Female leaders suited to modern workplace

As Women’s Day approaches with a flurry of female-empowerment messaging, it’s clear that for many women, the glass ceiling is firmly intact. Yet, though challenges like imposter syndrome and lingering gender stereotypes persist, tapping into their unique brand of leadership can help set women apart in today’s workplace.

Women may lead differently to men, says Yael Rosen, an organisational psychologist and the co-founder of outsourced human resources company Ferva, but ultimately, their leadership style comes down to nuance and context.

“There are clear trends in how women and men tend to lead, shaped by their life experiences; how they are socialised; and what’s expected of them. Women often lead with more empathy, collaboration, adaptability, and emotional awareness. Men may lean more toward directness, assertiveness, and decisive execution. These are patterns, not rules, and often we find the best leaders are able to tap into the different traits across the board.”

Moreover, she says, leadership isn’t only about gender but about the environment in which the person leads. “The culture of a business; its level of diversity; its history; its current challenges; and the types of people within it all influence the kind of leadership needed. The most effective leaders know how to bring forward the right strengths at the right time.”

Debby Edelstein, the founder of QualityLife Company, a global leadership coaching consultancy, and the co-author of Unapologetically Her: Global perspectives of Women’s Triumphs, Strategies and Resilience, agrees. “The most effective leaders are those who can integrate the best of both worlds: strength with empathy; clarity with collaboration; strategic thinking with emotional intelligence.”

Though she acknowledges that there are certain patterns of women’s leadership, Edelstein cautions against reinforcing gender stereotypes around leadership. “We don’t generalise about how men lead, we recognise a range of leadership styles,” she says. “So why do we expect a single narrative about how women lead? If we’re serious about fostering more representative leadership, especially in the face of a global leadership crisis, we can’t afford to exclude half the world’s population.”

Reeva Forman, the founder of one of South Africa’s leading cosmetics companies, Reeva Beauty & Health, has a career spanning decades. She also argues against conforming to and applying gender stereotypes, especially when your career doesn’t progress as expected.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions based on stereotypical thinking,” she says. “There’s always an exception to the rule. The curse of our day is creating our own self-fulfilling prophecies.” So, instead of blaming a male boss’s anti-female bias or a female boss’s jealousy when you’re not promoted, look at what you could do differently or where they’re coming from. “Put yourself in the other person’s mindset. What would you want from an employee if you were the employer?”

The glass ceiling isn’t only an issue pertaining to women, she says. “It exists in many different minds today, those who may be physically impaired or anyone who sells themselves short and thinks, ‘I cannot do this’ for whatever reason. In fact, most women in this era take their ability to achieve, their major goals and dreams as a given.”

Hayley Gillman, the founder and chief executive of the Business Optimization Training Institute, which services more than 800 clients and more than 10 000 delegates around the world, argues that both female and male leaders have strengths and weaknesses. “Women often have more finely tuned interpersonal skills, which are essential for a leader. However, we can sometimes be overly emotional, which could potentially cloud our judgement when making crucial business decisions.”

Despite the progress she’s observed in larger corporations, Gillman believes that the glass ceiling persists, particularly in smaller companies. Yet she argues that women often also stand in their own way.

“Women’s biggest threat and barrier to progressing to top levels of management is pervasive imposter syndrome. We need to start believing and owning our truth – that we are equally, and sometimes even more, competent and skilled than our male counterparts in performing specific job functions.”

While both women and men have valuable leadership traits, Rosen says those most associated with women are often undervalued. “Empathy, inclusion, and collaborative problem-solving aren’t nice-to-haves, they are critical leadership skills in 2025.”

So rather than looking at generalised gender differences and deciding which style is preferable, it’s best to ask what kind of leadership the world needs, she says. “In today’s world, where trust, inclusion, collaboration, and adaptability are essential, many traits associated with feminine leadership are incredibly valuable.”

However, women are often penalised for these critical traits, says Rosen, when, “empathy is mistaken for softness; collaboration gets mistaken for indecision; and assertiveness gets punished instead of praised.”

She argues that though the glass ceiling lingers, with fewer women than men in senior leadership roles and a persistent and systemic payment gap, it also manifests differently in the modern workplace. “It’s no longer just about overt exclusion. Today, it’s more subtle and often harder to name, but just as limiting.

“It shows up as being left out of informal networks where real influence happens. It’s not being considered ‘ready’ for promotion without clear feedback, or being asked to jump through multiple hoops. It’s having to overprove competence in ways that aren’t expected of male peers. It’s facing bias in performance reviews. And it’s managing leadership responsibilities while also, for many, juggling the full weight of carrying the primary responsibility at home, a significant emotional and logistical load that often goes unacknowledged.”

This often leads to burnout and exhaustion, Edelstein says. She also speaks of workplace dynamics like the “double bind” where women leaders, for example, have to balance being likeable with being competent, something not expected from men.

“There’s still a long way to go for organisations – especially for those in senior leadership roles – to create the conditions for more women to rise and to thrive in senior positions,” says Rosen. “It’s not just about making space. It’s about truly enabling women to lead with strength, without having to sacrifice themselves in the process.”