Conversation About Through the Labyrinth

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Conversation AboutThrough the Labyrinth

• Alice Eagly
• Northwestern University
• November 21, 2007

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Why Study Leadership?

• To address the roots of gender inequality
• Social disadvantage of women is concentrated lack
  of access to power authority
• Women not generally devalued but regarded as
  deficient in qualities needed to exercise power
  over others
• To produce gender equality, power would have to
  be equally shared That means leadership equally
  shared.

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What Needs to Be Explained?

• Why have women now gained more access to powerful
  leadership positions?
• Why do men continue to have far more access than
  women do?

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Evidence-Based Answers What Researchers Can
Provide

• Why evidence-based answers to questions in this
  area are better than other, more intuitive
  answers
• How make answers interesting compelling enough
  to the public?

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Eagly Carli Approach

• Provide an overarching metaphor that frames
  complexity
• Labyrinth as metaphor for varied challenges that
  women encounter as they progress toward
  leadership roles

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Goals

• Provide conceptual analysis in lucid, jargon-free
  prose
• Establish credibility with excellent research
• Ask questions give answers
• Spell out implications
• For organizations
• For individuals
• Use varied concrete examples for
  illustrationlittle stories

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Questions

• Is there still a glass ceiling?
• Where are the women leaders?
• Are men natural leaders?
• Do family responsibilities hold women back?
• Is discrimination still a problem?
• What is the psychology of prejudice toward female
  leaders?
• Do people resist womens leadership?
• Do women lead differently from men?
• Do organizations compromise womens leadership?
• How do some women find their way through the
  labyrinth?
• How good are women leaders and what does their
  future hold?

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Is Discrimination Still a Problem?

• Studies of wages, hiring, and promotion (by
  economists sociologists) unexplained gender
  gaps suggest YES.
• Controlled experiments (by psychologists
  management researchers)
• For example, resume experiments varying sex of
  job applicant

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Davison Burke (2000) Review of 49 Resume
Experiments
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Psychology of Prejudice Against Women As Leaders

• Construal of women as communal
• nice, friendly, socially skilled, egalitarian
• Construal of men as agentic
• dominant, assertive, tough-minded, take charge

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Gender Stereotypes Koenig Eagly, 2007

• Communion
• Warm, nurturing, sincere, kind
• Competence
• Intelligent, competent
• Agency
• Competitive, aggressive, dominant

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Stereotypes of Women MenKoenig Eagly, 2007
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Role Incongruity Problem for Women as Leaders

• Construal of leaders mainly agentic
• self-confident, assertive, take charge, solve
  problems, inspire others
• especially in masculine settings at higher
  levels
• More like men than women
• Role incongruity can produce prejudice against
  female leaders

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Evidence of Role Incongruity for Female Leaders

• Think managerthink male paradigm of Virginia
  Schein
• Participants rated a manager/leader role, men, or
  women on traits that differentiate between men
  and women
• Compare
• Similarity of men and managers
• Similarity of women and managers
• Replicated many times, across time and in
  different countries, with different participant
  groups
• Review in progress

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Think-ManagerThink Male
Based on 50 studies
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Produces the Double Bind ProblemFor Female
Leaders

• Influence from leadership role
• Encourages masculine style (just do the job in
  the typical way)
• Discourages feminine style (not tough enough,
  too nice, doesnt take charge)
• Influence from female gender role
• Encourages feminine style (be nice, kind,
  forgiving)
• Discourages masculine style (just like a man,
  battle axe, iron lady)
• Female leaders are buffeted by cross-pressures
• Encounter negative sanctions for being too
  masculine or too feminine

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How Do Women Leaders Resolve these
Cross-Pressures?

• Women often split the difference with behavior
  that is similar to male colleagues, but somewhat
  different in a culturally feminine direction
• Evidence? Examine leadership styles of men and
  womensmall overall differences
• Women more participative democratic
• Women more transformational and effective at
  using positive incentives
• Behaviors correspond to good managerial
  practices

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Brings the Female Advantage Theme

• After years of analyzing what makes leaders most
  effective and figuring out who's got the Right
  Stuff, management gurus now know how to boost the
  odds of getting a great executive Hire a
  female.

• Business Week
• November 20, 2000
• By Sharpe
• As Leaders, Women Rule

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What Happened to Female Disadvantage? The
prejudice

• It is still there but in diminished form in most
  contexts

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Consider Gender-Based Reservations about Hillary
Clinton

• When the crunch comes, the toughest issue for
  Clinton may be the one that so far as been talked
  about least. If she runs, shell be handicapped
  by her gender. Anyone who thinks it wont be
  difficult for a woman to get elected president of
  the United States should go home, take a nap,
  wake up refreshed and think again.

• New York Times
• May 19, 2006
• By Herbert

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Ambivalence Reigns Toward Women as Leaders but
Prejudice Has Lessened

• Changes over time
• Think managerthink male
• Women now perceived as more like managers than in
  earlier data
• Public opinion data

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Prefer Man or Woman As Boss(U. S. Gallup Poll)
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Evidence-Based Recommendations

• For organizations
• See Harvard Business Review article
• For individual women
• Blend agency communion
• Have to quell doubts that are not agentic enough
  that are not communal enough
• Build social capital
• On work-family issues, keep in mind the long-term
  advantages in well being and health that come
  from having it all