Femininity Is Favorable: Sexually Dimorphic Facial Features Affect Assessments of White Women's Leadership Abilities

Abstract

Women remain underrepresented in leadership positions traditionally held by men. Research on role congruity and backlash has shown that aspiring women versus men leaders are more negatively evaluated when they enact agentic behaviors. We examined whether sexually dimorphic facial features, which are associated with agentic and communal trait impressions, constitute a nonverbal barrier to White women's leadership in a college setting. Manipulated masculinized versus feminized facial features elicited, respectively, higher dominance and lower warmth impressions. Aspiring women leaders with masculinized versus feminized facial features received less favorable evaluations for several leadership roles, whereas men's evaluations were unaffected by varying features. Contrasting past work, aspiring women leaders were overall more favorably evaluated. This difference related to beliefs that college-aged White women versus men are more competent, responsible, and warm. These findings provide novel evidence that feminized facial features offer a unique advantage to aspiring college-aged White women leaders.