“As women gained traction in the workforce, gender differences among senior and junior staffers turned up in every workplace, from offices to factory floors to fighter planes. Now that women are pulling up chairs at boardroom tables and launching their own companies, the number of women-owned firms has increased by 103% in the past 10 years, those differences are increasingly playing out in executive suites, too. Studies show that both male and female styles of leadership can be effective. But when compared side by side, "female" has the edge.

Gender differences stem from nurture and nature alike. It's not only socialization that shapes men and women. It's also biology. Researchers are discovering physiological variations in the brains of men and women. For example, male brains are about 10% larger than female brains. But women have more nerve cells in certain areas. Women also tend to have a larger corpus collusum, the group of nerve fibers that connects left and right hemispheres. That makes women faster at transferring data between the computational, verbal left half and the intuitive, visual right half. Men are usually left-brain oriented. As girls and boys grow up, of course, they're also molded by differing sets of social rules and expectations. Gender obviously colors behavior, perception and just about everything else.”

This societal trend is not limited to the United States. From an article in the January 9th edition of Scotland’s The Herald newspaper by Helen Puttick,

“It is the news that the males of office life have secretly been dreading - women make better managers than men. A ground-breaking survey of 2000 UK workers found female managers were more highly regarded than their male counterparts in a wide range of areas - including taking risks and decision-making. Out of 14 new criteria for measuring managerial success, women were rated better than men in 11 and equal to men in the remaining three.

Male middle managers felt the opposite sex was significantly more effective at taking charge than their own.

High-flying men and women around Scotland yesterday admitted the survey confirmed their own instincts - although men in particular were reluctant to say so in public.”

Women are beginning to dominate the corporate world. While men still hold the majority of CEO and management positions, they are losing their power with each graduating class from the major colleges and universities. Women are dominating the classrooms in higher education and thus more women are being hired for top entry-level positions with large companies. It is only a matter of time when women will ascend to top management positions at an accelerated rate. As it becomes apparent that women make better managers than their male counterparts, more women will be hired into these positions of authority. As women continue to ascend to these top positions, they will be more inclined to hire other women for middle management positions. Thus, the trend toward female rule in the business world will continue at an accelerated rate.