Summary
Authentic leadership is a contemporary leadership perspective
which places emphasis on the leader’s understanding of his
true self and his actions that align with his true self. The
current literature on authentic leadership describes leaders in
heroic terms, which reinforces the stereotypical individualistic
agency of leadership as opposed to recognizing or rewarding
the relational aspects of leadership. This viewpoint of authentic
leadership also neglects to address how authentic leadership
applies to women and the particular concerns facing women
leaders who want to enact authentic leadership. We presented
three primary issues which result in authentic leadership being
particularly challenging for women. First, there is a double-bind
dilemma which forces women to make a choice between acting
in concert with gender-normative behaviors or with expected
leadership role behaviors. Second, organizations are gendered
entities which require women to fit into male-dominated
environments. Third, the weight given to the individual, true
authentic self as opposed to the self in relation to others
continues to position women as leadership outsiders due to
the focus on the traditionally masculine, individual agentic
aspects of leadership. We propose that these three concerns
facing women leaders should be explored and integrated
into the ongoing investigations of the construct of authentic
leadership. This will result in authentic leadership being a more
inclusive concept and an ideal toward which all leaders can
strive.