There are several reasons why women are underrepresented in elite leadership roles. First, women's family responsibilities often force them to leave their careers voluntarily, and it can be difficult to return or regain their previous status. Additionally, women are less likely than men to promote themselves for leadership positions due to gender biases and social pressures. Finally, prevalent gender stereotypes associate women with communal rather than agentic leadership traits, resulting in prejudice that views women as less qualified than men for elite roles.

1. Running head: Why Are Women Underrepresented In Elite Leadership Roles? 1
Assignment Essay 2
Why Are Women Underrepresented In Elite Leadership Roles?
Ardavan A. Shahroodi
Northeastern University
LDR 7980—Master’s Project Capstone
Sunday, May 10, 2015

2. Why Are Women Underrepresented In Elite Leadership Roles 2
Why Are Women Underrepresented in Elite Leadership Roles
The path to leadership for women is fraught with ceaseless challenges, uncompromising
social norms and gender stereotypes. While women’s familial obligations constrain their career
oriented choices and options, gender related social norms inhibit the growth of their career based
confidence and negotiating power. In these realms, women’s leadership aspirations are also
penalized by gender stereotypes and the resultant bias/prejudice that regards them as unfitting to
fulfill the role of a leader in overwhelmingly masculine and hierarchical environments.
Analysis
There are actually a number of reasons why women are underrepresented in elite
leadership roles. First on a practical level, Delong (2007) argues that women’s familial
responsibilities compel them to leave “work voluntarily at some point during their careers” (p.
8). Here, Delong (2007) cites a study involving “highly qualified women” (p. 8) where “4 in 10
of the sample had left work voluntarily at some point during their careers…only 74% will
manage to [return]…and only 40% of those will return to full-time professional jobs ” (p. 8).
Unfortunately, in these situations, “once women step off the conventional promotion track in
favor of a part-time job or time away from work, it can be difficult to climb back on” (Delong,
2007, p. 8). Moreover, in organizations where women take advantage of benefits such as
“telecommuting, flexible hours, and reduced work hours” (Delong, 2007, p. 8) in order to attend
to their families, they are often “stigmatized for taking advantage of them” (p. 8) or
“marginalized” (Northouse, 2013, p. 355) and as William (2010) observes, they “often find
reentry difficult and often enter at a lower level than the level they left” (as cited in Northouse,
2013, p. 355).

3. Why Are Women Underrepresented In Elite Leadership Roles 3
Additionally, the absence of women in leadership roles, Bowles and McGinn (2005)
argue, is related to the very fact that “they are less likely than men…to promote themselves for
leadership positions” (p. 357). The reality being that as Rudman (1998) contends, “women face
significant gender biases and social disincentives when they self-promote. Unlike men…self-
promoting women are seen as less socially attractive and less hirable” (as cited in Northouse,
2013, p. 357). Here, a number of brilliant observations by Small et al (2007) and Bowles and
McGinn (2005) hold that “people must negotiate with others to access the right positions,
experiences, opportunities, resources, and assistance in both the professional and domestic
spheres. Not only are women less likely to negotiate than men are...the negotiations needed to
ascend the leadership hierarchy often are unstructured, ambiguous, and rife with gender triggers-
exactly the type of situation that particularly disadvantages women” (as cited in Northouse,
2013, p. 357).
The existence of the pernicious interrelated underlying dynamics of gender stereotypes,
bias and prejudice also negatively influence the leadership aspirations of women in the
organizational environment. Here, Eagly and Karau’s (2002) fascinating analysis holds that
“according to role congruity theory, the agentic qualities thought necessary in the leadership role
are incompatible with the predominantly communal qualities stereotypically associated with
women, thus resulting in prejudice against female leaders” (as cited in Northouse, 2013, pp. 358-
359). These stereotypical agentic qualities are enumerated by Deaux and Kite (1993) and
Heilman (2001) as “confidence, assertiveness, independence, rationality and decisiveness” (as
cited in Northouse, 2013, p. 358) as opposed to women who are “stereotyped with communal
characteristics such as concern for others, sensitivity, warmth, helpfulness, and nurturance” (p.
358).

4. Why Are Women Underrepresented In Elite Leadership Roles 4
Such presumed contradictory gender stereotypes promote the assumption that “women
are less qualified for elite leadership positions than men, and in harsh evaluations of effective
female leaders for not being female enough” (Northouse, 2013, p. 359). Consequently, aspiring
women leaders are continuously burdened by the existence of a “double standard” (Northouse,
2013, p. 362) that as Eagly and Carli (2003) observe, pressure them to “come across as
extremely competent but also as appropriately feminine, a set of standards men are not held to”
(as cited in Northouse, 2013, p. 362).
Furthermore, gender stereotypes strongly influence the opinions and actions of
organizational “decision makers” (Northouse, 2013, p. 359) who as Kanter (1977) proposes are
susceptible to engaging in “homosocial reproduction, a tendency for a group to reproduce itself
in its own image. People prefer similar others and report the most positive decisions about and
evaluations of people who are most similar to them, biases that can clearly disadvantage women
when male leaders are looking for replacement” (as cited in Northouse, 2013, p. 359). However,
amazingly and indeed tragically, the research of the Project Implicit (2006) and the findings of
the Implicit Association Test (2006) has found that “minority group members [women in this
case] tend to show less implicit preference for their own group [other aspiring women leaders]
than majority group members [male leaders] show for theirs” (as cited in Delong, 2007, p. 8).
Conclusion
Aspiring women leaders encounter numerous practical, structural,
psychological/cognitive and sociological obstacles on the path towards assuming elite leadership
roles. These hurdles begin with the existence of the ever present pressures associated with
women’s familial responsibilities constraining their career related options and flexibility. This
disadvantaged status also extends to sociological and psychological norms where the much

5. Why Are Women Underrepresented In Elite Leadership Roles 5
practiced organizational and societal practice of self-promotion is regarded as an inappropriate
characteristic for women. Finally, women’s leadership aspirations are continuously type-casted
by gender stereotypes leading to bias and prejudice in organizational and social environments
that uphold, promote and prize masculine and agentic relationships.

6. Why Are Women Underrepresented In Elite Leadership Roles 6
References
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leaders. In P. G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and practice (sixth ed.) (p. 357).
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Deaux, K., & Kite, M. (1993). Gender stereotypes. In P. G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory
and practice (sixth ed.) (p. 358). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Delong, T. (2007). A framework for pursuing diversity in the workplace. Harvard Business
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Northeastern University College of Professional Studies Lecture Notes Online Web site:
https://nuonline.neu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_225262
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Eagly, A. H., & Carli, L. L. (2003). The female leadership advantage: An evaluation of the
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Eagly, A. H., & Karau, S. J. (2002). Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders.
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Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Heilman, M. E. (2001). Description and prescription: How gender stereotypes prevent women’s
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practice (sixth ed.) (p. 358). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

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