No Women in Leadership

Yet the Australian participants couldn't, or wouldn't, name a single woman leader when prompted.

This probably says more about them than our leaders.

The most visible top woman is Julia Gillard. But is she a good leader that young women can aspire to?

Putting gender aside for a little bit, Martin Luther King, Jr., a prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights said this about leadership: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

Where is Gillard standing in this challenging and controversy times for Australia?

Why is the arrival of asylum seekers onto Australian shores made into a headline issue for the whole nation? Where is a vision to move Australia forward as suggested by her 2010 election slogan? Have we moved backward instead? Can we all truly aspire to a leadership that is inhumane, coupled with a lack of vision?

According to John Quincy Adams, true leadership is when, "your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more."

Leadership has nothing to do with the position you are in, but the changes you can ignite in others. One of the greatest challenge for any leader is not to have a vision, but to get others to follow your vision, otherwise it is only a dream.

Earlier this year I attended a forum about women leadership, run by Christine Nixon. Participants were asked about the leadership qualities of women. The majority of participants mentioned the ability to engage, care, be inclusive and bring diverse people together, among others. All these are qualities of good leadership for this century as defined by business books. However, are they accepted by the population at large?

I also hear friends sometimes say that women in top positions are "manlike," and feel the need to be tough and aggressive. Participants at Christine's forum also felt that one of the barriers for them in taking a leadership position was not wanting to become a "man."

Is the glass ceiling too inherited within the population? Or as Laura Liswood, Secretary General of the Council of Women World Leaders and Senior Advisor of Goldman Sachs said: "There's actually no such thing as a glass ceiling. It's just a thick layer of men."

Recent discussions on the need to have more women in leadership has seen the corporate sector conducting research highlighting that companies perform better financially when there are more women decision makers. Despite the fact that many women aspire to be in leadership positions, women always come against a glass ceiling and only the rare "tough" women can reach the top.