Theoretical and Empirical Research on Gender and Leadership

Abstract

The aim of this article is to shed light on theoretical and empirical research on gender and leadership. The article shows that the topics leadership and gender underlie a vivid debate about differences and similarities between female and male leaders in management science. In general, women are still facing substantial barriers and thus are underrepresented in senior leadership positions. From the human capital perspective, women are at least or even better educated than their male counterparts. In fact, women do have less work experience, which can be traced back to childcare and domestic duties. Moreover, research shows that women deal with stress differently and have more problems in establishing informal networks than men. From the leadership effectiveness perspective, female leaders tend to use more participative, democratic, or transformational leadership styles and a higher individualised consideration towards employees than men do. Besides, women are more effective in leadership roles that are congruent with their gender, are more attentive to interpersonal relations, and try to establish an atmosphere of harmony compared to male managers. Furthermore, the article deals with the glass cliff effect that describes that women are more likely to be appointed to senior leadership positions under precarious financial situations than men. Moreover, studies that researched the impact of women in CEO positions affecting the financial performance offer mixed support and are partly contradicting. In addition, this article also discusses Schein's think manager-think male paradigm and Heilman's lack of fit model and offers explanations for stereotyped behaviours against women.