Genderized Leadership: Gender and Social Influence

1. Genderized Leadership: Gender and Social Influence Psychological research shows that effective leadership is dependent upon gender

2. Historically • Gender difference in influenceability • The extent to which men and women are influenced by others • Effect of a person’s gender on their ability to influence others • Effective management • Career achievement • Increases in salary

3. What are little boys made of? • Frogs • Snails • Puppy dog tails

4. What are little girls made of? • Sugar • Spice • Everything nice

5. Gender Differences in Exerting Influence • Mixed-sex groups • Men exert more influence • Boys exert more influence • Attempts by girls or women are more likely to be ignored • Contributions by men • Receive more attention from other group members • Have a greater effect on group decisions

6. Gender Composition Effects: Gender of recipient of influence attempts • Expectation states theory • Gender effects depend on the salience of gender as a status characteristic • Males are more persuaded by males • Adults • Jr. Highers • Toddlers • Preschoolers • 2-6 year old children

7. Gender Composition Effects: Proportion of males and females in an interaction • Why is there a disadvantage for females when they are the minority? • Highlights gender stereotypes • Elicits greater gender-stereotypical behavior • Task Contribution • Individual male contribution increases as males in the group decrease • Individual female contribution decreases as females in the group decrease

8. Communication Style used by Influence Agent: Competence • Supporting opinions with evidence • Women that do are more influential than women that do not • Men’s influence is relatively high without evidence • Both genders equally benefit: • Speaking in a clear, fluent, and competent manner • When they have an unusual expertise on the topic of persuasion

9. Communication Style used by Influence Agent: Competence • Possessing important and unique information • Increased males influence • Decreased females influence • Competent direct displays • Interfere with women’s influence • Women greater influence with an indirect style • Males are more threatened by and less inclined to like a competent woman

10. Communication Style used by Influence Agent: Dominance • Controlling • Threatening • Forceful • Agonistic • Direct disagreement • Verbal/non-verbal cues of aggression • Interruptions • Speaking in a loud voice • Pointing at others • Having a stern expression

11. Communication Style used by Influence Agent: Dominance • Face-to-face discussions of gender neutral topics: • Direct disagreement by women produces overt hostility or tension • Non-verbal dominance • More acceptable in men than women • Teachers of young children • Ignore negative influence attempts by girls • Attend to negative assertions of boys

12. Communication Style used by Influence Agent: Warmth and Communality • Stereotype of female warmth has become prescriptive • Better receptiveness when women are warm and communal • Self-promotion decreases influence • Behaviors that increase influence for women: • Smiling • Expressing agreement • Showing support for others • Stating that one is motivated to help others

13. Communication Style used by Influence Agent: Warmth and Communality • Male resistance is tempered when women combine competence with warmth • Using rapid, unhesitating and clear language COMBINED WITH • Cues for warmth: smiling, nodding, agreeing • Men can influence others without being liked • Women must be likeable to be influential

14. Communication Style used by Influence Agent: Gender Bias of Task • Males are generally presumed more competent and more influential • Even greater in contexts that are stereotypically masculine • Also in gender-neutral contexts • EX: sports topics • Women are more influential in stereotypical feminine situations • EX: fear of crime VID

15. Conclusions • Effectiveness requires competence • Men more than women • Women legitimate in female domains • Women have extra burden of establishing their competence • Males competence is taken for granted VID • It is men, more than women, who resist female influence • Gender effect is due to resistance to female influence • Point out benefit and value of women’s contributions

16. Conclusions • Following gender role norms is more influential than not • Influence is a male gender role • Behavior of female influence receives more attention than that of males VID • Warmth and Communality reduce resistance to women’s influence • Likeableness benefits men • Likeableness is essential for women VID

17. Conclusions • Communal behaviors should not be seen as weak or deferent • Can be a means to influence and the basis of referent power • Women’s access to sources of power is limited V • Competent behavior can enhance influence and reduce likeability • Complex interaction between perceived competence to influence and prescriptive demand for warmth

18. Conclusions • Women leading in a democratic manner have more favorable evaluations • Women show higher levels of communal behavior • Men show higher levels of task behavior • Gender stereotypes will likely change and become more favorable to women • This may already be weakening • Women can enhance influence by combining highly competent behavior with warmth • Organizations can endorse authority of women and publicize contributions of female leaders VID