ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author describes the scarcity of psychoanalytic literature that addresses the topic of women as leaders. The Leadership Identity is proposed, a developmental pathway that may be nurtured or thwarted during the maturational process, as imagination meets passion, mission and opportunity. The author suggests that psychoanalysis has failed to encourage and nurture threads of this healthy identity formation because of embedded sexist beliefs. To further challenge psychoanalytic theory, the author introduces The Brody Test of Women and Leadership. This “test” deconstructs psychoanalytic views regarding women and asks if it is possible to remove three familiar themes (penis envy, men’s fantasies about women in power, and ambition as a compensatory drive) from our discussions of women, power and leadership. When psychoanalysis leads the focus instead on women’s intellect, passion and risk-taking, we bring discussions of women as leaders into a more relevant and contemporary focus. Clinical and theoretical psychoanalysis will benefit from this modern perspective, and can play a role in nurturing women leaders within a complex sociocultural context.
