Abstract
Aims: There is a large body of evidence-based research illustrating the challenges faced by women who strive in male-typed careers. The purpose of this paper is to outline and integrate a review of the relevant social psychology research into a model of women’s leadership. Proposed Conceptual Argument: As leadership is stereotypically a masculine dimension, women who emulate agentic characteristics will rise into leadership. However, empirical evidence overwhelmingly illustrates the consequences to agentic women whose competence is simultaneously expected and minimized. Findings/Conclusions: This model raises awareness of complex issues in research for women including: the “promotion of ‘male’ females”, “success does not equal competence”, “agentic women sustain reactive opposition”, “the process of self-selection”, “stereotypic threat”, and “equality equals greed”. Because of the ubiquity of these cognitive distortions, awareness may mitigate antagonism and conflict to propel women into leadership roles.
Highlights
Leadership is a performance of power that signifies maletype or agentic character traits such as “independence” and “action”
One identified contributor to women’s slower than expected assent into leadership in academic Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) is the persistence of assumptions and stereotypes that women are intrinsically “communal” or “dependent” and “passive”, and lack the capacity to succeed as leaders (National Academy of Sciences National Academy of Engineering Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2006)
Stereotype- based cognitive biases about gender contribute to women’s underrepresentation in professions traditionally occupied by men, such as academic STEMM in multiple ways: they influence women’s self-beliefs, causing them to self-select out of highly agentic roles such as leadership; they disadvantage women in review processes critical for advancement—women are underrated in evaluation processes for leadership roles even by individuals who consciously hold egalitarian beliefs
Summary
Received August 9th, 2011; revised September 20th, 2011; accepted November 1st, 2011. Aims: There is a large body of evidence-based research illustrating the challenges faced by women who strive in male-typed careers. The purpose of this paper is to outline and integrate a review of the relevant social psychology research into a model of women’s leadership. Proposed Conceptual Argument: As leadership is stereotypically a masculine dimension, women who emulate agentic characteristics will rise into leadership. Empirical evidence overwhelmingly illustrates the consequences to agentic women whose competence is simultaneously expected and minimized. Findings/Conclusion: This model raises awareness of complex issues in research for women including: the “promotion of ‘male’ females”, “success does not equal competence”, “agentic women sustain reactive opposition”, “the process of self-selection”, “stereotypic threat”, and “equality equals greed”. Because of the ubiquity of these cognitive distortions, awareness may mitigate antagonism and conflict to propel women into leadership roles
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