Understanding the Devaluation of Female Leaders: A Cognitive-Ecological Perspective

Abstract

Women in leadership positions are often devalued. Complementing previous approaches, we provide a novel cognitive-ecological explanation for this phenomenon. We suggest that perceiving certain leaders as a subcategory of leaders, a tendency primarily observed for female leaders, focuses attention on their distinct attributes that differentiate them from the broader category of leaders. Since people have predominantly positive perceptions of leaders, such distinct attributes are likely more negative. Three preregistered experiments (N_total = 2,878 US-Americans) confirm our model’s prediction that both subcategories of female and male leaders are judged more negatively than leaders of unspecified gender and that the effect reverses when the overarching category of leaders is viewed negatively. We discuss our findings’ implications for advancing gender equality in leadership.