Being a Woman and a Leader–The Conflict and its Implications

• In Event: Beyond Belief: Leadership Identity, Culture, and Stereotypes

Short Description

This research on women managers from different Israeli sectors examined how female leaders, who simultaneously strongly identify with their gender identity and their leadership identity, cope with the conflict they experience due to the tension between these identities. The presenter will outline the study’s approach, major findings, and cross-sector implications.

Detailed Abstract

The current research aimed to examine how female leaders, who simultaneously strongly identify with their gender identity and their leadership identity, cope with the conflict they experience due to the tension between these identities. The origin of the conflict is in the stereotypical perception of supposedly incompatibility that exists between the expectations from the female gender role and those from the leadership role, which render the gender role and its female qualities as less suitable for leadership roles.
We examine the identity conflict using the Bicultural Identity Integration (BII), which originated from the multiculturalism research literature. The concept was adopted in favor of the specific female-leadership identity conflict and was defined in our research as the Gender-Leadership Identity Integration (GLII). This concept was examined through two factors: 1. Identity Distance, the rate to which one sees these different identities as being distant and tends towards ‘identity separation’, versus the rate to which one identifies an overlap among these identities and tends towards ‘identity integration’. 2. Identity Conflict, the level to which one experiences a conflict between the two identities and tends towards ‘identity separation’, versus the level to which one identifies suitability between the identities and tends towards ‘identity integration’. Similar to the cultural connection, we assumed that identity integration can be efficient for the leaders and have positive results, from the leader's self-perception on the one hand and the perception of others, on the other hand. The leaders' self-perception was examined through the participants General Self Efficacy perception, their Leadership Self Efficacy perception, and their Authentic Leadership perception. The perceptions others held of the participants was measured using the Authentic Leadership Scale of those being led.
The current study also examined the organizational surroundings' influence through the level of female representation in senior organizational positions. The research's assumption was that the low representation of women in senior positions will awaken the stereotypical perception more prominently than when comparing with a high representation of women in senior positions. The goal of the research was to examine how the stereotypical perception salient in a situation and can influences the examined connections. The research wished to determine between two different theoretical directions that were found relating to the possible influence: The Stereotype Threat Model and The Psychological Reactance Theory. According to the first, it was assumed that the more the stereotype protrudes, the more the threat feeling will strengthen among the leaders. This feeling can lead to behavior which will reinforce the stereotype and express lower levels of the General Self Efficacy perception, Leadership Self Efficacy perception and a low Authentic Leadership perception. However, according to the second theory, it was assumed that the more the stereotype protrudes, the more the women will be aware of its existence and will behave in an opposite fashion to it. This situation can be expressed through higher levels of the General Self Efficacy perception, the Leadership Self Efficacy perception, as well as a high Authentic Leadership perception. In both theoretical directions, we assumed that the identity integration strategy has an advantage over identity separation.
Participants of the study were female managers and their employees in different organizations and professional fields. The managers' sample included 63 managers who showed strong identification with their gender identity and their leadership identity. The dyadic connection was examined among 39 managers and their workers. The proportion of female senior managers represented in the organizations from which the women managers were sampled was also collected
Supporting our hypotheses we found that identity integration was connected with positive results in terms of leader's self-perception (i.e., higher levels of General Self Efficacy perception, Leadership Self Efficacy perception, and higher Authentic Leadership perception). In addition, we found that the female representation in senior positions moderated the connection between the identity distance factor and all three positive self perception variables. From the moderation models' results we found that in organizational surroundings in which stereotypes were assumed to be more pronounced, high levels of Authentic Leadership perception, General Self Efficacy perception and Leadership Self Efficacy perception were seen in both strategies. However, in surroundings where the stereotype were assumed to be less pronounced we found that the more the identity connection tended to be integrative, higher levels of Authentic Leadership perception, General Self Efficacy perception and Leadership Self perception were seen. On the other hand, the more the tendency led towards identity separation, we found lower levels of positive outcomes. Our hypothesis regarding identity connection and the Authentic Leadership perception of those being led did not gain support.
These findings support the assumptions regarding the strategic efficacy of the identity integration when compared with the identity separation in relation to the leaders' self-perception. In addition, the moderation models' results support the Psychological Reactance Theory. The study's assumption is that when the stereotype are more salient, the awareness towards it rises among all leaders and ends with positive self perception in the different variables which oppose the stereotypical perception. On the other hand, when the stereotype salient less and was assumed to lower the awareness towards it, a behavior was found to reinforce the stereotypical perception among the leaders who tended towards identity separation. However, leaders who tended towards identity integration kept the positive self perception and showed immunity from the lesser protrudes stereotype damage.
This study is one of the first to examine the leaders' experience of conflict between their female and leadership identities and its ramifications. It is also the first study that was done using the BII for this specific conflict. This research may contribute to expansion of the knowledge and interest in this specific conflict, while implementing the concept of GLII for future research. This study may have a practical contribution towards strengthening women's awareness of the identity conflict's ramifications and can give efficient tools for dealing with them.

Participants

• Smadar Shaul, INSS - The Institute for National Security Studies

• Ronit Kark, Bar-Ilan University

• Gil Luria, University of Haifa