How Can Women Take Advantage of the High-Tech Era to be Perceived as Effective Leaders? Being Tech-Savvy Helps

Abstract

Given the increasing use of intelligent technologies and the resulting requirement for leaders to be tech-savvy, an important question that emerges is whether perceptions of leadership effectiveness are changing too? Drawing from gender role theory and expectation violation theory, we propose and test a model of whether and how females can benefit from being tech-savvy. To explore whether women may stand to gain from the changing nature of the workforce or not, we ran a series of studies. Our data sources included a cross-sectional time-lagged field study and experimental studies with students and online adults. We found that a definitive skill of the current technological era, tech-savviness, changes perceptions and evaluations of female leaders in a much more positive way than it does for male leaders, as such allowing female leaders to be more likely to be perceived as effective leaders. The reason for the effect that tech-savvy women were more likely to be perceived as effective leaders was driven by the fact that tech-savvy women are seen as more competent and hence, attributed more social status. Our research goes beyond merely focusing on the negative effects of gender stereotypes by providing an actionable solution—that comes from promoting tech knowledge and savviness—for women to counter gender stereotypes that undermine them from being viewed as effective leaders.

Громадянська Ідентичність Українців: Вікові, Статеві, Політичні Виміри

“…Men are credited with higher social activity, responsibility for the material support of the family, and maintenance of family ties with the external social environment, which implies greater involvement in the organizational environment of the state. Although today the biological determinism of gender roles is subject to criticism (men are no longer the sole breadwinners in the family, a significant number of women are successful and fulfilled both in careers (Nagpal et al, 2023) and in motherhood, some women do not deliberately give birth to children), traditional gender stereotypes and roles continue to be reproduced, causing negative consequences and limitations (Dingler & Kroeber, 2023;Oksamytna, 2004). As S. Oksamytna (2004) notes, women are practically not involved in the formation of state policy and mainly play the role of passive observers and executors, as well as recipients of social assistance (Oksamytna, 2004: 177).…”

“…Чоловікам приписують вищу громадську активність, відповідальність за матеріальне забезпечення сім'ї та підтримання зв'язків родини із зовнішнім соціальним середовищем, що передбачає більшу залученість в організаційне середовище держави. І хоча сьогодні біологічна детермінованість ґендерних ролей піддається критиці (чоловіки вже давно не є єдиними годувальниками в сім'ї, значна частина жінок є успішними та реалізованими як у кар'єрі (Nagpal et al, 2023), так і в материнстві, деякі жінки свідомо не народжують дітей), однак традиційні ґендерні стереотипи та ролі продовжують відтворюватися, що зумовлює негативні наслідки та обмеження (Dingler, Kroeber, 2023;Оксамитна, 2004). Як зазначає С.…”