Gender Leadership Research Articles

Recontextualising gender in entrepreneurial leadership

Drawing on the literature examining the nexus between gender, entrepreneurial leadership and entrepreneurial performance, this article critically explores a framework for analysing the role of gender in shaping entrepreneurial performance and leadership in tourism firms in a non-western context. Utilising a poststructural feminist lens that challenges normative accounts of entrepreneurial leadership practices, a qualitative analysis of interview data from tourism entrepreneurs in Ghana and Nigeria provides evidence of how entrepreneurial performances and leadership are gendered, fluid and constantly being negotiated. The article extends current discussions within tourism entrepreneurship to engage more meaningfully with gender, thereby assisting in deconstructing homogenous, fixed conceptualisation of entrepreneurial leadership - often evident within the broader leadership and entrepreneurship literature dominated by Anglo-Western approaches.

Discrimination from below: Experimental evidence from Ethiopia

Globally, women are underrepresented in leadership positions. A potential explanation is that gender discrimination by subordinates reduces the effectiveness of female leadership. Using a lab-in-the-field experiment in Ethiopia, we test whether leader gender affects the way subjects respond to leadership. We find subjects are ten percent less likely to follow the same advice from a female leader than an otherwise identical male leader. Subjects also give lower evaluations to hypothetical female managerial candidates. However, we find that ability information reverses discrimination. When leaders are presented as highly trained and competent, subjects are more likely to follow advice from women than men. This pattern suggests that beliefs about men and women's ability (i.e., statistical discrimination) play an important role in driving this discriminatory behavior. Our results show that gender discrimination affects adherence to leadership, and signals of ability may be an important tool for gender equity policies aimed at increasing female representation.

Can moral convictions against gender inequality overpower system justification effects? Examining the interaction between moral conviction and system justification.

It has been shown that disadvantaged groups who endorse system-justifying beliefs tend to internalize their state of inferiority by expressing ingroup derogation and opposing collective action for change. In the present research, we recruited women - as disadvantaged group - from different countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy) and examined whether their moral conviction against gender inequality, as an absolute stance that does not tolerate any violation, may interact with and overpower system-justifying beliefs. Results from three studies provided support for our hypotheses. First, when women held strong moral conviction, they expressed higher identification with their disadvantaged ingroup and, in turn, higher collective action intentions, independent of system-justifying beliefs. Second, when women held weak moral conviction, higher system-justifying beliefs reduced women's ingroup identification and, in turn, undermined their collective action intentions. This support is found across different contexts of gender inequality (the gender leadership gap, the gender pay gap, and the gender power imbalance), using different methodological approaches (online survey, online experiment, laboratory experiment). Implications, limits, and future directions are discussed.

The “ProQuote” initiative: women journalists in Germany push to revolutionize newsroom leadership

ABSTRACT Using standpoint epistemology and critical mass theories this study examines outcomes of the 2012 ProQuote [ProQuota] initiative in Germany demanding at least 30% women in leadership per newsroom. In-depth interviews with 53 journalists in 21 newsrooms show that ProQuote boosted women’s ascension into leadership by triggering and sustaining a debate about gender in newsroom leadership. This contributed to the normalization and legitimization of women in top positions, somewhat alleviating the stigma of tokenism. With critical mass in a given newsroom, women’s standpoints have entered the discourse on leadership. More representation of women of different backgrounds and overall diversity in leadership are still needed.

Beyond community characteristics: a leader's gender and local government adoption of energy conservation practices and redistributive programmes

ABSTRACT Most research examining factors associated with local government adoption of sustainability practices focuses on the impact of community characteristics. Little is known about whether adoption is also related to the characteristics of the leaders in these jurisdictions. To address this gap in the literature, this exploratory study uses data from a national survey of U.S. local governments (n = 1,672) to examine the potential correlation between adoption of certain sustainability practices and the gender of a jurisdiction's highest elected official. Our regression models find that jurisdictions led by women were more likely to have adopted redistributive programmes and practices encouraging community-based energy conservation. But, there is no correlation between a local government's adoption of measures promoting government energy conservation and its leader's gender. Future research should explore whether female leaders’ greater openness to citizen involvement in the policymaking process and women's socialisation to focus on communal rather than individual interests help account for our findings.

A values based leadership approach to (re)defining Latino manhood and masculinity

ABSTRACT Utilizing a values-based leadership philosophy, the authors explored how Latino undergraduate men make meaning of their masculinity and how this meaning shapes their understanding and performance of leadership. The findings highlighted Familismo Leadership as a form of leadership practiced by Latino men related to how they define masculinity as a form of strength, identify the role of provider as a form of leadership, and consider the performance of leadership as direct action. Recommendations include the importance of an approach to research and practice that engages Latino undergraduate men students via leadership development and involvement that is reflective of the way Latino masculine gender identity and leadership performance is socialized within the social construct of familismo.

Gender, sexual orientation, academic self-concept and leadership

PurposeThe study's purpose is to present and empirically test a model that identifies academic self-concept as a mediator of the relationship between gender, sexual orientation and self-perceptions of leadership ability.Design/methodology/approachSurveys were administered to 964 first-year undergraduate students.FindingsAcademic self-concept mediated the relationship between gender and leadership for all subjects and for self-reported heterosexual subjects but not for self-reported nonheterosexual subjects.Research limitations/implicationsGender differences in leadership perceptions still exist and appear as early as the college years. The fact that academic self-concept did not mediate the relationship between gender and self-perceptions of leadership for nonheterosexual students might be explained by considering research that has identified different levels of gender conformity between straight and gay individuals.Practical implicationsStudent self-perceptions of leadership could be improved if opportunities were provided for students showing that people other than White, male, heterosexuals can also be effective leaders. When women and underrepresented groups attain leadership positions in the workplace, it attracts others because it sends a message that this organization welcomes women and underrepresented groups in positions of leadership.Originality/valueThis study addresses a gap in the field by using the social identity theory of leadership to integrate conflicting research streams in the existing literature and by proposing that academic self-concept underlies the relationship between gender, sexual orientation and self-perceptions of leadership. The study responds to Bark et al.'s (2016) call for future research to consider how highly prototypical individuals have a key advantage in people's perceptions of their leadership.

Perceptions of Gender and Race Equality in Leadership and Advancement Among Military Family Physicians.

There is increasing interest in assessing gender and race-based disparities in academic medicine and healthcare leadership in civilian medicine and the U.S. Military Health System. Approximately 15% of U.S. active duty service members are women, and racial minorities are 30% of the total active duty force. This study evaluates the following factors among uniformed services family physicians: gender and race representation in attaining early career leadership positions during training and 2 years postresidency; perceptions regarding leadership opportunities and career advancement. Registered attendees (n = 300) of the 2016 Uniformed Services Academy of Family Physicians Annual Meeting were given a voluntary and anonymous online questionnaire. The main outcomes measured were early leadership assignments and perceptions about command/leadership support, gender roles in leadership assignment, confidence to achieve leadership goals, and being passed over for leadership positions. Sixty-eight percent of registered attendees completed the study questionnaire. Statistically significant results, adjusting for service, grade, race, and gender, were that non-Caucasian family physicians were less likely to be chief residents (odds ratio 0.23, 95% CI 0.01-1.00) and less likely to have leadership positions within 2 years postresidency (odds ratio 0.30, 95% CI 0.10-0.91). Female family physicians were more likely to agree that gender has a role in assigning leadership positions (odds ratio 2.33, 95% CI 1.01-5.39). There were no differences in perceptions of command support for leadership; confidence in achieving desired leadership level; or in being passed over for leadership positions. This study provides important information about perceived gender and race equality among uniformed services family physicians. Key findings included that non-Caucasian military family physicians were less likely to attain junior leadership positions or be assigned to academic settings; and female respondents were more likely to agree that gender has a role in assignment of leadership positions. Evaluating composite personnel records of services' family physicians would provide invaluable information to complement this study.

The Under-Utilization of Women’s Talent: Academic Achievement and Future Leadership Positions

Abstract Despite high labor force participation, women remain underrepresented in leadership at every level. In this study, we examine whether women and men who show early academic achievement during their adolescence—and arguably signs of future leadership potential—have similar or different pathways to later leadership positions in the workplace. We also examine how leadership patterns by gender and early academic achievement differ according to parenthood status. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we find that overall, men supervise more people than women at work during their early-to-mid careers, regardless of their grade point averages (GPAs) in high school. In addition, among men and women who are parents, early academic achievement is much more strongly associated with future leadership roles for fathers than it is for mothers. Such patterns exacerbate gender gaps in leadership among parents who were top achievers in high school. Indeed, among those who had earned a 4.0 GPA in high school, fathers manage over four times the number of supervisees as mothers do (nineteen vs. four supervisees). Additional analyses focusing on parents suggest that gender leadership gaps by GPA are not attributable to different propensities for taking on leadership roles between the genders but are in part explained by unequal returns to educational attainment and differences in employment-related characteristics by gender. Overall, our results reveal that suppressed leadership prospects apply to even women who show the most promise early-on and highlight the vast under-utilization of women’s (in particular mothers’) talent for organizational leadership.

THE GENDER LEADERSHIP AS AN ASPECT OF MANAGING EFFICIENCY IN MEDIA COMPANIES

The article deals with the theory of gender performativity by J. Butler in respect to gender leadership. The interpretation of this phenomenon offered by Guy Debord shows the results and stereotypes aimed at undermining the female potential of leadership. Gender inequality is particularly striking in the areas of business, management, and security and militarily services. Despite the fact that many media workers are women, most of them are against the ideas of equality, cooperation and integration. These and other problems are expressed by different viewpoints by both academics and prominent politicians. They stress that women’s access to key positions in companies, the management hierarchy, and the government of the country should be changed. Nevertheless, many questions remain unanswered, like «who is the ‘real’ democratic leader?»; «what characteristics do women leaders distinguish?»; «why is neither the neoliberal capitalist nor liberal social ideal adequate but functioning nowhere?» During the time of Ukrainian independence, these issues have not been resolved yet.
 At the same time, the comparison of the share of women in the total share of employers in different countries of the world shows that their share is increasing (for example, in Ukraine, this share is 31—40%). We conducted a study on the effectiveness of women’s labor in different countries. The figures are based on the share of female workers in the total structure of workers and the income generated by one woman on average. In the context of, for example, the Ukrainian economy, these indicators have declined substantially in 2008—2018, against the backdrop of a global upward trend in these indicators. Compared to Singapore, the gap between the revenue index increased by 33.4% in 2008—2018. Of all the countries cited, the worst income growth results are only in Ukraine. At the same time, the labor market of Ukraine has the following characteristics: employment of women in managerial positions in 2017 is 41.1%; the employment rate of middle and upper management women is 42.4% in 2016; the share of women in the total number of employers in 1991 was 33.1%, and in 2018 — 36.92%. Thus, gender leadership in the media sphere in Ukraine shows discrimination against women and demonstrates the impossibility of productive and effective work as a manager. However, gradually these issues will, in the context of the proposed solution, be comprehensive and will change the relationships within such companies for the better.

Leading the Fight Against the Pandemic: Does Gender ‘Really’ Matter?

Since the start of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the relationship between national female leaders and their effectiveness in handling the COVID-crisis has received a lot of media attention. In this paper we scrutinise this association more systematically. We ask if there is a significant and systematic difference by gender of the national leader in the number of COVID-cases and deaths in the first quarter of the pandemic. We also examine differences in policy responses by male vs. female leaders as plausible explanations for the differences in outcomes. Using a constructed dataset for 194 countries, a variety of socio-demographic variables are used to match nearest neighbours. Our findings show that COVID-outcomes are systematically better in countries led by women and, to some extent, this may be explained by the proactive and coordinated policy responses adopted by them. We use insights from behavioural studies and leadership literature to speculate on the sources of these differences, as well as on their implications. Our hope is that this article will serve as a starting point to illuminate the discussion on the influence of national leaders in explaining the differences in country COVID-outcomes.

Leading against gender stereotypes: the positively deviant effect of female leaders’ personal need for structure on average team member performance

This paper investigates the positively deviant effect of female leaders’ personal need for structure (PNS) on average team member performance. Drawing on Kelley’s attribution principles, we propose that female leaders can more effectively stimulate team performance when they are high in PNS than when male leaders are. Using a multi-source, multi-wave survey study of 100 leaders and 439 subordinates across 24 real estate firms, we examine the interactive effect of leader PNS and leader gender on average team member performance via activated team faultlines. Our results suggest that female leaders who are high in PNS exhibit a stronger, negative effect on activated team faultlines when compared to their male counterparts. In addition, female leaders who are high in PNS elicit a stronger positive indirect effect on average team member performance through decreased activated team faultlines than male leaders. Our findings are consistent with, and therefore enhance, the prediction of Kelley’s attribution principles. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are addressed.

Does team leader gender matter? A Bayesian reconciliation of leadership and patient care during trauma resuscitations.

ObjectiveTeam leadership facilitates teamwork and is important to patient care. It is unknown whether physician gender‐based differences in team leadership exist. The objective of this study was to assess and compare team leadership and patient care in trauma resuscitations led by male and female physicians.MethodsWe performed a secondary analysis of data from a larger randomized controlled trial using video recordings of emergency department trauma resuscitations at a Level 1 trauma center from April 2016 to December 2017. Subjects included emergency medicine and surgery residents functioning as trauma team leaders. Eligible resuscitations included adult patients meeting institutional trauma activation criteria. Two video‐recorded observations for each participant were coded for team leadership quality and patient care by 2 sets of raters. Raters were balanced with regard to gender and were blinded to study hypotheses. We used Bayesian regression to determine whether our data supported gender‐based advantages in team leadership.ResultsA total of 60 participants and 120 video recorded observations were included. The modal relationship between gender and team leadership (β = 0.94, 95% highest density interval [HDI], ‐.68 to 2.52) and gender and patient care (β = 2.42, 95% HDI, ‐2.03 to 6.78) revealed a weak positive effect for female leaders on both outcomes. Gender‐based advantages to team leadership and clinical care were not conclusively supported or refuted, with the exception of rejecting a strong male advantage to team leadership.ConclusionsWe prospectively measured team leadership and clinical care during patient care. Our findings do not support differences in trauma resuscitation team leadership or clinical care based on the gender of the team leader.

Diversity and Performance in Entrepreneurial Teams

We study the role of diversity and performance in the entrepreneurial teams. We exploit a unique dataset of MBA students who participated in a required course to propose and start a real micro-business that allows us to examine horizontal diversity (i.e., within the team) as well as vertical diversity (i.e., team to faculty advisor) and their effect on performance. The design of the course allows for identification of the causal implications of horizontal and vertical diversity. The course was run in multiple cohorts in otherwise identical formats except for the team formation mechanism used. In several cohorts, students were allowed to choose their teams from among students in their section (roughly 90 students). In other cohorts, students were randomly assigned to teams based upon a computer algorithm. In the cohorts that were allowed to choose, we find strong selection based upon shared attributes. Among the randomly-assigned teams, greater diversity along the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity significantly reduced performance. However, the negative effect of this diversity is alleviated in cohorts in which teams are endogenously formed. Finally, we find that teams with more female members perform substantially better when their faculty section leader was also female. Because the gender of the faculty section leader is exogenous to the gender make-up of the entrepreneurial team, the positive performance effects can be interpreted as causal. These findings suggest that diversity policies should take adequate consideration of the multiple dimensions of diversity.

Better in the Shadows? Public Attention, Media Coverage, and Market Reactions to Female CEO Announcements

Combining media coverage data from approximately 17,000 unique media outlets with the full population of CEO appointments for U.S. publicly traded firms between 2000 and 2016, we investigate whether female CEO appointments garner more public attention compared with male appointments, and if so, whether this increased attention can help make sense of the previously reported negative market reaction to these events. Contrary to prior reports, our data do not indicate that the appointments of female CEOs elicit overly negative market reactions, on average. Our results do highlight an important moderating role of public attention, however. We demonstrate that greater attention—even when exogenously determined—contributes to negative market reactions for female CEO appointments but positive market reactions for male CEOs, all else held constant. Additionally, female CEO appointments that attract little attention garner significant positive responses in the market, compared with both male CEOs drawing similarly limited levels of attention and female CEOs drawing high levels of attention. Our results help to reconcile contrasting empirical findings on the effects of gender in executive leadership and parallel recent work on anticipatory bias and second-order discrimination in alternative empirical contexts. Implications for research on attention, gender bias, and executive succession are discussed.

Women Leadership in the Digital Era

It is true that women no longer have to be looked for with a magnifying glass in the executive floors of German businesses; however, their share is still small. The digital age holds great potential for increased inclusion and closure of the “Gender Leadership Gap,” especially in the construction industry. Industry standards, including global ones, are being examined to achieve more inclusive corporate governance models. The construction industry, which is regarded as one of the most traditional and conservative, male-dominated industries, serves as the best example for a long overdue need for dynamic restructuring and action related to women leadership. There is a need to redefine, recalibrate, and reshape this industry by increasing women's role in the social, digital, and business transformation processes. This approach bridges the current divide and facilitates movement from discussion and advocacy towards application and practice.

Women and men in orthopaedics.

Purpose: To compare and discuss the gender disparities in the Orthopaedic specialty. Methods: We reviewed the literature to find the rates of women applying for an orthopaedic residency, fellowship, and academic career program, to understand the causes of the disparities in women in orthopaedics, and how this relates to orthopaedic surgical practice. Results: The idea that men and women are different and have different working styles and skills and the belief that males are more dominant and more status-worthy than females leads to gender barriers and stereotypes that restrict women from entering male-dominated specialties. It is important to mention that equivalent barriers restrict men from pursuing female-dominated specialties such as Gynecology. Economic disparities and gender stereotypes that divide medical specialties into masculine and feminine, creating a gender gap in health care are major concerns. However, the number of women in the health sector is expected to increase due to the growing amount of female students that are expected to soon graduate. A leadership gender gap also exists; although women consist of 70% of the health care workforce they occupy only 25% of leadership positions. Conclusion: The existence of gender-based disparities in healthcare is multifactorial. The explanation behind the existence of a so-called gender gap lies in organizational and individual factors. Early development and family relations, the decision between work and life balance, personal choices and interests, as well as working conditions, absence of role models and mentorship and institutional policies make gender disparities even more evident.

Weight and gender bias in observer perceptions of organizational leadership: Effects of perceived leader prototypicality and unit performance

AbstractDespite the importance of organizational leaders, few studies have examined whether leaders are subject to stigma and biases based on amount of body fat. Specifically, we examine the extent to which external observers exhibit weight‐based biases against organizational leaders based on types of information that commonly appear in the media (e.g., a portrait and description of unit performance). Based on implicit leadership theory, we examine perceptions of leader prototypicality and ratings of leader effectiveness, as predicted by the interacting effects of leader body fat, leader gender, and the performance of the leader's work unit. Our sample consisted of 437 U.S. adults, recruited through Mturk, who evaluated fictitious leaders. Results suggested that leaders were, indeed, subject to statistically significant weight penalties in perceived leader effectiveness, which operated indirectly via decreased perceptions of leader prototypicality. These weight penalties were significantly increased for both man and woman leaders when unit performance was poor. In terms of credit/blame for unit performance, woman leaders with higher body fat received significantly more blame for unit failure, and less credit for unit success, than their counterparts with lower body fat. Overall, results suggest that external observers seem to exhibit weight‐based biases against leaders, particularly when other information can be used to justify negative evaluations.

Peek at the glass ceiling: gender distribution of leadership among emergency medicine residency programs

BackgroundA gender gap in faculty rank at academic institutions exists; however, data among graduate medical education (GME) programmes are limited. There is a need to assess gender disparities in GME...

Conflict and Gender Leadership: Female Mayors in Colombia

Are female-led communities differentially affected by conflict? In this paper, I examine this question in the context of the Colombian conflict between 1997 and 2015. I exploit close races for the mayor’s office and find that municipalities where a female mayor was (narrowly) elected experienced a decrease in guerrilla attacks. This effect amounts to 60% of the average incidence during the sample period, is robust to various specifications, and shows both persistence in time and spatial spillovers. I find that the drop is not driven by ideological factors and cannot be explained solely by the partisan affiliation of either the elected mayor or the runner-up. Instead, I show that these female politicians have a differential set of negotiation and executive skills. Finally, I use unique and novel data on the spatial distribution of guerrilla units and the gender of their leaders to show that the effect is stronger in municipalities under the influence of a female guerrilla commander.