Sex of authority role models and achievement by men and women: Leadership performance and recognition.

Abstract

College students (N = 276) were exposed to all-male, all-female, or mixed-authority role models and then participated in a 4-person mixed-sex discussion. Vicarious cultural experience of authority models was represented by videotaped reenactments of TV commercials. Participants viewed either four traditional commercials showing a man as authority and woman as subordinate, or four reversed-role versions in which the male and female actors switched roles in the same scenarios. Personally observed authority models were represented by the experimenter, who supervised the discussion. Sex of authority in the commercials and sex of experimenter were crossed in a factorial design. In the all-male authority condition, men and women performed equally (as measured by talking time and number of substantive content suggestions), but recognized only the men as leaders in postdiscussion evaluation questionnaires. In the all-female authority condition, men and women also performed equally, and, in addition, they also received equal leadership recognition. In the two mixed-authority conditions, men objectively outperformed women. The data showed that recognition is not a direct function of performance for either sex, but is influenced by evaluators' expectations, which are at least partly denned by sex of authority role models in the social environment. 636This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

In the eye of the beholder: perceptions of female and male outdoor leaders

“…It has been noted that women and men have different perceptions of the world (Estes and Ewert, 1988;Henderson and Bialeschki, 1987) and that women tend to read and interpret others meanings and abilities more accurately than do men (Boice et al 1984;Geis et al 1985;Hall, 1984). Therefore, there were two objectives of this study; first, an attempt was made to determine if gender biases existed in participant perceptions of female and male outdoor leaders.…”

“…Leaders are perceived as more competent, potent and dominant than followers. In an investigation of leadership recognition and gender roles, Geis et al (1985) found that recognition 'is influenced by the evaluator's expectations, which are at least partly defined by sex of authority role models in the social environment' (p. 636). Estes and Ewert (1988) make similar claims noting that physical skill expectations are lower for females than for males.…”

Effective Leadership for Girls and Women in Outdoor Recreation

“…There are apparent differences in preferred and expected styles of leadership between females and males (Geis, Boston, & Hoffman, 1985;Winther & Green, 1987). Males tend to prefer and work well under a traditional hierarchical, directive leadership approach where power is in the hands of the "boss" and the rank and file conduct the daily business (Kushell & Newton, 1986).…”

Gender in Close Relationships: Public Policy vs. Personal Prerogative

“…From the perspective of power relations, gender has been defined by role status (Eaglq, 1987;Geis, Boston, & Hoffman, 1985) and the differential placement of women and men into low and high status role enactments (Crosby, 1987). Similarly to the "gender as difference" perspective, the power domain defines gender relationships as asymmetrical, but clearly privileges one group over the other.…”