Sociology

This paper is a study related to investigating the cultural perspective of gender in Leadership roles. Traditional gender roles established in many societies and cultures around the world, including Japan are based on gender stereotypes, which create stereotyping on Leadership style between men and women. Men are considered to be more worthy of leadership because they are presumed to have masculine traits whereas women are presumed to have feminine traits, which are not considered as effective for leadership. This does not mean that these stereotypes have any objective basis upon which they are formed. Each individual varies in the amount of masculine and feminine traits he or she employs in their respective leadership styles and positions. Originally Japan as a culture did not encourage women in leadership positions but as the times have gone by, the traditional Japanese views have been put aside and new values that accommodate women is such positions have taken their place. Inspite of this the number of women in roles that require responsibility and leadership, is very less. This is primarily due the cultural models that cause contradictions and conflicts for such women in both their personal and professional lives. However the Japanese society has shown increasing trend of female independence, women marrying later, women having children later in their lives, women working away from home and women keeping their jobs after marriage and childbirth. If this progress is not hindered then women in Japan will be encouraged to acquire advanced corporate positions in business in the future.   Japans Cultural Perspective of Gender in Leadership Roles

Introduction
Japan is an island country in East Asia and is considered to be one of the most advanced economies in the world. It is the world second largest economy by nominal GDP and is considered the third most powerful in the purchasing power parity. Japan is considered part of the developed world with strong economic, military, communication and infrastructure resources (The World Fact Book, 2010)

Like many developed countries, Japan too is observing its share of increased female social and economic participation. An increasing number of women have assumed leadership positions in various corporations and various sectors of the Japanese economy, which was previously unheard of. This can be explained by the subservient and passive role women were expected to fulfill in the traditional Japanese culture. As a result they usually filled the lower level secretarial and clerical jobs at best, and were expected to leave once they were married or had gotten pregnant. As the country developed and culture accommodated some modern western values regarding the role women in society, women started gaining increased freedom, started to gain job security, started demanding better compensation, respect and benefits and started occupying positions of responsibility and leadership in the workplace. However women still are prejudiced against on the basis of leadership styles due which they might in some cases be discriminated against. By nature women are considered as warm, tactful and accommodating, which are essentially female traits and are thus believed to be people  orientated leader which may or may not be capable of making important decisions. On the other hand men are considered to be task orientated, presumably because men are considered to be assertive, competent, rational and capable of making important decisions. Thus Leadership positions are still largely handed out to men as compared to their female counter parts.

Literature Review
Most of the cultures around the world have well defined and distinct gender roles. Gender concepts may be unique to each society or culture, where they are taught and ingrained into the minds, psychology and method of thinking of the members of the society. Thus these stereotypes rae passed from one generation to next. Adults as well as adolescents are trained to conform to these pre defined gender roles from the very beginning. A large number of cross cultural studies have recorded, examined and studied gender roles that are developed on the basis of gender stereotypes (Williams, J. E., 2001). Women due to their feminine traits of accommodation, consideration, warmth and tactfulness are generally assigned subservient roles in a society. Females are primarily held responsible for looking after the family, upbringing and welfare of the children, teaching and managing the household in general. Men on the other hand are assumed to manage and uphold positions of responsibility and leadership, because they are widely considered to have masculine traits essential for these kinds of positions. Traits like being rational, assertive, competitive, instrumental and willing to take risks are considered masculine traits. These gender roles are defined on the basis of some stereotypes that individuals commonly hold regarding each gender, thus many of such gender roles are found to be common in many countries, societies, cultures and groups in the world. However this does not mean that gender stereotypes have any practical basis other than that of certain cultural circumstances. There are many example that have not conformed with such generalizations. Over the years the world has seen women to rise to positions of power and leadership and to maintain their roles successfully. Many women leaders display a lot of masculine traits which include being rational and taking risk. One such example of this is Robert Chase who has proved her worth as an entrepreneur over the years. Men too, in many cultures and countries have been found to display and employ feminine traits in their workplace responsibilities. Some feminine traits such as encouraging interactivity, encouraging participation and being sensitive to the needs and values of others have been adopted by successful male leaders and used to great affect for the respective companies they work for. Thus each individual is unique in hisher employment and implementation of the combination of both masculine and feminine traits in their daily professional or (and) personal life (Williams, J. E.,  Best, D. L., 1990).

Due to these gender stereotypes women in many countries are discriminated against their leadership styles and are assumed to adopt a democratic leadership style rather than an autocratic leadership style. However studies that have been conducted to explain and validate such claims have hardly shown any concrete evidence regarding stereotypic difference in leadership styles and ideology. If democratic style of leadership is to be examined then on some levels it can be compared to transformational leadership. Both styles encourage employee participation and increased involvement in the decision making process. Research has found out that there was almost no difference between male or female decision makers, when they were rated on their transformational leadership. Despite such studies female leadership is not encouraged and appreciated in Japan. This can be further supported by a study carried out by Sugihara, Y.,  Katsurada, E., in which 1200 or so Japanese college undergraduates were assessed for personality traits using the BSRI. The study indicated that male students did in fact scored higher than their female counterparts in displaying masculine traits, but they did not differ from each other in feminine traits.  Additionally it was found out that both female and male students scored higher on the Femininity scale as compared to the Masculinity scale (Sugihara, Y.,  Katsurada, E., 2000).

Many individuals, when assessing the roles of women in the Japanese culture, blame it for not providing women with increased levels of freedom and independence to further their career interests. They blame Japan as being a very closed society. However the problem herein lies in their limited perception of the Japanese culture. Such individuals should try to assess the Japanese culture free from any predefined set of rules, values or frame of context. Instead they should keep an open mind and try to assess the Japanese culture from within its own context and in reference to the unique values and circumstances it is based on (Hayashi, C.  Kuroda, Y., 1997). Most western studies have depicted Japanese culture as being torn into various pieces of many kinds. However according to Nakane.C., in her study Japanese Society, this is not true. She considers it to be a well mixed entity. She explains how the Japanese society is collective in nature and this is the main diving force behind the development of the society (Nakane, C., 1970).

Such cultural guidelines that predefine the roles acceptable for women have served as an hindrance for Japanese women and have been a major source of conflict in the personal and professional lives (Hirsch, J.,2000) . Such cultural models indirectly aid in increasing and instigating conflict because they act as a basis for creating complications and contradictions for women in both their social as well as professional lives. If these models and methodologies of thinking are critically examined and studied then various actions such as translation can be predicted (Brislin, R. W., 1970).

Conclusion
Traditional gender roles established in many societies and cultures around the world, including Japan are based on gender stereotypes, which create stereotyping on Leadership style between men and women. Men are considered to be more worthy of leadership because they are presumed to have masculine traits whereas women are presumed to have feminine traits, which are not considered as effective for leadership. This does not mean that these stereotypes have any objective basis upon which they are formed. Each individual varies in the amount of masculine and feminine traits he or she employs in their respective leadership styles and positions. Originally Japan as a culture did not encourage women in leadership positions but as the times have gone by, the traditional Japanese views have been put aside and new values that accommodate women is such positions have taken their place. Inspite of this the number of women in roles that require responsibility and leadership, is very less. This is primarily due the cultural models that cause contradictions and conflicts for such women in both their personal and professional lives. However the Japanese society has shown increasing trend of female independence, women marrying later, women having children later in their lives, women working away from home and women keeping their jobs after marriage and childbirth. If this progress is not hindered then women in Japan will be encouraged to acquire advanced corporate positions in business in the future.