Female leadership advantage: A personality-based explanatory model of the gender gap in transformational leadership

Academic discussion of the female leadership advantage (Eagly & Carli, 2003) has emphasized the empirical finding that women are rated slightly higher in transformational leadership compared to men. The current study seeks to explain this gender gap, by specifying three personality-based theoretical mechanisms that enhance transformational leadership: (a) communion (stereotypical femininity; favoring women), (b) emotional intelligence (favoring women), as well as an offsetting effect of (c) agency (stereotypical masculinity; favoring men). Meta-analytic data confirm the theorized full mediation model. Because these three unique mechanisms operate in different directions, their individual indirect effects are notable but their cumulative indirect effect is small and near-zero. Implications for personality-based explanations of gender effects in leadership perceptions are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Hsu, Ning

Contributors dc:contributor

• Newman, Daniel A.
• Badura, Katie L.
• Rounds, James
• Fraley, R. Chris
• Briley, Daniel

• gender
• transformational leadership
• agenc
• communion
• emotional intelligence
• meta-analysis

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Ning Hsu

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115896

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F115896