Gendered Paths to Leadership in U.S. Nonprofit Advocacy Organizations

• In Event: Women's and Feminist Movements

Abstract

This paper examines how women’s and men’s paths to the leadership of nonprofit advocacy organizations differs. Drawing from literatures on women’s paths to elective office and corporate leadership, we investigate the gendered paths to leadership within nonprofit advocacy organizations, which play significant roles in U.S. elections and policy formation. Utilizing a unique sample of leaders of U.S. national nonprofit advocacy organizations founded between 1960-2000, we focus on the leaders’ characteristics as they ascended into the top office in order to understand how women in the nonprofit sector U.S. political system come to leadership. We hypothesize that men will follow professional career tracks while women will have more previous affiliation with the organization they lead. For that reason, women will have more experience working in nonprofits or advocacy organizations than men leaders. We also expect men and women leaders to differ in the type of organizations they lead; for example, women will be more likely than men to lead women’s groups, as well as minority interest groups. Finally, we hypothesize that women will be more likely to obtain leadership in liberal-leaning advocacy organizations than in conservative-leaning ones.

Authors

• Megan Kennedy, Penn State University

• Lee Ann Banaszak, Pennsylvania State University

• Erica Dollhopf, United Church of Christ