Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Time: 14:00 - 15:00 Uhr
Location: Hörsaal XXI, Hauptgebäude
Format: Lecture & discussion, english

Registration required - via mail to:  joris.lammers@uni-koeln.de

In many organizations and companies, women are still underrepresented in higher levels of management or CEO positions. An often-heard claim in popular media is that because women have better people-skills, are better communicators, and are more empathic than men, women also make better leaders than men. Psychological science shows that such claims are overblown and exaggerated: Women and men do not differ so much as many people think. 
Next, I show that such claims can paradoxically contribute to maintaining gender inequality. Claims that women are super leaders lead people to infer that the problem of female underrepresentation in leadership will solve itself. After all, if women are such great leaders (compared to poor men), then there is no need for affirmative action. Finally, I show that highlighting the gender of female leaders focuses disproportionate attention on any negative attributes. This can lead to a devaluation of leaders who happen to be women. Although diversity in gender is a laudable goal, exaggerated claims of female leadership run the risk of being counter-productive and undermining social justice.

Many people think that women have better people-skills than men and are therefore better leaders. I show that women and men do not differ so much. Instead, I show that such claims can paradoxically contribute to gender inequality and hurt female leaders.