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This study advances understanding of the behaviors local elected officials believe effective leaders display, whether these behaviors tend to be associated with a particular gender and if beliefs vary by gender.

Using data from focus groups with local elected officials in a US state, participants were asked to identify behaviors of effective elected officials. Focus group demographic data allowed for responses to be matched by the participants' gender.

Men and women local elected officials differ little in their beliefs about what behaviors make leaders effective. The most commonly mentioned behaviors are more likely to be associated with women or are gender-ambiguous.

This study contributes to the leadership literature by examining local elected officials' beliefs about effective leadership behaviors and if these beliefs differ by a respondent's gender.

In his first two months at the immigration detention facility, euphemistically called a ‘shelter’, Deruba consumed his daily lessons of vocabulary and math. ‘Good morning. My name is Deruba. What is your name?’ he would chant. ‘I am from Guatemala. Where are you from?’ ‘Good afternoon. How are you? I am fine’. He had only attended school for four years in Guatemala before his parents died in a bus accident forcing him to support his younger sister, Isura. ‘It was not a good time. We did not have anybody. No aunts, no uncles to help us. My grandparents died long ago. I don't even remember them. It was just me and my little sister’.⁵ Deruba, 13 years old at the time, and Isura, then 11 years old, lived on the streets of Livingston, Guatemala for over 2 years. He worked as a boat hand on boats [lanchas] transporting tourists to Livingston, painting cars at a small auto body shop and selling marijuana to young German and American tourists coming to soak up Livingston's bohemian environs.⁶