Gender and Leadership: The Case of Presidential Election 2010

Abstract

Research has shown that people perceive a good leader in terms of masculine characteristics (Butterfield and Grinnell, 1998; Powell and Butterfield, 2011; Powell, Butterfield, and Parent, 2002; van Engen and Willemsen, 2004). However, recent researchers and thought leaders argue that leaders and managers should be androgyny, a person who has strong masculine and feminine qualities (van Engen and Willemsen, 2004). The main research questions this exploratory study addresses were what the young Sri Lanka voters consider as the ideal characteristics in their political leaders and whether their choice in the election matches the ideal characteristics. Whilst the image of the leader does play a part (Butterfield and Prasad, 1989), it should however be noted that factors such as campaign issues, campaign strategy, the opponent, and economy play a role in the determination of the election of a President (Butterfield and Prasad, 1989).