Fitting In: Antecedents and Outcomes of Increasing Women’s Representation in Leadership

Despite the fact that women comprise nearly half of the workforce worldwide, they occupy only 21% of all C-suite positions (Catalyst, 2020). A common reason cited for women’s underrepresentation in leadership roles is the perceived lack-of-fit between feminine attributes and the attributes required for leadership roles (c.f., Zheng, Kark, & Meister, 2018). Yet, despite this reasoning, research suggests that perceptions of ideal leaders have become less agentic and more communal (Powell, Butterfield, & Jiang, 2021). Through a combination of theoretical and empirical studies, the papers in this symposium explore some of the myths and realities regarding the interplay among agentic and communal roles of leaders, with an eye toward facilitating women’s career progress.