Throughout history there have been women who have had leadership roles, have been the leaders of their families, taking care of the family home and the needs of their children in the house. They scheduled meetings with teachers, handled PTA responsibilities, and managed family budgets. According to Dayle M. Smith, in her work “Women at Work: Leadership,” (2000), during the century before 1950, women held a behind-the-scenes support group for their spouse who would go to work and earned money. for the family (page 8). While these aspects of leadership have largely been downplayed and downplayed as “women's work” and below the level of a man, few, if any, men have ever dared to replicate the skill of the woman in the home. Before World War I, women were excluded from the workforce except for positions deemed feminine. Women could hold nursing, childcare, secretarial, and teaching positions. However, leadership positions were not granted to women, such as that of director, hospital administrator, or child welfare administrator (p. 8). They were considered unsuitable for leadership roles as they were weak, narrow-minded and emotional. The outbreak of the First and Second World Wars saw a crisis of workers in the United States, in this period women made great strides in finding work, by necessity outside the home. The wars took large numbers of white males out of the workforce, and for businesses to remain operational, they had no choice but to hire women. Conversely, this new avenue for job opportunities has not allowed for an increase in opportunities for leadership roles. Women were workers and men continued to hold most of their leadership and management roles. While women have… middle of paper… acceptance that women expect their rights as equals, women are starting to make improvements within the corporate context. Women are making great strides, through the formal use of mentoring programs and the willingness of younger males on boards and in management positions to accept a woman as an equal partner in the success of a business (p.19 ). The younger the males on the boards, who have quickly risen to the top and are just as equality-minded as women, the greater the likelihood of success for women (p. 19). Women who are tough, educated, smart and hungry will find their way to the top of the corporate ladder. The future of non-distancing could result in greater equal access and unfair timelines for women. Works Cited Smith, D. M. (2000). Women at Work: Leadership for the Next Century. Prentice Hall, a Pearson Education Company.