Caught in the Gendered Machine: On the Masculine and Feminine in Cyborg Leadership

Abstract

Many studies have shown that female managers have to work harder than men to gain recognition, and that this often leads top female managers away from the leadership style characterized by soft skills and emotional understanding. Instead, another characterization can be seen; that of tough gendered machines fighting their way to the top - cyborgs. This article uses Haraway's metaphor of the cyborg to explore the way in which a top female manger tries to fight for gender equality by employingmasculine strategies with a female body. However, contrary to the usual argument that women become masculinized leaders, the article argues for a reading in which female leadership becomes both excessively masculine and excessively feminine, challenging simplified readings of gendered leadership. In the case-study, this leads to a situation where high-performance behaviour from a top female leader in effect ends up reinforcing gender inequality. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.