Abstract

GARCIA-RETAMERO, Rocío  and  LOPEZ-ZAFRA, Esther. Congruence of gender role and leadership: the role of causal attributions on success and failure. Rev. Latinoam. Psicol. [online]. 2006, vol.38, n.2, pp. 245-257. ISSN 0120-0534.

We tested whether prejudice against a female leader is due to the perception of incongruence between the leadership role and her gender role and studied the influence of this perception on people’s causal attributions about her successes and failures. Specifically, 523 participants evaluated a male or a female candidate for a leadership position in an industry that was congruent or incongruent with the candidate’s gender role or unspecified. Participants showed prejudice against the female candidate, especially when she worked in an industry incongruent with her gender role, and frequently made external causal attributions about her successes (e.g., she is lucky). In contrast, participants generally made internal causal attributions about the male candidate’s successes (e.g., he is skilled). The interpretation of these results invokes the role congruity theory (Eagly & Karau, 2002).

Keywords : Causal attribution; Role congruity; Leadership; Women; Prejudice.

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