Paul Keating and Bob Hawke in the same line as, Gandhi, Confucius.

Research shows that there is higher percentage of psychopaths in positions of CEO.

At least it's not a layer of thick men...

What about our PM. A more intelligent woman you would not find any where. Certainly knows her business, inside out.

579 gets the crown for sarcasm. Magaret Thatcher stands out as a great woman leader. The ones who get jobs through quota systems really do bring the standard down. Just look at the Victorian Police force over the last few years. Never before have we had such an incompetent Government. More blood on their hands overnight for inviting the boats. How callous can a Government be? In actual fact mothers who have sacrificed themselves for their children are the true heroes.

The problem is that there is only so much room at the top. To be a leader, women have to not just aspire to be leaders, they have to want it more than everyone else and be willing to work harder for it than everyone else. The same goes for men - maybe only "strong/manly" women get into leadership positions, but only strong men get into leadership positions too. If you are weak, you won't make it to the top of a very competitive world.

The "thick wall of men" is not some male conspiracy forcing women down, it is a whole group of other people, all of whom also want the top job. The way for women such as the author to create more female leaders is not to sit and complain about how there aren't enough female leaders; it is to start pulling 18-hour days working in a high-powered sector and making friends with everyone who matters so that she can eventually get the top job. That's what all the male leaders did, and gender quotas won't change that requirement.

The article was going along quite well until it hit page 3 and I realised it was just another "it's all the men's fault" rant. I thought it was going to be an article on women taking responsibility and cultivating themselves so they can be in positions of leadership, but no, it was really about "we need to fix the men."

As NQD has made reference to, becoming a leader requires strength, courage, and determination, and this will always be the case. There isn't a conspiracy stopping women from leading, the problem is that there are too many weak-willed women who cannot embody the characteristics required. "Fixing men" is really a sneaky way of claiming "I don't want to embody the traits required to lead, I just want to be a leader."

@NQD Most women in leasership acheive far more than blokes during an 18 hour day. Most of us - especially those with families - work much smarter. We need to keep on top of our jobs but also keep the home front humming, the children happy and be available to our husbands. Most successful men do not have to worry about anything other than themselves. For women to be more successful they need stay-at-home wives.

579,
if there were a Darwin award for ignorance you'd be the proud owner of the perpetual trophy. Fancy giving Julia Gillard so much credit. Bill Heffernan's was still the best assessment of her. That female belittles the office for Prime Minister of Australia. No wonder the monarchists are still ahead in numbers.

individual, please don't feed the troll

Love women have a problem.

To get to the top, first you have to figure out which way is up. This is a problem for most women, present company included I'm afraid. Most are too busy concentrating on the product of their loins to give enough attention to leadership.

Masters in leadership, what twaddle. As if you can teach leadership. That is something you either have, or do not have, it can't be taught.

Yes you had Maggy to aspire to, but more women than men knock her.

Leaders float to the top, without some damn fool masters in it. Of course, scum floats to the top too, so be careful what you wish for. Just think how many people were killed by bad leadership last century, & try another line of work.

If you don't believe me about scum, just have a glance at Canberra, & any argument is destroyed.

I suggest you go back to doing things that give you warm & fussy feelings, a nice picture of your own humanity, & stay out of such nasty things as leadership.

Normally you would think that if there were less women in leadership positions then it might indicate women didn't make as good leaders. But then in this new feminised age, facts are just so...male.

I don't buy this article either. If anything women have an advantage in male dominated areas because they enjoy favourable discrimination policies, which means they're too often employed based on gender rather than merit. I've already been told, not in so many words, that I should forget any aspirations I might have at my workplace because the senior position I'm qualified for is earmarked for a young female. No glass ceiling for me, I'm not even in the running, no matter how good my CV. I don't resent this in the least, but I don't buy the guff that women are held back or that men block the way.
It's long been a gripe of mine that women are just not sufficiently engaged, in political spheres in particular. They don't seem to like rolling their sleeves up and getting dirty or getting angry. They too commonly just sit back passively (no doubt thinking of England) and grumble about inequality without offering a compelling alternative. Even the women who do enter the arena have generally modelled themselves on men--androgynous corporate minions, certainly nothing radical. But then that's just what corporations and governments prefer; politically correct servility.
Men are discriminated against on many fronts too

c@s:

Another thing leadership requires is sacrifices. It's not true to say that men in leadership positions have nothing to worry about except themselves, you will find that most of them don't spend enough time worrying about themselves because they are too focussed on what they are doing, same for women in top positions.

If time spent on childcare is the reason that women can't be in leadership positions, then the only way for women to be in leadership positions would be for them to spend less time on childcare. This is a sacrifice that must be made in order to be the best - if you don't make it, you won't be the best.