Women in Power: The Personalities and Leadership Styles of Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Margaret Thatcher

In Women in Power, Blema S. Steinberg explores the personalities and leadership styles of three remarkable female leaders, Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Margaret Thatcher to help us understand the ways in which personality impacts on leadership. The personality traits of each woman are examined using insights from the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and psychoanalysis, while their respective leadership styles draw upon measures developed by political scientists. Steinberg then tests the theoretical expectations concerning the relationship between different personality traits and leadership styles against the empirical evidence for each prime minister. The book concludes with a comparative analysis of her results.

Blema Steinberg is professor emeritus, McGill University, the author of Shame and Humiliation: Presidential Decision Making on Vietnam, a member of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society, and a practicing psychoanalyst.