Gender and Leadership: Men and Women\u27s Stories

This study investigates gender and leadership

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Someone recently asked me, “What do you do in your class? I mean, I walk intoyour classroom, sit down, then what happens?” Ok, I thought, I know how to answer thisquestion: I wanted to enthusiastically explain the structure of the class as a theoreticalblend of psychology, engineering design methods and art; discuss the intentional purposeof building the curriculum iteratively and differently every term, based on the uniquedeveloping social dynamics 13, 41 of every class.Something stopped me and I resisted responding. In that moment, I rememberfeeling the need to shift from an automatic theoretical response 48 to some other,hopefully novel approach, that would underline how I teach; clarify what occurs in theclassroom. I thought I had the answer as an Instructor. And, as I struggled in myresponse, to do what I teach, and avoid responding with a rehearsed, practiced pitch24 , Irealized that the response in my head to the question, “What happens in your class?” wasa conversation stopper. It was necessary to formulate a response that was a conversationstarter. Thus, I began sifting through the memorable moments in my mind, to find a shortstory that would invite someone right into the classroom and step into the role of student;a student required to act as both storyteller and audience. And, at the same time,consider how the story might inform the early stage Professor preparing to teach for thefirst time– a concept often parallel to the inspirational phase of an entrepreneurialventure. One must figure out the passion and iteration on the product, the new creation,and who the audience is.Imagine the experience as a student in the class:Jon walks into the classroom and sits down at the long seminar table. He quietlysuggests that while he is feeling confident about what he has done in his accomplishmentsat school, coordinating early seed funding for his start-up, he is not feeling so good aboutwhat is next for him.During the first moments of class, Jon begins his story, “This is my last class. Iam fulfilling my final credits for the graduate program in Mechanical Engineering,” Hecontinues his story in a comfortable, conversational manner, and quietly leads with theemotion behind his work, “We started this little company that makes and analyzesaffordable and reliable blood tests that will change the health and wellness for people inremote areas of the world. For the first time in their lives, millions of people in thirdworld countries will receive the care they need and deserve.” The classroom was silent.The non-verbal responses of the other students in class indicated variations of effectiveengagement. Their bodies moved forward – some students are leaning towards him,others adjust their bodies so they can get a better view, all are focused on Jon, all eyesare riveted. When Jon stopped speaking, the room is still. There are different kinds ofsilence; you feel it immediately – this is a silence of deep engagement.The Instructor breaks the silence, “What are your impressions of Jon’s story?”Classmates in graduate engineering, design, business, law, and humanities make itclear to Jon that he is a natural “conversational storyteller.” One classmate explained,“Everyone can’t do what you just did. You make it understandable and comfortable. Andit’s a meaningful, memorable story – it’s clear to us that you didn’t do the start-up just tosay you did it. ” They all left the classroom that day, planning to do the homework Joninspired: create pages of short stories from every part of your life. Be so comfortablewith the stories that they become second nature, a natural way to respond, and reliablepreparation for a conversation with a classmate, an advisor, a team mate on a project, aninterviewer for your dream job, a venture capitalist, a board of a non profit. They alsowondered what Jon meant when he suggested he was not confident about his future. Wewill return to the story of Jon later in the Conversational Storytelling section of the paper.</p