Date of Award

2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Leadership Studies

Abstract

Because gender inequalities still exist, research is needed to better understand the differences in leadership perceptions and preference between genders. This research examines the role of gender, sex role orientation, and gender-linked tasks in shaping leadership efficacy, perceived preference, and leadership persistence. It was predicted that men and women will have higher levels of leadership efficacy, perceive themselves as better leaders, have a stronger desire to attain leadership roles in the future and be more likely to persist in the leadership role for the gender congruent task than the gender incongruent task. I also predicted that sex role orientation will have a greater impact on the dependent variables than participant gender. The results indicated that gender role orientation was a stronger predictor of the dependent variables than gender; however, the task condition did not play as major role as expected. In addition, women in the make-up condition exhibited lower levels of leadership efficacy than women in the tool set condition. Although the females participants did suffer from stereotype threat, these results reflect the necessity for a stronger manipulation in future research.

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