College Women’s Self-Leadership Stereotypes as a Function of Prime Similarity and Motherhood Information

Susan Anne Basow

doi:10.11648/j.pbs.20190801.13

Abstract

The goal of the study was to understand under what circumstances exposure to primes of women leaders can influence young women’s implicit and explicit identification with leadership gender stereotypes. Previous research has emphasized the importance of perceived similarity in terms of personality traits; the current study explored whether adding information regarding the role models’ motherhood status facilitated or impaired such models’ inspirational potential. Eighty-seven college women in the U.S. participated in the 2 X 2 design in which fabricated feedback indicated whether participants’ gendered personality traits were similar or dissimilar to six successful women role models, presented either as mothers or with no mention of mother status. As expected, exposure to the successful women leaders produced counterstereotypic implicit self-leader associations only in the similar mother-mentioned condition. That is, only the participants who were told they had similar traits to the women leaders who were mothers associated themselves with the agentic (counterstereotypical) traits of typical leaders. Explicit self-stereotypes were not influenced by either manipulation unless participants accepted the (false) feedback regarding (dis)similarity. Discussion emphasized the importance of perceived similarity as mediating the effectiveness of exposure to successful role models and the value of including information about the motherhood status of such models, at least for young women.

Highlights

Despite women in the United States earning approximately 60% of all undergraduate and master’s degrees, nearly half of law and medical degrees, and over a third of MBAs [1], women still are underrepresented in leadership positions, especially in male-dominated fields
The current study focused on a subset of factors affecting young women’s perceptions of themselves as leaders: exposure to counterstereotypical women role models, perceived similarity to these women, and information about these women’s motherhood status
The six final primes (Abby Cohen, Eileen Collins, Marian Wright Edelman, Indra Nooyi, Sheryl Sandberg, Susan Wojcicki) were chosen to include a group matched on the measured variables and who represented a range of fields, ages, and ethnicities

Summary

Introduction

Despite women in the United States earning approximately 60% of all undergraduate and master’s degrees, nearly half of law and medical degrees, and over a third of MBAs [1], women still are underrepresented in leadership positions, especially in male-dominated fields. Women make up only 6% of Fortune 500 Company CEOs (2% in the financial services industry), only 20% of the management positions on corporate boards, and fewer than 20% of the members of the U.S Congress [1]. Among the many factors that have been examined to explain the dearth of women in leadership roles, including sexism and structural barriers, e.g., [2], are factors related to women’s own career motivations and expectations for professional success.

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Conclusion