Gender and leadership : four contemporaneous Queens Regnant

The paper begins by citing recent statistics as to the proportion of female leaders in business and the profession, which indicate while there has been progress a “glass ceiling” remains. To explicate the latter phenomena the paper draws on historical records to examine the leadership qualities of four European Queens who lived contemporaneously: Mary Tudor; Elizabeth Tudor, Mary, Queen of Scots; and Catherine de Medici. We seek to add a contribution to debates about female leadership and utilise a theoretical framework based on suggestions from the literature of intrinsic female difference, bias and institutional pressures –all or some of which may be factors impairing the progress of women in management. Our findings indicate, as some researchers suggest, that women generally exhibit superior communication and better inter-personal skills. However, the most salient observation to emerge from the qualitative sample is that institutions being male dominated, whether monarchical or managerial do not respect the uxorious.