Gender and leadership in space analogs: A study of MDRS commanders’ reports

Abstract

Little is known about gender differences in leadership in space analog environments. Research from other domains show that women and men leaders seldom differ in agentic skills, but women tend to be more communal. I use social role theory to systematically explore gender differences in leadership in crews that participated in simulated missions in the Mars Desert Research Station in 2009–2016. I use Commanders’ reports (n = 824) and look for gender differences in communal and agentic aspects in the reports. I combine sentiment analysis, qualitative analysis, and proportional word frequencies to unobtrusively study leadership traits at the MDRS. Independent t-tests showed that female commanders are statistically significantly (p < .001) more positive in their reports than their male counterparts. Qualitative analysis showed that both male and female commanders are agentic, but male commanders talked more about maintenance issues, and did it in more negative tone in comparison to female commanders. Commanders of both genders were communal, but male commanders focused on crew cohesion in terms of team spirit, and women emphasized mutual support. Proportional word frequencies showed that commanders of both genders are agentic, but women tend to use more general terms and men use more specific terms in their reports. Female commanders used more communal words than male commanders. Overall, the results are in line with previous social role theory research and show that commanders of both genders are agentic (but with granular differences), and female commanders tend to be more communal. I discuss theoretical and practical implications of the results.