ABSTRACT

There are certainly more women in management or executive leadership roles in Australia’s major theatre, opera and dance companies with an increase from 43% to 72%. According to A. H. Eagly and L. A. Carli, women are associated with communal qualities such as concern for the compassionate treatment of others, being affectionate, helpful, friendly, kind, sensitive, gentle, softly spoken. The male and female leaders we talked to were in co-leadership relationships and that may mean they require different qualities to men and women working alone as CEOs. The binaries of masculine and feminine qualities were absent in the way the interviewees discussed their co-leadership arrangements. Another approach to helping women achieve leadership roles is to ensure that opportunities really are equal by the introduction of flexible working arrangements, generous maternity and paternity leave and creating childcare provision.