Explain how stereotype assimilation and stereotype reactance relate to women's leadership performance.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Stereotypes convey to stigmatized individuals a set of beliefs that aim to devalue their group’s social identity and determine how individuals should behave. A multitude of gender stereotypes communicate to women that they lack leadership aptitude, which unsurprisingly, affects women’s leadership aspirations and performance. For example, reminding women that the communal traits typically associated with women are incompatible with the agentic characteristics necessary for holding leadership positions can negatively influence women’s leadership performance. When faced with gender stereotypes of leadership, women often react in one of two ways, assimilation or reactance. Women vulnerable to a particular stereotype may react by assimilating to the stereotype. Women’s expectations about their ability to engage in a leadership task becomes linked with gender stereotypes, and subsequently their performance suffers. When stereotypes are subtly activated, women become either less inclined to take on a leadership role and underperform on a leadership task. Alternatively, when women are explicitly presented with gender stereotypes, they respond by engaging in stereotype-countering behaviors, a concept termed “stereotype reactance.” Blatant stereotype activation results in a greater desire to take on leadership positions and disconfirm the stereotype. Gender leadership stereotypes directly affect women’s leadership aspirations and performance.