Gendered Expectations

Abstract

In response to an interview question from Günter Gaus, Hannah Arendt (1994a) referred to herself as having old-fashioned views about women leaders. She further contended: ‘It just doesn’t look good when a woman gives orders. She should try not to get into such a situation if she wants to remain feminine’ (p. 3). Arendt’s public statements regarding women leaders illustrate some common prejudices. Her stated bias against women leaders is still prevalent in Western society, as a recent survey by Kim Elsesser and Janet Lever (2011) illustrates. In this survey of 60,000 individuals in the United States, while 54 percent of people said that they had no preference regarding male or female bosses, of those remaining participants who expressed a preference, however, twice as many preferred to work for a male leader. Although prejudice against women leaders is lessening, it is still firmly embedded in the cultural imagination. This gender prejudice can have a deleterious effect given that some women leaders may assimilate dominant styles of leadership that merely serves to perpetuate structural inequities in the workplace and beyond.