ABSTRACT
The chapter begins with a brief overview of the gender gap in leadership—which continues nearly unabated, even two decades after the issue first surfaced in politics and the professions. It goes on to enumerate the conventional explains for why there is a gap, explanations that increasingly are being revealed as miserably inadequate. The recent research on, for example, the gap in ambition between women and men suggests that something remains excluded from the collective conversation, certainly as it pertains to women and leadership. Kellerman hypothesizes that the primary unconventional explanation for what is happening (or not), and why, is biological or, more aptly, sociobiological. It states that there are biological differences between women and men, pertaining particularly to pregnancy, lactation, and parenting, differences that are not irrelevant to women and leadership. To the contrary: to a considerable extent they are responsible for the problem, which suggests that to a considerable extent they must inevitably be part of any solution.
