Poster #174 - The Development of Leadership Attitudes in India

• In Event: 2-002 - Special Poster Session 05 with Continental Breakfast Reception
  In Poster Session: PS 05 - International Section

Integrative Statement

Globally, women are underrepresented in government and politics. In 2017, only 23% of national parliamentarians were women. India presents an interesting case: its political landscape is notably gender-equitable (India ranks 9th in female political empowerment), and it has even implemented gender quotas in villages to increase women’s political participation. Nevertheless, there still exist barriers to women’s political participation in India, including gender disparities in education and economic attainment. Here, we presented 108 5-10-year old Indian children (36% of whom were from rural, low-income families) with two tasks designed to assess children’s early and developing conceptualizations of leadership, and how it relates to their thinking about gender and race. First, participants participated in an Election Task, where they were presented with a yearbook of 20 children’s photos which varied in gender (half male, half female) and depicted race/ethnicity (light-skinned Indian, darker-skinned Indian, white, and black). Participants were told they were seeing a slate of candidates for a school election, and asked to pick which target face they thought would be most likely to be selected for President, as well as for three alternative positions (Note-taker, Welcomer, and Treasurer), with a short explanation given about each position. Across ages, children expressed racial and gender biases. Participants across ages were more likely to choose White or light-Indian children for President (see Figure 1). This pattern did not emerge for the other positions, where children either showed little systematic trends in picking (i.e., for Treasurer), or over-picked the Black female targets (i.e., for Welcomer and Note-taker). Younger children of both genders expressed an own-gender bias for President (i.e., girls picked girls and boys picked boys); yet, by age 9, children of both genders were more likely to choose male presidents (see Figure 2). Nevertheless, when asked what position participants themselves would want to be, across ages, children of both genders were most likely to choose be the President. Next, participants completed a Drawing Task where we asked them to “draw a leader”. Notably, no male participant drew a female leader. Female participants’ responses across ages were more mixed (52% drew a female leader). Interestingly, this work was conducted in a state that had recently elected the same woman into the highest position of power (Chief Minister) six times. Together, this work provides compelling evidence that attitudes about leadership emerge and develop early in childhood, and that children incorporate notions of race and gender in their conceptualization of leadership. We discuss potential implications of considering the development of leadership attitudes on a global scale, with a particular focus on understanding development among diverse samples of underrepresented groups.

Authors

• Radhika Santhanagopalan, Cornell University
  Presenting Author

• Isobel Heck, Cornell University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Katherine Kinzler, Cornell University
  Non-Presenting Author