Footsteps I would like to follow? How gender quotas affect the acceptance of women leaders as role models and inspirations for leadership

Nater, Christa; Heilman, Madeline E.; Sczesny, Sabine (2023). Footsteps I would like to follow? How gender quotas affect the acceptance of women leaders as role models and inspirations for leadership. European journal of social psychology, 53(1), pp. 129-146. Wiley-Blackwell 10.1002/ejsp.2892

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This research examines how the method of selecting women leaders affects other women’s leadership interest. The results of three experiments (N = 1,015) indicated that only when women leaders were selected due to merit, not quota-based policies, did they boost female participants’ interest in a leadership position. These reactions were mediated by perceptions of the woman leader’s deservingness of her position (Studies 1–3) and consequent acceptance as a role model (Studies 2 and 3). Accordingly, success information validating quota-based selected leaders’ competence provided a boost in leadership interest equal to that of merit-based selected leaders (Study 2). For male participants, quota but not merit-based selected women leaders lowered interest in leadership due to their pessimistic assessment of the probability of being selected (Study 1). These results suggest that a wise implementation of quota regulations includes validating women’s competence so they are perceived as deserving of their leader roles and can thus serve as inspiring role models.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology

UniBE Contributor:

Nater, Christa, Sczesny, Sabine

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology

ISSN:

0046-2772

Publisher:

Wiley-Blackwell

Funders:

[4] Swiss National Science Foundation

Language:

English

Submitter:

Christa Nater

Date Deposited:

02 Nov 2022 07:02

Last Modified:

25 Jan 2023 00:13

Publisher DOI:

10.1002/ejsp.2892

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/174368

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/174368

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