It is very hard to be a female leader. While it is assumed that any man, no matter how tough, has a soft side... and female leader is assumed to be one-dimensional.
When I wrote 'The West Wing,' the juice behind it was that in popular culture, our leaders in government are generally portrayed as Machiavellian, or as idiots. I thought, well, how about writing about a group of hyper-competent people?
For the longest time, I just felt like I had to be really, really harsh to be taken seriously as a CEO.
We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.
People don't always want to have females as leaders.
I'm actually a very shy person. You'd be surprised how many leaders are shy. They're not all extroverts by nature.
By saying that leaders - male or female - have to look or act a certain way to be respected as role models, we are not only hurting those individuals but also reinforcing rigid benchmarks for the next generation of passionate, aspiring leaders, who are watching.
I don't subscribe to that school of thought that leadership can be altogether defined by gender.
