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This chapter seeks to theoretically answer the question: under which circumstances do groups succeed under female leadership? Further, is it possible to conceptualize the engineering of groups such that group success under female leadership is a likely outcome?

In this chapter, I draw on identity control theory (Burke & Stets, 2009; Stets & Burke, 2005) and role congruity theory (Eagly, 2003) to discuss the implications for female leaders of the discrepancy between the female gender identity and the leader identity. Next, I draw upon status characteristics theory (Berger et al., 1972) to further illustrate the negative consequences of being a female leader. Then, drawing on group processes research, I make the explicit link between the negative expectations for female leaders on group performance through the endorsement of group members. Finally, I utilize innovative research using institutionalization of female leadership to propose a possible solution for improving group performance.

I present nine testable hypotheses ready for empirical test.

I propose that training materials underscoring the skills that females have as leaders can subvert the development of conflictual expectations facing female leaders, thus removing the deleterious effects on group performance. That is, if group members receive training that emphasizes the competencies and skills women bring to the group’s task and to the leadership role, then group performance will not be threatened.

This study explores the impact of gender on team leadership style and how it impacts team innovation outcomes using the ambidexterity theory (opening and closing behaviors) of leadership for innovation.

A total of 215 self-report surveys of team members were collected for hypothesis testing. This study tests whether team leader gender moderates the relationship between ambidextrous team leadership and team innovation.

Female team leaders are engaged in less opening behaviors of ideation, risk-taking and exploration than their male counterparts. Additionally, when female leaders engaged in closing behaviors, which include assigning roles and timelines, they had less impact than the closing behaviors of their male colleagues. Female team leaders were perceived as less effective in leading innovation than males.

This study examines the influence of gender on team leadership and innovation outcomes. There are drawbacks of cross-sectional data, sample selection issues and potential problems of percept–percept relationships.

These findings suggest that female team leads may need greater organizational support and organizational senior leadership support to take risks (opening behavior) to produce greater team innovation and increase leader visibility.

Society can achieve even greater innovation outcomes by understanding and addressing the unique obstacles woman team leaders face with innovation. Organizations can benefit from innovation and resilience by supporting women team leaders in their diverse delivery of innovation.

This is the first study to look at the influence of gender and leadership on team innovation outcomes. Ambidextrous leadership theory provides insights into the specific challenges woman team leaders experience; however, so far no research has addressed the innovation outcome challenges female team leaders encounter. Since innovation and leadership can be a key component of visibility, compensation and promotion, it is necessary to investigate the challenges female team leads face in the innovation process.

The purpose of this paper is to discover stereotypical beliefs of followers about female leadership and their possible outcomes in an organizational setting.

With phenomenological methodology, this study used a qualitative approach, and credible data were gathered through semi-structured interviews from the employees of the education industry of Pakistan. Stereotypical beliefs and their outcomes were extracted through thematic analysis.

The results show that female leaders are considered less fit for leadership role, which results in a reluctance in followership, the gap in communication and ineffective performance. Followers also tend to believe that women are less fit for pressure, resulting in a lack of trust and an intergroup conflict. The third stereotype that emerged from the results is that women are considered less fit for professionalism, which culminates in personal expectations, adverse effect on tasks and miscommunications.

This study is confined to the local context, and the results suggest that while female leaders are mild and a personal approach may have a positive effect on followers but in Pakistani society, they are considered less fit for an overall leadership role. Moreover, these stereotypes breed prejudgment and overshadow women’s identity as leaders. This paves the way forward for further exploratory inquiry of female leadership and the empirical test of these stereotypes and their outcomes.

This study is a standpoint for organizations, present and potential female leaders to be conscious of existing stereotypes and their dire outcomes. It can also be used in government policymaking for initiatives to mitigate these stereotypes to harvest diversity and female empowerment. The leading leadership trainers of Pakistan can also be benefited from the contextual scientific information about female leadership.

A society like that of Pakistan, which is striving to mitigate the gender inequality gap in every walk of life, needs to scientifically know the assumptions in the minds of people regarding women. The present study serves this purpose for women in a leadership capacity in an organizational setting.

This study is the first of its kind in the local context and paves the way for further research in diversity in leadership.

Despite abundant research on the negative effect of gender stereotypes on female leaders, it remains unclear whether leader competence perceived by the subordinates could overcome this backlash effect. Drawing on expectation states theory and expectancy violation theory, the authors investigate how the interaction among leaders' gender roles, leader sex and subordinates' perceived leader competence influences leader effectiveness through subordinates' affective trust.

Data were collected through two-wave surveys among 489 participants from various sectors in different parts of China. SPSS and Hayes PROCESS were used to test the hypotheses.

High competence perceived by the subordinates helps female leaders to overturn the negative effect of masculinity and strengthen the positive effect of femininity, whereas this positive moderation does not hold for male leaders.

This study addresses the ongoing debate about “female advantage” in leadership by showing that female leaders benefit from high perceived competence and are penalized by low perceived competence to a greater extent than male leaders in terms of leader effectiveness.

This grounded theory study aimed to understand the process of leadership identity development experienced by traditional-aged female undergraduate college students. The findings led to a model for leadership identity development consisting of four phases. Students’ leadership identity development progressed from views of leadership as external to self to positional leaders to incorporation of self-as-leader whether in a position or not. The final phase reflected a shift to leading for social change. In the early phases of the model, the female students in this study saw gender as irrelevant to them as leaders even though they recognized societal views of female leaders as weaker or less capable. In later phases they understood how being female mattered, and by Phase 4 they recognized a need to take a stand on societal issues related to gender and race.

The purpose of this study is investigating the influence of leadership on work engagement. The definition of leadership is primarily couched in culturally masculine terms (and known as an agentic leadership style) that disfavours women, who are often perceived as being communal leaders who are compassionate and humble. The research gap addressed is whether communal and agentic leadership styles of female leaders have positive associations with work engagement.

A quantitative study was undertaken by applying purposive non-probability sampling and using an online survey with screening questions to ensure the respondent reported to a senior female manager. The survey consisted of reliable and valid Likert scales: agentic and communal leadership styles were assessed using the Agency-Communion-Inventory (AC-IN) scale with 20 questions and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9) with three sub-scales: vigour, dedication and absorption. The 153 usable responses in this study were used to conduct validity and reliability tests and to apply multiple regression to test associations.

Both agentic and communal leadership have a positive impact on work engagement when exhibited by a female. Although agentic leadership had an influence on all the elements of work engagement, communal leadership had a far stronger impact.

Female managers with communal leadership styles need to realise that they have more influence on their employees’ emotional, physical and cognitive connections to their work than female managers with agentic leadership styles. Those with agentic leadership styles need to exhibit a communal style as well, so as to enhance the influence they have on their employees’ work engagement.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of gender on the effectiveness of transformational leadership. Drawing on role congruity theory, it elucidates the moderating effects of leader gender, subordinate gender, and leader-subordinate gender dyad on the relationship between transformational leadership and psychological empowerment.

Employees of companies in Korea responded to a paper-pencil survey, rating their psychological empowerment and leadership behaviors of their direct leader on a five-point Likert-type scale. The analysis includes 339 responses.

The results indicate that a leader’s gender has no significant moderating effect on psychological empowerment, but the gender of the subordinate has a significant moderating effect, with male subordinates more strongly influenced by transformational leadership than female subordinates. Notably, the findings show that the effectiveness of transformational leadership is contingent on the leader-subordinate gender dyad. Specifically, transformational leadership has as significant an effect on female leader-male subordinate dyads as on male leader-male subordinate dyads.

This study contributes to leadership and gender studies in the management field by investigating the effect of gender roles on the effectiveness of transformational leadership. Future research should extend this study and explore whether these findings are generalizable.

The remarkable finding of the effect of female leadership on employee empowerment suggests organizations should use more female leaders.

This is the first empirical study to shed light on gender issues in relation to transformational leadership in Korea.

In this paper, we examine the effects of legitimation and delegitimation of female leaders in male- and female-dominated organizations on leader behavior toward their subordinates. Drawing upon status and legitimacy theories, we argue that delegitimation represents one event that makes gender stereotypes salient in different organizational contexts, and by this means affects leader–subordinate interaction. Gender stereotypes will be more salient in male- than in female-dominated organizations, but only when female leaders are delegitimated. Specifically, we hypothesize that deauthorized female leaders will exhibit more deferential and less directive behavior than authorized female leaders, and this effect will be stronger in male- than in female-dominated organizations. Authorized female leaders, however, will express a similar amount of deferential and directive behavior, regardless of organizational sex composition. To test these hypotheses, we created a laboratory experiment with simulated organizations. Results are mixed. Deauthorized leaders are marginally more deferential than authorized leaders, and this effect is stronger in male-dominated organizations; authorized leaders express similar amounts of deferential behavior in both types of organizations. Yet, leaders are more directive in male- than in female-dominated organizations, whether they are deauthorized or authorized. We discuss the implications of these results and future directions for this research.

This study considered the use of video conferencing virtual backgrounds with employees located in a large multinational corporate organisation in Ireland and the USA to discern if background images evoking gendered stereotypes of leadership can cue stereotype threat in female technology workers undertaking a leadership activity, thus negatively effecting performance. This study aims to contribute to the body of research on stereotype threat by establishing whether virtual backgrounds used in video conferencing software are inherently identity safe or whether their use could have a negative performance impact on marginalised groups.

Using a mixed methods research design with 22 participants in two countries working in the one large organisation, using two quantitative methods (an experiment and a survey) and one qualitative method (semi-structured interviews), the study examined the relationship between performance on the leadership activity and exposure to gendered backgrounds on a video conference call.

It found that female leaders undertaking a leadership test experienced more anxiety and achieved lower scores on average when exposed to a male-gendered virtual background compared to male colleagues or female leaders exposed to a female gendered background. It was also found that these leaders were aware of the stereotype of leadership being White and male, and showed symptoms of prolonged exposure to stereotype threat in the workplace. While the authors still are working through a post-pandemic environment, it may be judicious for organisations to restrict the use of virtual backgrounds to identity-safe ones, specifically chosen by the company.

The study makes several practical recommendations, indicating actions which can be taken at the individual, team and corporate levels. Re-running this experiment in a more controlled environment with a larger sample set could yield more definitive, statistically significant results and contribute more to the literature.

Some individual impacts were found via the interviews. Male leaders in the organisation need to do more to mentor and endorse their female colleagues. By doing this, they can counter the negative effects of solo status and the subsequent performance degradations of their female counterparts, while also setting an example for other leaders. Participation in the mentoring programme and initiatives such as Dare and value, inclusion, belonging, and equity should be encouraged and supported. Reverse mentoring should also be encouraged among the population of male leaders to aid in allyship and bias-awareness.

Teams should note that a democratic vote is not always the best way to decide on the names of teams, projects or meeting rooms. These may skew towards niche interests that can serve to alienate members of the team who do not associate themselves with that interest. Rather, the teams should strive to be fully inclusive and educated on the need for identity-safety. Team events may also serve to alienate members if teams are not mindful of the need to be inclusive. Activities, such as “go-kart” racing and physical or competitive team events have been highlighted as unsuitable for some team members, and should be avoided in favour of inclusivity.

A significant body of research has documented the effect to which stereotype threat can be triggered by both the physical environment and by the use of various technology media. However, there is a dearth of research exploring the relationship between stereotype threat, defined as “the concrete, real-time threat of being judged and treated poorly in settings where a negative stereotype about one’s group applies” (Steele et al., 2002, p. 385), and video conferencing software features, such as virtual backgrounds.

The purpose of this paper is to explore three research questions. Are there gender differences in the demonstration of emotional and social intelligence competencies? What is the relationship between emotional and social intelligence competencies and success, and does gender moderate that relationship? Are there differences between the most successful male and female leaders in their demonstration of these competencies?

This study used a 360‐degree instrument to measure the demonstration of emotional and social intelligence competencies by top‐level executives in one financial services organization. Annual performance and potential assessments measured the participants' success. Regression analyses and tests of mean differences were used to analyze the research questions.

The results indicated that there were no significant differences between male and female leaders in their demonstration of emotional and social intelligence competencies. The most successful men and women were also more similar than different in their competency demonstration. However, gender did moderate the relationship between the demonstration of these competencies and success. Male leaders were assessed as more successful even when the male and female leaders demonstrated an equivalent level of competencies. Finally, distinctions were found between the most successful males and females and their typical counterparts.

A field sample from one organization limits the generalizability of the results.

Implications for organizations and their leadership are discussed including the importance of a broad range of competencies used in assessments, the awareness of gender stereotypes and gender‐stereotypical behavior, and the acknowledgement of multiple measures of success.

This study highlights the moderating influence of gender between the demonstration of emotional and social intelligence competencies and success. Distinctions in competency demonstration between the most successful top‐level executives and the typical executives contribute to the literature and to leadership development practice.