TY - JOUR
T1 - Empowering token women leaders the importance of organizationally legitimated credibility
AU - Yoder, Janice D.
AU - Schleicher, Thomas L.
AU - McDonald, Theodore W.
PY - 1998/6
Y1 - 1998/6
N2 - We hypothesized that, in a masculine task, only token women leaders who were empowered through position (by being appointed leader) and expertise (trained with task-relevant information) and legitimated by a male experimenter as credible would be more effective in influencing the performance of their all-male groups than appointed-only and appointed-trained leaders. Thirty women undergraduates each led a small group of male students on a moon survival task. The hypothesis was supported. Videotapes of group interactions revealed that appointed-trained leaders interrupted group members and used tentative tag questions in failed attempts to share their task-relevant knowledge. In addition, group members reported the most dissatisfaction with appointed-trained leaders who, without legitimacy, violated diffused gender roles by presuming to be expert on a masculine task. The importance of the organizational empowerment of token women is underscored.
AB - We hypothesized that, in a masculine task, only token women leaders who were empowered through position (by being appointed leader) and expertise (trained with task-relevant information) and legitimated by a male experimenter as credible would be more effective in influencing the performance of their all-male groups than appointed-only and appointed-trained leaders. Thirty women undergraduates each led a small group of male students on a moon survival task. The hypothesis was supported. Videotapes of group interactions revealed that appointed-trained leaders interrupted group members and used tentative tag questions in failed attempts to share their task-relevant knowledge. In addition, group members reported the most dissatisfaction with appointed-trained leaders who, without legitimacy, violated diffused gender roles by presuming to be expert on a masculine task. The importance of the organizational empowerment of token women is underscored.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0032219411&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1471-6402.1998.tb00151.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1471-6402.1998.tb00151.x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0032219411
SN - 0361-6843
VL - 22
SP - 209
EP - 222
JO - Psychology of Women Quarterly
JF - Psychology of Women Quarterly
IS - 2
ER -