We are excited to announce a new publication from our team on gender and leadership in Journal of Business Ethics:

Gender biases in leadership persist, even despite equal performance. However, trainings and interventions with female leaders often breed more backlash. So rather than interfering with leaders themselves, Gloor (post-doc at our chair) and colleagues proposed that these biases might be overcome at the team-level. They intervened in actual teams and causally tested this claim with two randomised experiments. Findings indicate that teams rated male leaders as more prototypical and trustworthy in male majority teams (~20% women)–despite equal selection criteria and leadership training. Yet, these male advantages were eliminated in more gender-balanced teams (~40% women). Thus, beyond moral arguments of fairness, these findings also show how, in the case of gender, team diversity can also create a more level playing field for leaders.

Harvard University also featured an earlier version of this research via their portal of rigorous evidence to improve social and economic inequality.

Gloor, J. L., Morf, M. C., Paustian-Underdahl, S., & Backes-Gellner, U. (in press). Fix the game, not the dame: Restoring equity in leadership evaluations. Journal of Business Ethics.

You can find the new publication here.