Abstract
The article explores a distinctive perspective on the position of women in managerial/executive positions, their leadership style, and gender differences in the work environment. Many contemporary publications, scholarly articles, researches, and statistics focus on how management and leadership theories apply to female managers, what barriers they have to face and how they are affected by gender stereotypes. It seems clear that, when compared to men, female managers face less than ideal positions in the labour market. In management, women are still a minority, regardless of whether we speak about the whole world or just the Czech and Slovak Republics. Nevertheless, this controversial subject of inequality is gradually improving and many employees can currently experience women in leadership positions.
In 2020, according to Eurostat.eu (2021), 28.5 % of managerial positions in the Czech Republic and 36.1 % in Slovakia were occupied by women. In general, not all levels of management offer the same undisruptive environment and stability for women. Female professionals often face various barriers, such as gender stereotypes, women's gender roles, or much more serious issues of sexual harassment, etc. Undoubtedly, these negative phenomena will take time and some creative effort to be minimised or even eradicated.
The COVID-19 pandemic clearly affected everyone, including women - be they economically active or child-caring mothers. It presented a powerful motivation for concentrating on the women in management, on their leadership styles and their suitability for the pandemic economy. Thus, the article offers an assessment of the acute situation of women in leadership positions and management in general and aims to evaluate what makes women in leadership positions exceptional. It also defines which forms of discrimination or disadvantage are most common or if they occur at all. And finally, it strives to define what makes women authentic, what kind of leadership styles they especially use in their working lives, and whether they can, even under present conditions, effectively balance the two distinct roles of professional managers and family caring mothers at the same time.