A meta-analytic review of the gender difference in leadership aspirations

• Published in: Journal of vocational behavior Vol. 137; p. 103744
• Main Authors: Netchaeva, Ekaterina, Sheppard, Leah D., Balushkina, Tatiana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01-09-2022
• Subjects: Gender differences; Leadership aspirations; Leadership gender gap; Managerial aspirations; Political ambition; Leadership aspirations; Leadership gender gap; Gender differences; Political ambition; Managerial aspirations
• ISSN: 0001-8791; 1095-9084
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jvb.2022.103744

Compared to their representation in the workforce, women are significantly underrepresented in leadership roles in the United States. Whereas substantial research attention has been paid to the role of bias and discrimination in perpetuating this gap, less has been devoted to exploring the gender difference in aspirations for these roles. We draw from social role theory to hypothesize that men have higher leadership aspirations than women and test our hypothesis using a meta-analysis of 174 U.S. published and unpublished samples (N = 138,557) spanning six decades. The results reveal that there is a small but significant gender difference in the predicted direction (Hedge's g = 0.22). Notably, the gender difference has not narrowed significantly over time, and appears to widen at college age and among working adults within male-dominated industries. Our results also suggest that the process and dissemination of research in this domain exhibits bias. We discuss the implications of our conclusions for future research.
•We meta-analytically examine the gender difference in leadership aspirations.•Findings reveal men exhibit higher aspirations than women.•The size of this effect does not decrease with increasing year of publication.•The gender difference is larger among working adults in male-dominated relative to female-dominated industries.•The gender difference is larger among working adults and post-secondary students, relative to secondary students.