Expectations of women : trait inferences, nonverbal cues, and their impact on women’s underrepresentation in leadership

Abstract

Women encounter a variety of obstacles when striving for leadership over the course of their careers. These obstacles can take the form of gendered trait expectations of how women and leaders “should” behave – expectations that often clash with one another. Trait inferences from facial cues (often out of women’s control) have also been shown to affect evaluations and impressions of women when striving for leadership. Appearance expectations of what a good leader “should” look like may also clash with women’s appearance and femininity in general. By identifying factors that contribute to people’s impressions and evaluations of women based on differing sexually dimorphic facial features, the current program of research adds to our understanding of how women can hopefully successfully navigate these obstacles. Indeed, work from this dissertation also reveals how nonverbal cues influence perceptions of women and highlight the factors that majorly impact job selections. The present work hopefully illuminates how women are impacted from these cues throughout their careers as they strive for positions of authority