Changing the Narrative of Men Being Inherent Leaders: Part III of a Three-Part Series

The first two parts of this series focused on the seven lessons women can teach men about leadership (to read the first two parts, click here for part one and click here for part two).  In our culture, the predominant story is men are “natural born” leaders because that’s what we see.  

What if we changed this narrative?

RR wants to.  There is research on the way women lead, such as through collaboration, cooperation, and empathy, means happier employees.  Happier employees mean smarter, more engaged, committed, and more productive employees.  And doesn’t that mean bigger profits?

By the way, this is NOT a manifesto to overthrow men in power and replace them with women.  Hell, no. RR is about equity, inclusion, and diversity.  Simply put, we want leadership positions to be held by a diverse group of people.

Since RR focuses on women over 50, here are some images to disrupt the narrative of white, middle-aged, rich men being the only ones capable in leadership roles.

This is what a leader looks like…

Wait, stop the presses.  

I searched a couple of free stock image libraries and used the following terms: middle-aged woman leading; middle-aged women leaders; and older women leaders.

Here are the images I could choose from:

This is not an exhaustive search.  However, it is a straightforward inquiry.  I searched for older women leaders in popular stock image libraries and ended up with these images.  

What is the message?

And how can we change the narrative if we don’t have images to help tell our story?

Call to action: Send RR images and stories of women over 50 being leaders.  We want to feature them on our website.

Thank you !

ONWARD!