Abstract
Social psychologists have not fully investigated the role of leadership in mobilizing widespread support for social change, particularly gender equality. The burden of achieving gender equality is typically placed on women (particularly female leaders) – the main targets of such inequality. Traditional approaches frame workplace gender equality as either a women’s issue, which limits men’s (non-target’s) involvement in the movement, or a meritocratic non-issue that exists due to women’s (target’s) tendency to pursue less intensive careers. In contrast to such work focusing on women’s experiences as targets of discrimination or men’s role in preserving inequality, we propose a solidarity-based approach that positions men and women as agents of change. This approach relies on two processes: leadership processes – particularly leadership as a form of influence based on shared identities among leaders and followers (e.g., their gender group); and political solidarity as a way to mobilize the silent majority (men) to work as allies beside a minority (women) and embrace equality as a common cause for both groups. In two experiments (Ns = 338, 336) we studied how leader gender and message framing affect men’s and women’s support for equality by contrasting a solidarity-based framing of gender equality as a common cause for men and women, with a women’s issue frame (Experiment 1) or a meritocratic frame (Experiment 2). The statement was attributed to a male or female leader (Experiments 1–2) or, additionally, to a government agency (Experiment 1). Women reported higher sense of common cause (Experiment 2) and collective action intentions than men (Experiments 1–2), and higher intentions under common cause compared to meritocracy frames (Experiment 2). Interestingly, male leaders invoked higher sense of common cause and collective action intentions for both men and women regardless of framing (Experiment 2). Irrespective of leader gender however, as predicted common cause framing boosted perceived leader prototypicality, legitimacy, and influence across the board (Experiments 1–2). Yet this was qualified by women (compared to men) rating leaders as more legitimate and influential under common cause compared to meritocracy framing (Experiment 2). Women’s reactions to equality messages, and the intersection of leadership and solidarity toward equality are discussed.
Highlights
The burden of achieving gender equality has traditionally been placed on women, who are usually the main targets of such inequality (Rindfleish and Sheridan, 2003)
We focus on two sets of outcome variables: mobilization variables [including collective action intentions (Experiments 1–2) and sense of common cause (Experiment 2)], and leadership variables [including leader prototypicality, legitimacy, and influence (Experiments 1–2)]
SPSS Version 23 was used to perform between-participants ANOVA’s on all dependent variables, with participant gender, leader gender, and message framing as factors
Summary
The burden of achieving gender equality has traditionally been placed on women ( female leaders), who are usually the main targets of such inequality (Rindfleish and Sheridan, 2003). In contrast to work focusing on women’s experiences as targets of discrimination or men’s role in maintaining inequality, in this paper we take a political solidarity-based approach using common cause message framing. Such framing utilizes inclusive language that emphasizes solidarity between men and women and makes salient (leaders’ and) followers’ shared social identity (Fiol et al, 1999). The second process involves the concept of political solidarity as a way of mobilizing the silent majority (i.e., men as an over-represented group within the workplace) to work as allies alongside a minority (i.e., women as an under-represented group) and embrace gender equality as a common cause for both groups (i.e., men and women; Subašicet al., 2018).
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