There is No Lean In for Men

There is no Lean In for men. That is, in the mass market leadership press, in leadership development circles, and in much of leadership research, the counterpoint to “women’s leadership” is not “men’s leadership,” but just plain, gender-neutral “leadership.” In this paper, we explore the discursive, cultural, and gender politics behind the stark divide between the popularity of women’s leadership on the one hand, and the relative non-existence of men’s leadership as a comparable topic of concern on the other. Toward this end, we track the rise of women’s leadership discourse, we discuss the subtle (and not so subtle) gendered nature of supposedly gender-neutral leadership speak, and we analyze the differences between a best- selling women’s leadership text and a popular ‘gender-neutral’ text. On this basis, we argue that the prominence of “women’s leadership,” together with the comparable lack of a “men’s leadership,” functions to reinforce a masculinist leadership discourse that flies under the banner of “just good leadership.” We also argue that over-attention to women as a special case in leadership contexts, and often as a problem to fix, ultimately reinforces sexist and/or misogynistic attitudes that can undermine the very project of empowerment that women’s leadership discourse seeks to promote.