Gender and evaluations of leadership behaviors: A meta-analytic review of 50 years of research

Abstract

As more women have entered the managerial ranks, discussion about differences between men’s and women’s leadership behaviors have persisted. The current study reviews and analyzes 50 years of research to examine gender differences in evaluations of their leadership behaviors. Across 13 new meta-analyses using data from 1970 to 2020, we examine evaluations of leadership behaviors that vary across two dimensions: communal-agentic and effective-ineffective, including: democratic/participative, relationship-oriented/consideration, idealized influence, individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, ethical/moral, autocratic/directive, task-oriented/initiating structure, contingent reward, MBE-active, inspirational motivation, MBE-passive, and laissez-faire. The meta-analytic results suggest that women are seen as engaging in more effective agentic and communal leadership behaviors, compared to men, while men are seen as engaging in less effective and more passive leadership behavior, compared to women. Relying on social role theory and arguments from the double standards of competence literature, we also examine whether the relationship between gender and evaluations of leadership behaviors differs across time and levels of leadership. Interestingly, only one primary study across all our analyses utilized an objective instead of a subjective measure of leader behavior, underscoring the imperative for more objective assessments in the future. Practical implications and future research directions are also discussed. All supplemental material can be found at: https://osf.io/enm3d/?view_only=ea99d34911284304a4b2bf61079d5ecd.