A Woman for U.S. President? Gender and Leadership Traits Before and After 9/11

Abstract

A public agenda focused on terrorism and war may have added to voters' doubts about women's leadership, but popular support for electing a woman has rebounded since 2001-2003. An analysis of candidates' traits using American National Election Studies (ANES) surveys found that the "strong leader" cue actually became less rather than more important as a predictor of the presidential vote in 2004 than in 2000. The trait "candidate cares about you" was significantly more important in 2004 than in many previous election years, especially for women. Women politicians who can prove their "toughness" or their skills at crisis management may have an advantage with voters (especially women voters) if they can take advantage of their perceived edge in compassion.

Global Factors Affecting Women's Participation in Leadership

“…Role congruity theory (Eagly & Karau, 2002) positioned women as discriminated against because of their feminine nature because leaders are typically seen as male, and men are considered to be by nature dominating and authoritative. The findings here in the current study argue exactly the opposite -that because of the context of the culture, women are advancing into leadership positions precisely because these nurturing, collaborative, participative leadership styles are value by society -and supported by prior literature (Foels et al, 2000;Hansen & Otero, 2006;Sargent, 1981;Vecchio, 2002;Vinnicombe & Singh, 2002).…”

“…Role congruity theory (Eagly & Karau, 2002) positioned women as discriminated against because they are feminine, leaders are typically perceived as male, and men are considered to be more dominating and authoritative. Supported by prior research (Foels et al, 2000;Hansen & Otero, 2006;Sargent, 1981;Vecchio, 2002;Vinnicombe & Singh, 2002), the findings in the current study argue an opposing view: the cultural context within which women advance into leadership positions values these nurturing, collaborative, and participative leadership styles.…”

“…Wolfram, Mohr, & Schyns (2007) Investigated 81 leaders and 121 followers from 34 German organizations and found that female leaders receive less professional respect from their followers than their male leaders. Hansen & Otero (2006) Examined American National Election Studies and found that, in times of crisis, women politicians who can demonstrate that they have toughness and management skills, while simultaneously showing compassion, may have an advantage. Weikart, Chen, Williams, & Hromic (2006) Explored 192 female and 192 male U.S. mayors.…”

“…In this way, leaders are nurturing, supporting, inclusive, assertive, decisive, and competitive all at the same time and depending on any given circumstance. In a study of politician characteristics in the U.S., it was found that toughness and management skills in times of crisis are valuable traits and that women politicians who can demonstrate that they have these skills, while simultaneously taking advantage of the perceived female edge in compassion, may have an advantage (Hansen & Otero, 2006). Similarly, in another study of perceptions of leadership styles it was found that an androgynous management style with both instrumental and expressive traits was favored (Vinnicombe & Singh, 2002).…”

“…Many of the studies continue to explore topics like stereotypes (Hoyt, 2005;Powell, Butterfield, & Parent, 2002) and glass ceilings (Bartol, Martin, & Kromkowski, 2003;Waldstrøm & Madsen, 2007) or attempt to reveal significant female leadership traits and behaviors (Hansen & Otero, 2006;Weikart, Chen, Williams, & Hromic, 2006). There is little research on women leaders using a multilevel, cross-cultural perspective, and very few studies propose theory that is applicable outside the samples or settings being investigated.…”