Can an Agentic Black Woman Get Ahead? The Impact of Race and Interpersonal Dominance on Perceptions of Female Leaders

Prior research has demonstrated that the display of agentic behaviors, such as dominance, can produce backlash against female leaders because of the incongruence between these behaviors and prescribed gender roles. The current study was designed to fill a gap in existing research by investigating wh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2012-04, Vol.23 (4), p.354-358
Main Authors: Livingston, Robert W., Rosette, Ashleigh Shelby, Washington, Ella F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African Americans
Agency
Anger
Attitudes
Behavior. Attitude
Biological and medical sciences
Black people
Black white relations
Blacks
European Continental Ancestry Group
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gender
Gender roles
Humans
Interethnic relations
Interpersonal Relations
Leaders
Leadership
Male
Men
Perceptions
Personality psychology
Prejudice
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Race
Race Relations
Research Report
Role
Social attribution, perception and cognition
Social Behavior
Social Dominance
Social interactions. Communication. Group processes
Social Perception
Social psychology
Social status
Stereotypes
White people
Women
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Summary:Prior research has demonstrated that the display of agentic behaviors, such as dominance, can produce backlash against female leaders because of the incongruence between these behaviors and prescribed gender roles. The current study was designed to fill a gap in existing research by investigating whether these well-established findings are moderated by race. Results revealed that dominant Black female leaders did not create the same backlash that dominant White female leaders did. Experimental evidence confirmed that White female (and Black male) leaders were conferred lower status when they expressed dominance rather than communality, whereas Black female (and White male) leaders were not. These findings highlight the importance, and complexity, of considering the intersection of gender and race when examining penalties for and proscriptions against dominant behavior of female leaders.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797611428079