Many civilizations have experience with men in leading roles, but very few truly welcome women into leading roles, as most of our civilizations, no matter how modern, continue to be patriarchal. There are a few matriarchal societies, including primitive matriarchies in which women have leading roles.
Sometimes we allow leading role women into certain careers, that we find acceptable for women, and are traditional careers in which we accept women as leading role figures. For example, most of the leading role females on the cooking channel, seem to have found men that treat them honorable as leading role females in these traditional feminine roles. This includes Rachel Ray, Paula Dean and others who often introduce us to their men, all of who seem to be very secure in their roles with leading role women in these traditional roles. But, as we have noted, there are men assuming these leading roles, but in masculine style.
Sometimes women are not necessarily qualified for leading roles, because they don't have the tradition of having leading roles. And again we mean in those careers and roles that are not traditional for women in that society or civilization. In these societies or civilizations, women have the tradition of having supporting roles, and so even when we find women in leading roles, its difficult for many of them to have purely leading roles, because there are always many supporting role demands upon them.
Whitney Houston is an example. This is a leading role female in the area of entertainment and singing. Nevertheless, like many leading role women, she finds that she has many supporting role obligations, to a husband, to a daughter, and to others that come to her as a female to provide a support system for her. How many people are supportive of her as a leading role female, and how many people approach her as a supporting role for their efforts.
Many leading role females find that very few people approach them accepting a supporting or supportive role with them. Most people make supporting role demands upon them, while still expecting them to be the best of the best in their leading roles. This is not just true of leading role females, but can also be true of leading role men. Usually there is a combination of leading role and supporting role demands. When leaders find there are too many supporting role demands then they must seek for those who are able to provide a support system for them.
Think of a female in a leading role, public or private. How many approach them for a supporting role to their efforts, and how many approach them supportive of them in their leading role(s). (Again, you can ask this question of leading role men, public or private.)
Therefore, it is very difficult to sustain a leading role and a leading career, when there are all kinds of supporting role demands made on women. We shall discuss women since we are talking here about leading role females.
Most people do not know how to be supportive of a female in a leading role. Most men in a patriarchal society and/or in a society with a patriarchal history do not know how to behave when a woman is perceived as in the lead.
This does not mean that these females are necessarily the leader, but if they are perceived by the society as that or if they are perceived by men as that, then there are certain patterns of behavior. Does society truly want that? If not, then females find that everybody joins in making sure they don't sustain their leading role. Certainly this can be true of men in leading roles also, if society does not truly consider them to be a leading role figure and/or a leading role type. This is true certainly of ethnic groups who assume leading roles.
Many men connecting to such women are honorable men. However, a society that looks upon women as less makes it very problematic for a man to connect to a leading role woman. Most men and most societies can be very destructive to those who it does not perceive as leading role material.
Some leading role figures are simply accepted in the lead, or we freely defer to them as leaders, while others must do battle to sustain their leading role or to even achieve leading role status. Again and again we witness this in most of our societies. Those we perceive as leading role types, whether men or women, we often defer to, and that's generally all of our societies. Sometimes they have to prove themselves. Othertimes they do not.
Usually the person in the leading role is perceived as greater. Few men, with a tradition of being leading figures, appear to psychologically and socially deal with this. Females intuitively understand this. We assume that males intuitively understand it.
