At the Intersection of Gender and Culture: Women’s Leadership Identity Development

Abstract

Examining the leadership identity development process of women in multicultural work settings is important to understand why the percentage of women in senior leadership positions is still universally low (Catalyst, 2017). This research examines the interaction of women’s gender and cultural identities on their leadership development process. It employs an intersectionality-informed qualitative approach to explore how women’s multiple identities interact and intersect in a number of ways to create distinct experiences of leadership development. The main findings of this paper show that depending on the gender stereotypes in a given culture and their equivalent in a new culture, women evaluate their organisational context, their own capabilities, and the opportunities available to them differently. This in turn affects their ascension into leadership roles. These findings make a significant theoretical contribution to the leadership identity development model put forth by DeRue and Ashford (2010), detailing ways in which women’s gender identity, cultural identity and an intersection of the two impact their leadership identity development process.