female’ attributes (Powell,
Women’s need to prove their worth in the face of gender bias often perpetuates more cautious behaviour associated with management rather than leadership (Ely, Ibarra & Kolb,
Many feminist theorists express women’s strength and exercising of power as the recovery of their authentic ‘voice’ and ability to express it (Brescoll,
Lack of access to high-status colleagues with whom to network is frequently cited as a barrier to women’s advancement (Stainback
Just as more women gain access to new leadership opportunities, a significant number abandon institutions and forge independent paths to power. They form innovative organisations in which they can employ different leadership styles and possibly pursue a more feminist agenda (Valerio,
The impact of motherhood has often been used as the rationale for excluding women from public leadership roles and women’s rejection of these roles has traditionally been associated with family commitments (Bassnett,
The qualitative paradigm used was social constructionism within a feminist framework.
Social constructionism appreciates reality as multiple and unfolding (Terre Blanche, Durrheim & Kelly,
Understanding how gender is performed and power is constructed through women’s narratives provided the feminist research framework (Butler,
As the primary researcher, my experience as an Organisational Development Practitioner guided the strategy in identifying the research method. Working within a social constructionist framework, the researcher’s perspective has to be acknowledged, but neither emphasised nor obscured (Cohen & Mallon,
Purposive sampling was used to ensure that the interviewees had a significant leadership role and could contribute to the process of theory building (Silverman,
Demographic representation of sample.
Race | Industry | Age | Family status | Years with company |
---|---|---|---|---|
3 African people | 3 Financial services | 2 participants < 35 | 4 were single | 3–5 years |
1 Indian people | 3 Consumer goods | 2 participants < 40 | 2 were married | 6–10 years |
6 White people | 2 Industrials | 5 participants < 45 | 4 were married and had children | 1 participant worked with the company for more than 10 years |
- | 1 Basic materials | 1 participant > 50 | - | - |
- | 1 Technology | - | - | - |
The initial participant was a woman I knew through an organisational development intervention. She met the criteria and was interested in participating in the study. Snowball sampling (Silverman,
The interviews took place at the participants’ offices. Participants were offered an opportunity to be interviewed off-site but all chose to meet on site. This was more convenient for busy executives giving up 2 h for the interview. The physical setting did not appear to constrain leaders in sharing their narratives.
The researcher was introduced via e-mail to potential participants referred by previous interviewees. This established trust at the outset because there was a common point of contact.
Candidates were then contacted directly to establish their willingness to participate in the study. The purpose of the research was explained and ethical issues of confidentiality were highlighted. Participants signed an informed consent prior to the interview and were asked for permission to record the interview for transcription purposes.
The autobiographical narratives of 10 women leaders were collected through a semi-structured interview based on McAdam’s Life Story Interview (McAdams, Josselson & Lieblich,
Interviews were transcribed verbatim and included notation of non-verbal communication. The researcher also recorded process notes during the interview to highlight what may not have been obvious from listening to the recording.
The methodology used to analyse the data was discourse analysis. This scrutinises the language of conversations and the way individuals account for their world (Ali & Khan,
An interview analysis grid was developed for each of the three research objectives. Extracts from the interviews were cut and paste onto the grid for each of the research questions. An example of the grid is provided in
Interview analysis grid – Research Objective one: To understand how women narrate their awareness of power.
Line | Features: Binary opposites; terms, phrases, metaphors; human subjects | Discourse description | Analysis |
---|---|---|---|
238–249 | And I was so upset, and I spent the next sort of hour running between him and the stupid photocopier machine photocopying this file and I came home and I was in tears and I said to my mum … I can’t believe it I spent 3 years doing my degree, a year in post-grad umm I’ve excelled academically all my life and here’s this 55 year old man telling me that I can’t flipping photocopy a file properly (laughs) and I was really upset about it, and at that moment, for that day, I felt disempowered | Competence; Achievement; | Binary opposite = academic achiever; menial job |
Academic Excellence; | Human subject = 55 year-old-male boss constructed as undermining her competence | ||
Possible Discourse: Expert Power | Laughter = absurdity; reflection; observation | ||
Flipping = throw away expletive emphasises absurdity and outrage | |||
Resilience | ‘For that day’ constructing her resilience, not allowing it to define her | ||
Possible Discourse: Psychological Power | What she is doing with the text is demonstrating her psychological resilience as well as expert power versus senior male rank in organisation |
Note: Interview: Anika.
Extracts were then clustered across interviews according to common discourses emerging from the text, informed by the literature on power. These clusters were refined through the process of analysis and final discourse clusters gave rise to discourse categories. The discourse clusters were colour coded per category for each interview per research objective as in the examples in
Integrating analysis method – Objective one: How women narrate awareness of power.
To ensure data quality and integrity, Guba’s (
Discourse categories and their corresponding clusters are reported on in the findings. In the broader study, they were discussed per research question and were consolidated in the models of power presented in this article. For the purpose of this brief article, discourse categories are discussed in general using a few extracts as ‘mini-narratives’ to illuminate findings in the data.
The discourses that arose as women spoke of their experiences of power while growing up, in their current leadership role and envisaged future reflected many aspects of power highlighted in the literature. The broad definition of power, incorporating social, psychological and spiritual dimensions was present in their texts. However, unique to their experience as women were narrations of power reflecting their response to the effects of patriarchy and was therefore categorised as ‘feminist discourse’. The third research objective that aimed to understand how women challenge or perpetuate the leadership culture solicited specific discourses relating to their engagement with the organisational system. Discourses were categorised as follows:
Social rank
Psychological power
Feminist discourse
Engagement in the organisational system
Social rank relates to externally attributed elements of power bestowed on women by others and perceived to have value in the broader society through access to resources, such as knowledge or status (Fleming & Spicer,
Racial and cultural dominance
Expert power and intellectual superiority
Informal positions of social prestige and power
Power relations within the formal hierarchy
The effect of the
‘I’d like to think that he [my boss] is a lot more evolved than just being a racist misogynist pig (laughter). So I am going to assume that it is something to do with my personality. That I just happen to be the person that brings out the worst in him. So I don’t know if that answers your question? And I know that is probably not the right answer …’ [Zaba, Marketing Executive]
In this extract, she takes on responsibility for her boss’s bigoted behaviour, but the irony is evident in the label she gives him and the flippant laughter thereafter. The self-doubt she expresses at the end of the extract and the expectation that I, as the white researcher, am expecting a ‘right’ answer has the impact of undermining her ability to recognise power abuse for what it is. This is supported by the literature, which highlights that women are conflicted about identifying with a victim status (Stead,
In contrast, one of the white interviewees’ accounts positions racial and cultural awareness as necessary for leaders in South Africa today. However, in telling of her developing awareness of apartheid growing up, her account shifts between the colonial language of domination to more politically correct language. In relation to her current leadership role, the discourse of racial dominance is constructed around strategies to avoid being perceived as a ‘racist’.
‘I was wondering if this would come up … when I was there as a senior manager … and he accused me and another manager of a whole lot of things … one of them being … racist … and this MD took the letter and copied it to the
The political posturing around issues of race and the denial of racism among all interviewees is a significant finding. It suggests that despite their positions of power, women leaders’ ability to engage in authentic dialogue around issues of racism and oppression remains limited. It is noted in the literature that there is limited research on how race and gender intersect and impacts the ability to take up authority in organisations (Smith,
Power constructed through
In relation to their current leadership roles, many of the interviewees spoke about entrenching positional
‘The dynamics are totally different … they are like “what’s in it for me?” before they do anything … they take leave on their boyfriend’s birthdays … it’s like … “It’s my boyfriend’s birthday and I am taking leave, do you mind?”… And I’m like … but I didn’t even take leave on my birthday, or my daughter’s … and that’s why I say I keep in touch … my daughter keeps me … educated on the young and how they think, the technology, their things, so I am like the cool mum and I come to work and I bring the fun side of things to … everyone.’ [Lerato, Partner]
Hierarchical power was also constructed through the classical recognition of achievements and consequent reputation. In some narratives, the self-sacrificing martyr archetype was associated with this achievement of hierarchical status:
‘But females are inclined to be self-reliant and take on the world of responsibilities and chores, without saying “hell no … I’m not doing that, I’m playing golf on Saturday … I’d better get someone else to wash the car and do this and that and the next thing”. We tend to feel we have to fit it all in … we just absorb whatever is required to be done and succeed.’ [Debbie, Finance Director]
Certain narratives revealed an alternative construction of power in relation to hierarchy. This was the ability to observe the system without becoming fully engaged in it. This was demonstrated in a few of the interviewees’ texts not necessarily in what was being said, but in the way it was positioned.
‘I think it is very difficult to come in as an outsider, and have credibility … people wait for you to sink or swim if you come in from the outside you are not accorded the immediate respect … you have to prove your stripes … this is still very much an old school environment of “fantastic, you are the new boy on the block, great … let’s see what you can do, and then we’ll decide about you, see if you are any good.”’ [Debbie, Finance Director]
In this extract, the interviewee uses patriarchal, military metaphors to state her point. But she positions herself as an outsider of the system and its script, rather than recounting a personal experience. The challenging observer role she assumes has an empowering effect in that she is able to see the system for what it is and make choices about how she is influenced by it.
Discourses related to psychological power were evident in all the interviews as the narrators constructed awareness of the internal resources that develop their experience of being powerful. The discourses identified in this cluster were:
Female identity
Integration of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’
Manipulation and control
Learning and growth
The construction of being a woman was the most commonly shared discourse among the interviewees. The accounts of the development of their
‘If I didn’t have children then maybe I would push it all the way … but I do … and I am quite happy with that … I think that is where also a woman can understand that and is happy with the position that she is in … knowing that she’s choosing to balance her life … whereas I think with men it is always about getting to the top.’ [Kim, Finance Manager]
The ability to lead in their own way, where collaboration emerges as an outcome of an instinctive ‘female’ style, without the erosion of psychological boundaries, was constructed as the antithesis to the disempowered self-reliant martyr, devoid of personal boundaries. Inherent qualities, such as intuition and conscientiousness, were acknowledged as part of this powerful female identity.
However, the
‘I don’t know if this happens everywhere, but I’ve noticed it … a women when you start talking will smile … men don’t smile … I think it is interesting … because there is no need to … what are we doing it for? Is it to appear more attractive, is it to be a bit subservient … I don’t know what it is. But it’s an interesting observation … that men tend not to smile unless they are joking, of course … but at a business meeting you don’t see that, …you know men don’t smile at each other as they talk … women do … which is strange behavior too, I suppose. (laugher) …. We are all here, let’s have a good time … [laugh].’ [Vanessa, Regional Manager]
This extract parodies the stereotypical primal instincts of male and female beings. This concurs with the literature where it has been noted that men and women are held to different standards (Fletcher,
Several of the women consistently integrated so-called ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ traits of their leadership style, traditionally constructed as opposites. This integration incorporated balancing professional and/or business and personal and/or relational interests as a leader. Power was constructed as the ability to make tough decisions and motivate teams towards outcomes, while building trust and co-operative relationships. This emerged as a more sustainable model for the construction and re-construction of power than a binary approach.
‘I don’t enjoy it necessarily but I know how to push the right buttons and to play the game … and definitely knowing how to play the game with my father and my grandfather who were not easy people.’ [Margie, Finance Director]
‘It was a very controlling relationship I felt very manipulated and very stifled and he was a huge negative influence … in fact when I dated him a second time and we broke up I actually felt better about myself … Umm I knew that I was stronger and more powerful and I wasn’t going to get sucked into his vortex all over again.’ [Anika, Partner]
Revelations associated with the
‘We were in a meeting and I could feel the room going quiet when I become quite vocal about an issue and it suddenly dawned on me how much influence or power I had because of my position and I realised I needed to be cautious about how I expressed myself. People don’t just hear what I say they associate it with the position. I’m very aware of that … it was an ‘aha’ moment.’ [Sandy, Divisional Manager]
The impact of patriarchy and women’s ways of dealing with it describes the feminist discourse that emerged in their narratives. Categories in this discourse cluster were:
Legitimacy of power
The power of challenging patriarchy
Gender discrimination
It was significant to find that despite their tenure, many women, across the racial spectrum, perpetuated the discourse of doubting their
Women leaders narrated
‘So I got the CA, I got the bursary, I used the bursary for the CA. got the foreign secondment, chalked up that experience, got that on my CV, and said thank you, ciao. And they were like “uhhuhh don’t you want to stay on?” and I said “no thanks, I’m not interested in the profession” very politely! I didn’t say “because you are a bunch of chauvinists!”’ [Lynette, Finance Manager]
Exploiting the system for personal advancement and ultimately rejecting it asserts her individual power in standing up against the system. However, it does not highlight the effects of discrimination. The
When asked the question about how they intended to influence the leadership culture going forward, women interviewees battled to articulate responses. The discourses that emerged as empowering centred around personal engagement with the organisation:
Meaningful networks
Having a valued voice
Active identification with values and purpose of the organisation
‘I suppose the one thing if I reflect back on my career … and I guess it comes back to my not being very good at networking … is I would have liked a bigger network of females in a similar position to me … that I really could have connected with in a very confidential, open and transparent way…. And I’d like to know how men feel about themselves. That is what I’d like to know. How different are men? Because I’ve always felt they are quite different, and maybe they aren’t really.’ [Sandy, Divisional Manager]
Another empowering discourse that emerged was
Support for the
‘So that’s the real question I’m asking myself right now … will that give me more life satisfaction and feel like I’ve really made a difference … umm because sometimes, if I look at a corporate job, as much as I know I have made a difference, I kind of feel like … I’m out of here someone else will come and carry on … I know that this is a moment in time and I feel sometimes I could really do something more meaningful.’ [Sandy, Divisional Manager]
In the analysis, it became clear that the emerging model of power needed to be located within a broader framework representing the tensions between varying constructions of power. These power tensions (
Power tensions: Constructions of power of women leaders.
The entrenched colluding model (
However, the feminist discourse category highlights that this model is further entrenched when women choose to perpetuate their role as victims. This is most significantly illustrated through the inability to recognise or articulate abuse. Women’s apparent compliance with psychologically abusive forms of power and the inability to tackle it directly because of its insidious nature has been well documented in feminist research (Gavey,
The clash of domestic roles re-enforces this form of power where women are unable to integrate other identities into their leadership role. Feminist gains made in achieving equality in the workplace will never be sufficient without bringing about change in the way institutions accommodate the role of nurturer (Bassnett,
The adaptive survival model (
The most explicitly articulated element of this model of power is women’s manipulation of the patriarchal system to their advantage, without directly challenging it. This indirect, individualistic approach may be regarded as complicit with traditional power models as it does nothing to constructively dismantle patriarchy. However, this is done more consciously with political astuteness (Valerio,
Managing reputation with a view to being respected for expertise and emulated by others is another adaptive behaviour that places women in positions of power. These achievements are empowering in their own right and result in agency and self-actualisation. However, this model requires continuous attention and its focus is on outcomes rather than process. It is an identity constructed out of political expedience to be seen and judged as worthy, but it does not necessarily alter power relations (Nicholson & Carroll,
In this adaptive model, the challenge to patriarchy is constructed through women’s detachment from or rejection of the system as discussed in the feminist discourse category. Women may choose to disengage from the power dynamics within organisations as a survival strategy and in so doing limit their ability to lead or influence the organisation (Clark & Kleyn,
The emerging transformative model (
Emerging transformative model of power.
Social – engagement with the community
Psychological – continuous construction of congruent identity
Spiritual – transcendence and purpose
While this model of power has potential for transformation, the broader power tensions framework (
Social construction of power in this model represents how women interact with those in the broader organisational community, namely followers, peers and superiors. The model emphasises an awareness of power and rank as essential for engaging with stakeholders positively. This awareness allows leaders to deconstruct hierarchies between themselves and others and transform relationships through constructive engagement (Goltz,
Networks are constructed through sincere engagement in relationships, with integrity, through the process of dialogue as well as the establishment of credibility through actions aligned to their intentions (Livingston & Lusin,
Role models are not to be revered, but are powerful through their emotional connections with others and sincere empathy, rather than charismatic reverence (Dhiman,
Psychological power represents women’s ability to overcome prejudice and build credibility through continuous construction of their identity. It incorporates observations from the literature that identity construction is an ongoing process (McAdams
The psychological process of power construction allows for personal transformation brought about through self-reflection (Dickerson,
The analysis of the data did not illuminate the discourse of spiritual power as starkly as presented in this model, which is why it was not highlighted as a discrete discourse in the findings. However, tentative constructions of power touched on elements that were reminiscent of spiritual power inherent in Mindell’s model (
The construction of spiritual power is evident in narratives where women found a way of transcending the organisational system (Dhiman,
By aligning identity with a heightened level of consciousness or ‘purpose’ as described in the literature (Anderson & Shafer,
The implication for women in leadership is to recognise how they work with these tensions to enable meaningful personal transformation and be able to lead gender initiatives. Awareness of the impact of power constructions should help women leaders and researchers understand how social context informs their mental models. This knowledge could guide leadership development processes designed for women leaders.
The model represents findings from this study and sample group and cannot be generalised to all women leaders in South Africa. Feminist and social constructionist research makes no excuse for the perspective of the researcher, but incorporates it as part of the critical interpretation of the research. Researchers with backgrounds different from my own would provide a significant contribution to the analysis of women leaders’ narratives on power.
The intersecting effects of race and gender, specifically in the South African context, is an area that warrants further research.
Further research to enrich the robustness of the model and engage with a larger, diverse group of women would continue to add to the theory building of models of power.
Research into the effects of power and gender performativity in leadership roles on the advancement of other women is an area where further research would be valuable.
Women continue to construct leadership power in terms of traditional, patriarchal models but are tentatively asserting emerging models. However, they grapple with the tensions of colluding with patriarchy and becoming ‘one of the boys’; of surviving the system through manipulative tactics; and asserting models of power which transform themselves and their relationships.
It is vital that gender transformation efforts create the space for critical reflection on these tensions and the destructive effects of collusion and adaptation. At the same time, they should support women in co-creating alternatives with the promise of bringing about a different form of leadership that is more sustainable for the demands of our modern world.
The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
L.K. designed the research approach and interpreted the findings for her PhD research. K.O. supervised the PhD study. L.K. wrote the article and K.O. peer reviewed it, as did Dr Shaun Ruggunan of UKZN.