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The evaluation of effectiveness and likability of gender-role congruent and gender-role incongruent leaders

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Abstract

The aim of the present study was to test the gender-role congruency hypothesis in the context of assumed leadership. Three hundred and forty-two female and 154 male Dutch students participated in a laboratory experiment. We expected that gender-role incongruent leaders would be evaluated less favorably than gender-role congruent leaders and that male subjects would devalue the gender-role incongruent leaders to a greater extent than would female subjects. In addition, we were interested in the relative contribution of the effectiveness and likability measures to the devaluation of gender-role incongruent leaders. The gender-role congruency hypothesis was supported by the data from male subjects only, and then only for the effectiveness measures. The results are discussed in the context of two meta-analyses concerning the impact of gender stereotypes on judgments of competence and evaluation of leaders.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vakgroep Sociale Psychologie, University of Amsterdam, Roetersstraat 15, 1018 WB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Krystyna Rojahn & Tineke M. Willemsen

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  1. Krystyna Rojahn
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  2. Tineke M. Willemsen
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Rojahn, K., Willemsen, T.M. The evaluation of effectiveness and likability of gender-role congruent and gender-role incongruent leaders. Sex Roles 30, 109–119 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01420743

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