Females and Toxic Leadership

Is there a gender component in toxic leadership? Existing conceptions of toxic leadership fail to account for gender. The real world significance of these conceptions is that female leaders labeled with the pejorative of being toxic leaders suffer unjustly. I argue that the concept of toxic leadership has an untheorized and neglected gender component. I problematize existing definitions of toxic leadership and theorize the possibility that female leaders are denominated as toxic leaders for merely exhibiting and practicing traditionally celebrated masculine traits. I demonstrate the plausibility of the thesis by examining the experience of a female U.S. Army Command Sergeant Major. This study has significant impact for senior leadership The study looks at leadership styles that are favorable for female leaders and offers Transformational/ Adaptive leadership as a style promising rehabilitative tools to combat toxic leadership.