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Am I the Right Candidate? Self-Ascribed Fit of Women and Men to a Leadership Position

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Abstract

Women are assumed to show a self-ascribed lack-of-fit to leadership positions compared to men (Heilman Research in Organizational Behavior 5:269–298, 1983). The present study examined whether this gender difference would diminish when agency is accounted for and whether a stimulus person’s gender would alter women’s self-ascribed fit. German management students (91 women, 95 men) received a fictitious recruitment advertisement for a leadership position that portrayed a man, a woman, or both a man and a woman. Participants indicated their perceptions of agency and suitability to the advertised position. As predicted, women judged themselves as less suitable for the leadership position than men and participants’ self-reported agency mediated this effect. Furthermore, all participants felt most suitable if a male and a female stimulus person were portrayed.

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Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Jan Michael Bosak for his help in collecting the data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Muesmattstr. 45, CH-3000, Bern, 9, Switzerland

    Janine Bosak & Sabine Sczesny

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  1. Janine Bosak
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  2. Sabine Sczesny
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Correspondence to Janine Bosak.

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Bosak, J., Sczesny, S. Am I the Right Candidate? Self-Ascribed Fit of Women and Men to a Leadership Position. Sex Roles 58, 682–688 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-007-9380-4

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