Masculinity and Leadership Effectiveness (Self-)Perceptions: The Case of Lesbian Leaders

Abstract

In line with the gay glass ceiling effect, sexual minorities are often target of discrimination within work-related contexts, thus potentially undermining their wellbeing at work. For gay men, discrimination may partially be attributed to gay men’s stereotypical feminine perception, which does not fit with the stereotypically masculine traits required for leadership positions. Yet, when considering lesbian women, the masculine stereotypical view associated with them may come to represent an advantage in work-related contexts, especially when compared to heterosexual women. In Study 1, N = 303 heterosexual participants rated a lesbian vs. a heterosexual woman as a job candidate on stereotypical gender (masculine vs. feminine) traits as well as leadership effectiveness. Results showed that being lesbian was associated with higher levels of masculinity (but not femininity), which in turn was related to high leadership effectiveness. In Study 2, N = 268 lesbian and heterosexual women rated themselves on the same measures. Results showed that both groups associated masculine traits with enhanced leadership effectiveness. These studies provide a better comprehension regarding how lesbian women may be perceived in work-related contexts and shed light on the role played by gender stereotypical perceptions in shaping both heterosexual and lesbian perceptions of leadership effectiveness.

Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual (LGB) peoples' leadership self-effectiveness: The roles of internalized sexual stigma, LGB positive identity, and traditional masculinity

“…Although the current literature includes studies on how LGBTQ+ individuals' leadership effectiveness is perceived by heterosexual people (Morton, 2017;Clarke and Arnold, 2018;Wang et al, 2022), there are not many studies on how LGBTQ+ individuals evaluate their effectiveness (but see Salvati et al, 2021a). Furthermore, the current literature focuses on how gay male employees are perceived for leadership positions; (Morton, 2017;Clarke and Arnold, 2018;De Cristofaro et al, 2020;Pellegrini et al, 2020;Salvati et al, 2021a), whereas studies considering lesbian women and bisexual individuals are more scarce (Fasoli and Hegarty, 2020;Shamloo et al, 2022;Wang et al, 2022). Therefore, the current study aims at filling the gap by putting emphasis on perceived self-effectiveness and including gay, lesbian, and bisexual participants.…”

“…Participants completed the ten-item scale of leadership effectiveness by Hais et al (1997), which was readapted and already used in previous studies on gay (De Cristofaro et al, 2020;Pellegrini et al, 2020;Salvati et al, 2021a) and lesbian leadership (Shamloo et al, 2022). Example items were: "I have the qualities for being a good leader", "I would be an effective leader", and 'I would be willing to endorse a leader like me".…”

“…This might be one reason in our study why gay/bisexual participants' belief about holding more masculine traits led them to evaluate themselves as more effective potential leaders, compared to lesbian/bisexual women. On the other hand, another possible explanation might be those lesbian/bisexual women are expected to have both masculine and feminine traits for becoming effective leaders (Niedlich and Steffens, 2015;Shamloo et al, 2022). By doing this, they would meet the most dominant criteria of becoming a good leader which is "having masculine traits" and having feminine traits would come up as a coping strategy not to break gender roles (Fassinger et al, 2010;Niedlich and Steffens, 2015).…”

“…In addition to this, straight men also perceived themselves as more masculine than gay men, and most gay men participants perceived themselves as more masculine than feminine (Kachel et al, 2016). Moreover, perceiving oneself to have masculine traits and agentic behaviors are thought to be antecedents of being an effective LGBTQ+ leader (Koenig et al, 2011;De Cristofaro et al, 2020;Salvati et al, 2021a;Shamloo et al, 2022). On the other hand, Fasoli and Hegarty (2020) focused on the impact of sexual orientation vocal cues on heterosexual peoples' evaluations of leadership suitability and employability, founding that lesbian-sounding women were evaluated as less suitable than heterosexual-sounding women, and that the attributions of stereotypical masculinity to lesbiansounding women were shown to be irrelevant to discrimination.…”

“…Also, the study by Wang et al (2022) showed that same-sex leaders with other marginalized identities (i.e., being women) do not suffer a double stigma penalization. Based on social role theory and the role congruity model, we might infer that LGBTQ+ individuals with masculine self-perception are more likely to see themselves as potential effective leaders (Salvati et al, 2021a;Shamloo et al, 2022), even though other studies showed inconsistent results for lesbian women (Fasoli and Hegarty, 2020;Wang et al, 2022).…”