Running Head: Women in Leadership

Genre Analysis: Women in Leadership

By: Sarah Alvarez

University of Texas at El Paso

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Women in Leadership

Introduction

In the past two decades there has been a steady increase of women in the

workforce, however that increase of women in leadership positions has come to a

standstill. The number of women currently in leadership positions is an abysmal number.

Women in leadership positions within businesses are a minority, making up less than 5

percent of CEOs of Standard and Poors 500 (S&P 500) companies, (Womens iLab,

2016). Through the use of two different genres, the genres paint a picture on the gender

gap in various leadership positions. The genres that will be used in this analysis include

the Huffpost blog, The status of women in leadership positions, according to an AAUW

study by Womans iLab and TED talk video Why we have too few women leaders

presented by Sheryl Sandberg. This genre analysis will help determine which of these

sources is conveying its message appropriately and effectively with the use of their

structure and the rhetoric elements incorporated; logos, ethos, and pathos.

Logos

The first genre to be analyzed is the online HuffPost blog The status of women

in leadership positions, according to an AAUW study. The blogs intended audience is

people who are wondering if women have been able to make progress in achieving

leadership positions. The blog is structured by detailing that there have been women in

leadership roles in the past, the percentages of women currently in executive positions, a

brief paragraph explaining the gender gap women face, and five strategies that can be

used to close the gap. The five strategies that could be used are training programs are:

utilizing Implicit Association Tests (IATS), gender quotas, employment reforms, and
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providing role models for children in order to make a difference. The blog explains the

IATS as a way to measure the time it takes your mind to connect two words, such as

woman and scientist small differences could reveal an implicit bias. Hidden biases

can cloud [your] judgment in ways [you] are not fully aware of (Womens iLab,

2016). The blog concludes with a recommendation of reading the American Association

of University Women (AAUW) study to get firmer grasp on the gap of gender leadership.

The second genre to be analyzed is the fifteen-minute TED video Why we have

too few women leaders. The intended audience for this video is people who wish to have

an understanding on the gap in gender leadership. The presenter in the video, Sheryl

Sandberg, begins the presentation by bluntly stating a problem still very much present in

our time, that women are not making it to the top of any profession, anywhere in the

world, (2010). She shares her experience of being in a corporate meeting, cutting a deal,

and finding out that she was the first woman to ever step foot in the office. She later on

explains that studies show that women dont have the confidence to negotiate for their

future, to push themselves for a desired promotion. It also turns out that when women

begin to unconsciously have thoughts of leaving the workforce, they would slowly begin

to not have the desire to grab the promotion being offered and end up slipping into the

background. Sandberg concludes her speech by hoping that half of the companies and

countries in the world are run by women, (2010).

Ethos

In terms of credibility in the first genre, the work is just a summarization of

AAUWs study conducted that was published in 2016. The author of the blog, Sarah

Surette, is a contributor to Womens iLab, a blog created by female leaders in order to

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inspire the next generation of female leaders to be innovative and empowering to other

women. The HuffPost, formerly the Huffington Post, is an American online political

news and opinion distributor whom anyone on the Internet can access. Since the blog is

from a site that has won the Pulitzer Prize in 2012, the blog scores points in terms of a

strong ethos. The blog is based off of AAUWs study, Barriers and Bias: The status of

women in leadership, and was compiled from a variety of sources such as various

authors, U.S. departments, and organizations. Overall, the use of ethos presented in this

blog is strong, but not as strong as the logos.

The credibility of the second genre, the TED video presented by Sheryl Sandberg,

can be deemed reliable. The presenter of the speech in the video, Sheryl Sandberg, is the

Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Facebook and was named as one of the 100 most

influential people in Times magazine in 2012. The speech was recorded as a video during

the 2010 TEDWomen conference held in Washington DC. The website has won a variety

of awards including the Webby award, Communication Arts Informative award, and the

Peabody award. With Sandberg including statistics of women in leadership positions and

her own experiences in the corporate sector, it helps create a stronger use for ethos.

Because of these points, the use of ethos in this video is also strong.

Pathos

Analysis of the use of pathos in the first genre shows that Surette wished to create

a sense of awareness and interest for those who read the blog. The writer has kept the

blog in a third person point of view in order to take on an informative stance. Though she

only used the study conducted by AAUW as her primary source for the blog, Surette used
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the various sources found in the study to compile the blog. Therefore, based on the tone

and structure used in this article, the use of pathos was just as strongly used as logos.

Regarding the use of pathos in the second genre, the Sandberg was able to keep

her audience interested in her speech by appealing to the emotions of the audience. She

has ensured that her speech was kept in an informative stance in order to provide

information to the audience while adding bits of humor to the speech to ensure that she

still has the audiences attention. Since Sandberg is using her experience in the workforce

to appeal to the audience, it allows for people currently at the conference and those

watching the video to feel more connected with the speaker. Overall, the use of pathos in

this video was strongly used.

Compare and Contrast

Even though the two sources used to analyze were from different genres, they

share many similarities in their structure, stance, and rhetorical appeal. The blog relied on

a strong use of ethos and logos to provide information to the audience, while the video

had a strong use of pathos and logos to deliver its information. However, the blog relied

on the AAUW study as its only source of information. This suggests the strong use of

ethos since the reader can click on a certain word, and can be redirected to the source

material. Meanwhile, the TED video contained information compiled from other sources

and the personal experience of the speaker. The TED talk leans more towards pathos

since the audience can see and hear Sandbergs emotions as she presented her story.

Conclusion

In conclusion, both of these genres have appropriately conveyed their messages to

their audiences through the use of rhetoric appeal and structure. However, while the
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recorded speech was not only well structured and timed, the blog only used one source

that has used multiple of credible sources. The blog has kept its information in a third

person point of view while the video has used a first person point of view to convey its

message. While both genres have their strengths and weaknesses, the genre that would be

most reliable to use in a research paper would have to be the video featuring Sheryl

Sandberg as the presenter. This can only be accomplished by analyzing both the online

HuffPost blog and TED videos use of structure, rhetorical appeal, and observed

comparison.
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Reference:

Sandberg, Sheryl (2010, December). Why we have too few women leaders. TED.

Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we-

have_too_few_women_leaders#t-8823

Womens iLab (2016, July 7). The status of women in leadership positions, according to

an aauw study [blog]. HuffPost. Retrieved from

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/womenas-ilab/the-status-of-women-in-

le_b_10842506.html