uplifting feminized strengths & gender equity in leadership

In our previous post, we discussed biased notions of leadership potential based on the gender binary, including how feminized leadership qualities—such as empathy, collaboration, and adaptability—are often undervalued due to gender norms. Today, we're diving deeper with strategies to break these biases and ensure more equitable opportunities and recognition for the diverse leaders & leadership styles in your organization.

1. Redefining Leadership Criteria: Organizations must rethink what constitutes "effective leadership" to ensure evaluations don't unintentionally favor traditionally masculine traits like assertiveness or dominance. Clear, structured, and gender-neutral evaluation metrics can help counteract bias. Explicitly valuing behaviors like teamwork, empathy, mentorship, active listening, and collaboration as key leadership strengths can also lead to more equitable recognition for diverse leadership styles.

2. Structured & Transparent Hiring Processes: The American Association of University Women (AAUW) recommends implementing structured, transparent hiring practices to promote fairness. For instance, structured multi-stage interviews or blind résumé reviews (removing gender identifiers) help ensure candidates are assessed based on their actual skills and competencies rather than stereotypes or initial biased impressions.

3. Leadership Development: Training on unconscious bias for leadership teams can also help evaluators recognize and correct their predispositions (such as expecting women to be nurturing or men to be decisive). Research by Catalyst also underscores that empathy is a leadership skill that can be actively developed. Catalyst's study confirmed that empathetic leaders create more engaged, motivated teams, significantly reducing turnover and improving overall organizational performance. Workshops on perspective-taking, active listening, and effective communication can all be ways to bolster empathy.

4. Cultures of Allyship: Peer-support techniques can mitigate bias in real time. One famous example is the “amplification” strategy used by women staffers in President Obama’s White House: women deliberately echoed and credited each other’s ideas in meetings to ensure their contributions were heard and valued. [buffalo.edu]. Additionally, policies that promote work-life balance for everyone—such as inclusive parental leave, flexible schedules, and dress codes that are accommodating for gender-expansive staff—send a clear message over time that diverse employees have space to thrive and grow within your workplace culture.

What practices have you seen making an impact on leadership equity? 

Sources:

Badura, K. L., Grijalva, E., Newman, D. A., Yan, T. T., & Jeon, G. (2018). Gender and leadership emergence: A meta-analysis and explanatory model. Personnel Psychology, 71(3), 335–367. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12266

Coronado-Maldonado, I., & Benítez-Márquez, M. D. (2023). Emotional intelligence, leadership, and work teams: A hybrid literature review. Heliyon, 9(10), Article e20356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20356

Maalouf, G. (2019). Effects of collaborative leadership on organizational performance. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development, 6(1), 138–144. https://doi.org/10.22271/ijmrd.2019.v6.i1.25

Tremmel, M., & Wahl, I. (2023). Gender stereotypes in leadership: Analyzing the content and evaluation of stereotypes about typical, male, and female leaders. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, Article 1034258. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1034258

The Diversity Movement. (n.d.). Lead with empathy: How understanding employees drives success. Retrieved from https://thediversitymovement.com/lead-with-empathy-how-understanding-employees-drives-success/

Catalyst. (2021). Empathic leaders drive employee engagement. Retrieved from https://www.catalyst.org/about/newsroom/2021/empathic-leaders-drive-employee-engagement

Bonomi, A. (2019). The double bind facing women in leadership. Michigan State University Today. Retrieved from https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2019/amy-bonomi-the-double-bind-facing-women

University at Buffalo. (2018). Men still more likely than women to be perceived as leaders, study finds. Retrieved from https://www.buffalo.edu/news/news-releases.host.html/content/shared/mgt/news/men-still-more-likely-than-women-perceived-leaders-study-finds.detail.html

MIT Career Development Office. (2022). Empathy is the most important leadership skill according to research. Retrieved from https://cdo.mit.edu/blog/2022/05/05/empathy-is-the-most-important-leadership-skill-according-to-research/

American Association of University Women. (n.d.). Barriers and bias: The status of women in leadership. Retrieved from https://www.aauw.org/resources/research/barrier-bias/

Stanford Graduate School of Business. (n.d.). The language of gender bias in performance reviews. Retrieved from https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/language-gender-bias-performance-reviews

Center for Creative Leadership. (n.d.). To create a better culture, start with compassionate leadership. Retrieved from https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/create-better-culture-start-with-compassionate-leadership/