Reducing gender bias in the evaluation and selection of future leaders
The research shows that promoting a universal mindset—believing most people have leadership potential—can reduce gender bias in evaluating and selecting leaders.
The challenge:
Despite the increased representation of women in leadership positions in recent decades, gender stereotypes hold women in leadership contexts back. This bias is at odds with the core organisational values of equity, fairness and meritocracy. Past research has focused on what women can do to contend with bias (e.g. by speaking up to confront bias directly). We wanted to take a different approach – how could we intervene to reduce decision-makers’ gender bias in leader evaluation and selection?
The research shows that promoting a universal mindset—believing most people have leadership potential—can reduce gender bias in evaluating and selecting leaders.
The challenge:
Despite the increased representation of women in leadership positions in recent decades, gender stereotypes hold women in leadership contexts back. This bias is at odds with the core organisational values of equity, fairness and meritocracy. Past research has focused on what women can do to contend with bias (e.g. by speaking up to confront bias directly). We wanted to take a different approach – how could we intervene to reduce decision-makers’ gender bias in leader evaluation and selection?
The intervention:
The paper introduces the concept of mindsets about the universality of leadership potential. A universal mindset captures the belief that most individuals have high leadership potential, while a non-universal mindset captures the belief that only some individuals have high leadership potential.
We tested our hypotheses in five studies with diverse samples and methods. Consistent with our predictions, we found that the universal mindset was associated with less bias against women in evaluations of competence, agency and leadership capability – and as a result in leader selection. The universal mindset was particularly associated with less gender bias when people held stronger gender stereotypes about leadership.
The impact:
The findings suggest that the belief that most people have leadership potential can challenge the persistent gender bias in the evaluation and selection of potential leaders. This is important for leaders and organizations because it suggests that communicating a universal leadership potential mindset could help to combat persistent and pernicious gender biases.
