Obituaries of Female and Male Leaders From 1974 to 2016 Suggest Change in Descriptive but Stability of Prescriptive Gender Stereotypes

Miriam Katharina Zehnter,Erich Kirchler,Jerome Olsen

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02286

Abstract

We analyzed 1415 newspaper obituaries of female and male leaders published in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland from 1974 to 2016, covering a time-span of 42 years, to investigate change in descriptive and prescriptive gender stereotypes. The obituaries’ content was condensed to four categories: agency, competence, and communion were used to investigate changes in descriptive stereotypes. The category likability was used to infer changes in prescriptive stereotypes. Consistent with theories claiming changeability of stereotypes, our results indicate changes in descriptive stereotypes. Female leaders were described as increasingly agentic over time, but not as increasingly competent. Descriptions regarding communion remained unchanged. In contrast, the description of male leaders remained relatively stable at first, followed by changes in recent years, where men were described as decreasingly competent and increasingly communal. Simultaneously, our results support theories suggesting stability of stereotypes over time indicating unchanged prescriptive stereotypes. Accordingly, increases in female leaders’ agency were associated with decreases in likability. In male leaders, increases in communion were associated with decreases in likability. Overall, our results reconcile divided theories regarding the changeability of gender stereotypes. Furthermore, our results emphasize that research and praxis need to enhance attention on prescriptive stereotypes to facilitate female leadership.

Highlights

Gender stereotypes hinder women’s ascent to leadership
The obituaries 2016 consisted of death notices of a leader and a brief Total used the correlations between descriptions of deceased leaders and likability to infer changes in prescriptive gender stereotypes
From 1974 to 2016, 1415 obituaries were identified for analysis. 1082 obituaries were about male and 333 about female leaders

Summary

Introduction

Gender stereotypes hinder women’s ascent to leadership. Theory and empirical evidence regarding their changeability are divided. Social Role Theory (Eagly, 1987; Eagly and Wood, 2012) postulates that observing increasing numbers of women in agentic roles – e.g., leadership – changes female stereotypes toward higher agency (Koenig and Eagly, 2014). Distinguishing descriptive and prescriptive stereotypes might reconcile such divided views. Descriptive stereotypes depict what men and women are like and lower the probability of recognizing leadership ability in women. Women stereotypically characterized as communal (e.g., kind, caring) are perceived as lacking the predominantly agentic qualities (e.g., assertive, independent) associated with successful leadership (Heilman, 1983, 2012; Eagly and Karau, 2002)

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Results

Conclusion