Alice Eagly

Although women now commonly populate the ranks of supervisors and middle managers, few occupy top leadership or executive positions. In a recent IPR working paper, Alice H. Eagly (IPR-Psychology) and her co-author, Steven J. Karau at Southern Illinois University, advance and test a social role theory of prejudice that may explain why women's ascent up the leadership ladder continues to be thwarted by the so-called glass ceiling.

It is necessary to focus on the possibility of prejudice when considering why so few women have elite leadership positions, Eagly and Karau point out, because men and women now have similar levels of educational attainment and are equivalent in many other human capital factors. The authors argue that views of gender roles, especially widely shared beliefs about the actual and ideal characteristics of women, produce prejudice toward female leaders, because women are considered to have less leadership ability than men and their leadership is evaluated less favorably.

Research on stereotypes has shown that most beliefs about the sexes can be organized into two categories: communal and agentic. Communal characteristics, which are most often assigned to women, center on a concern for the welfare of others and include such traits as being affectionate, helpful, kind, sensitive, and gentle. In contrast, men are seen more often as possessing agentic characteristics - controlling, assertive, confident, and independent.

Yet studies have demonstrated that the agentic qualities are the great majority of the characteristics that people desire in leaders. So women may face a double bind, the authors argue. If they conform to their gender role, women do not meet the requirements of the leader role. If they exhibit the qualities associated with a leader role, they are not conforming to their expected gender role.

These two forms of prejudice could result in women having less access to leadership roles because they are perceived as having less leadership ability. Women also have more obstacles to overcome in striving to become a leader because they must counter preferences that women display qualities associated with their gender role. Drawing on a rich body of empirical research, Eagly and Karau argue that the prejudice predicted by their theory has very concrete manifestations in the real world:

Attitudes Toward Women in Leadership Roles. Public opinion polls and other attitudinal studies indicate some disapproval of female leaders, although it has decreased over time and is expressed more often by male respondents.

Women's Access to Leadership Roles.

• Most studies that analyzed women's lower wages and slower routes to promotion have supported the claim of discrimination against women.
  
  
• In experiments that evaluated female and male job applicants with equivalent credentials, women were disadvantaged with respect to positions traditionally held by men, which would include most leadership slots.
  
  
• A number of studies found that women have to meet a higher standard to be judged as very competent and as having leadership ability.

Rating the Effectiveness of Female Leaders. Studies of leader effectiveness that examined both actual and hypothetical leaders found that women did not fare as well as men when the leader roles were dominated by males, when the role was typically described in masculine terms (such as those in the military), and when men were doing the evaluations.

Since change in gender stereo-types occurs only very slowly in a society, Eagly and Karau suggest that prejudice toward female leaders may les-sen as the con-tent of leadership roles changes, which it appears to be doing. As organizations evolve from a traditional view of leadership to a more participatory style of management, which requires more of the communal characteristics ascribed to women and less of the agentic qualities associated with men, "women should experience reduced prejudice and gain increased representation and acceptance in leadership roles in the future."

"Few Women at the Top: Is Prejudice A Cause?" may be ordered from IPR's publications department for $5.00. The abstract may be downloaded from our web site at www.northwestern.edu/IPR/publications/Fall99WP.html.