Chapter 5: On Teaching Gender And Leadership

This chapter reports one professor’s experience with teaching an MBA course on gender and leadership. Titled “Women in Management,” the stated purpose of the course was to strengthen the skills and intellectual capital of women managers. The class was categorized as a management class, and was taught over the span of one quarter (10 weeks) at a private comprehensive college in the northeastern United States. A total of 15 students were enrolled in this night course. All were women, and each had served in a management or supervisory capacity for a minimum of two years. In fact, supervisory experience was a prerequisite for the course, and students were required to “apply” for entry to the course by submitting resumes.