Are Women Better Leaders Than Men? Exploring the Leadership Gender Gap

Are women better leaders than men? The answer is a paradox: research says that women display more positive leadership characteristics than men but that most people believe that good leaders act more like men.

Exploring these contradictions paints a fascinating picture of the incongruity between people’s experiences of leadership and their stereotypes when it comes to both leadership and gender.

Key Takeaways

• While plenty of men score high on top leadership qualities, women leaders often outperform male leaders in key leadership traits such as compassion, intelligence, organization, creativity, communication, empathy, honesty, and ethics.
• Organizations with women in top management positions or on their boards generally report better long-term financial performance.
• Women are 9% more likely to rate higher on scores of leadership effectiveness.
• While female leaders must demonstrate both communal and agentic behaviors (i.e., independence and decisiveness) male leaders are only required to show agency.
• Men hold 93% of Fortune 500 CEO positions and have longer tenures than women.

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto

Are Women Better Leaders?

Yes, women are ranked as better leaders than men when viewed through the lens of experience.

It’s only possible to address whether women are better leaders than men by looking at what makes a good leader in the first place. It’s unsurprising that leadership characteristics break down into easily gendered categories. It may be more surprising to find that more of the most highly sought-after characteristics are thought by a wide variety of people to be feminine.

A fascinating 2013 study called The Athena Doctrine researched to code leadership traits in thirteen countries through the gendered lens. Their findings concluded that a majority of people around the world are dissatisfied with the leadership behaviors and codes of conduct–control, aggression, reckless risk-taking–most often displayed by men.

The research rated eleven of the eighteen desirable leadership traits as “feminine,” or more likely to be displayed by women. Here are the most desirable traits and behaviors that people tend to think of as “feminine” (in rough order of preference):

• Plans for the future
• Expressive
• Reasonable
• Loyal
• Flexible
• Patient
• Intuitive
• Collaborative
• Passionate
• Empathetic
• Selfless

Here are desirable traits and behaviors that people tend to think of as “masculine” (in rough order of preference):

• Decisive
• Resilient
• Analytical
• Independent
• Aggressive
• Proud

Numerous studies have gone a level deeper to look at actual leaders and gather people’s opinions of their effectiveness. A particularly compelling data set emerged in 2022 from 360 assessment results by the Leadership Circle of 130,000 leaders. The research found that while women and men were roughly equivalent in mastering relational and achievement-oriented leadership styles (both important to success), women ranked higher on all five elements of creative leadership abilities that positively correlate with leadership effectiveness:

• Relating to others
• Self-awareness
• Authenticity
• Systems Awareness
• Achieving

The opposite was also true. Men ranked higher on all three elements of creative leadership abilities that negatively correlate with leadership effectiveness:

• Controlling
• Protecting
• Complying

The end result of this data analysis is that when these scores were analyzed for leadership effectiveness, of the kind that produces business performance results such as those listed below, women were 9% more likely to be rated as effective leaders. Effective leadership as evaluated in this study include the following results:

• sales/revenue growth
• market share
• profitability/ROA
• quality of products and services
• new product development
• overall performance

Another study which has been reported over the last decade also relies on 360 feedback and has found that women have higher levels of engagement and generally excel on thirteen of nineteen of the leadership competencies measured. Below are the scores where women excel (+) or lag (-) men’s scores

Statistically significant:

• Take initiative (+10)
• Learning agility (+9)
• Inspires and motivates others (+7)
• Develops others (+9)
• Builds relationships (+7)
• Displays high integrity and honesty (+8)
• Communicates powerfully and prolifically (+5)
• Collaboration and teamwork (+6)
• Champions change (+4)
• Makes decisions (+7)
• Drives for results (+7)
• Values diversity (+10)
• Establishes stretch goals (+5)

Not statically significant

• Innovates (+3)
• Solves problems and analyzes issues (+3)
• Customer and external focus (+2)
• Develops strategic perspective (+1)
• Technical or professional expertise (-2)
• Takes risks (+1)

Female politicians, for example, are regarded by 34% of adults as being more adept at working out compromises than their male counterparts, highlighting the gender gap in this area. In the business sphere, women leaders have a clear advantage over men in these aspects, and other women in leadership positions can learn from their success. Interestingly, women tend to excel in these areas more than their male counterparts.

Taken together, this evidence shows that people rate the leadership style adopted by many women as highly effective in senior leadership positions. Unlike their male counterparts, who lean towards authoritative and transactional leadership styles, women leaders often embrace a transformational leadership style that engages and respects employees, customers, and stakeholder communities. This style encourages team involvement and addresses employees’ emotional and psychological needs, a stark contrast to the clear structures, rewards for performance, and task monitoring favored by men.

Furthermore, female leaders often utilize influence tactics that are more collaborative and democratic. These tactics involve listening, sharing power, and striving for consensus, as opposed to men who more frequently employ assertive influence tactics like giving direct orders and leveraging their power to persuade. Female leaders also gain an advantage from perceived honesty and ethical behavior.

Do Women in Leadership Run More Successful Organizations?

Yes, women run more successful organizations when leading alongside men.

What are the practical implications of these facts? Are there tangible benefits that organizations enjoy from having women in positions of leadership?

Studies indicate that positive long-term financial performance is associated with companies that have a meaningful percentage of women (30% or more) of women in top management roles. The ratio of female executives even correlates positively with financial performance measures in Fortune 500 firms. Over a period of three years, companies with higher diversity in management earned 38% more of their revenues, on average, from innovative products and services than those companies with lower diversity.

Studies have shown that gender diversity and inclusive cultures–welcoming of diverse styles and identities that include both women’s and men’s leadership styles–produce a wide variety of organizational and business benefits, including:

• lower levels of employee turnover
• 59.1% increase in creativity, innovation, and openness.
• 37.9% better assessment of consumer interest and demand
• improved financial performance on eleven different criteria
• 38% more of their revenues
• increase employees’ job satisfaction and commitment to the company
• less discrimination and sexual harassment in inclusive workplace cultures
• fewer instances of fraud
• Resilience during economic downturns and recession

Organizations where women held at least 30% of board seats outperformed their peers in eleven out of fifteen sectors during the pandemic. This suggests that having women in leadership roles is not just beneficial but crucial for an organization’s success.

Women are also generally thought to be more effective than men at leading during times of crisis.

A significant factor contributing to this success is the priority female leaders tend to give to building robust customer and employee relationships. Women in leadership positions are inclined to focus on relationships and have an interdependent view of their role within the company, promoting customer-centric strategies.

Take female CEOs as an example. Their habitual use of inclusive language signals a drive toward collective success. This focus on inclusivity, employee engagement, and customer relationships not only benefits company financial outcomes but also equips companies to better understand and cater to a diverse stakeholder base, strengthening market relevance and loyalty.

Are Women (Really) Better Leaders?

No, viewed through the gender lens of stereotype, most of us don’t trust women to lead better than men.

As we know, human behavior and belief are almost never simply a product of data, and data does not always provide a complete picture of reality. Gender stereotypes are some of the most prevalent in human culture, literally built into our language, laws, and unconscious beliefs.

It should not be surprising to learn then that most people believe good leaders display behaviors most often correlated with male behavior. In other words, the stereotypical leader looks and acts like a man. And while this correlation has weakened over time, it is still true that the most important leadership traits remain self-oriented “agentic”, focusing on goal orientation and task focus:

• independent
• competent
• assertive
• decisive

Unfortunately for women, when they demonstrate these characteristics, they are penalized and labeled everything from “bitchy” to “not a good culture fit.” Women are rewarded for the following communal behaviors:

• agreeable
• compassionate
• trustworthy
• moral

Female leaders, to be successful, must demonstrate other-oriented “communal” tendencies that build relational connectivity and social cohesion–at the same time, they appear agentic enough to drive the kinds of business results men achieve with such behavior. The solution for women leaders who must navigate this double standard in order to avoid the “nasty woman” backlash effect is to:

• be communal, acting in accordance with feminine stereotypes to some degree, and
• find authentic and communal ways to be agentic, which do not trigger the negative feminine stereotypes

By contrast, men may simply be agentic and be viewed as strong leaders because they fit the primary leadership stereotype.

If you don’t believe that this double standard is pervasive, it’s time to update your beliefs. Many studies, like this one on college professors, show that women and men alike tend to have higher standards for women than for men in all kinds of positions of authority. 

Despite the fact that this double standard persists through time, stereotypes are definitely changing as more women participate in the workforce and ascend into leadership positions. Perhaps the most telling data to show how stereotypes have changed comes from a long-standing Gallup poll question asking, “If you were taking a new job and had your choice of a boss, would you prefer to work for a man or woman?” (Brenan, 2017). Since this question first appeared in 1953 the public’s attitude towards female leaders has changed dramatically, the gender preference for men dropping to legible levels, and a majority of people holding no gender preference at all.

Despite data like this, opinion polls show that people expect women be more communal more often since the mid-20th century, while expectations on men–that they be more agentic–have not changed. This speaks to the power of stereotype often leading to the fact that we hold contradictory ideas in our minds at the same time.

Is It Enough for Women to Be Good Leaders?

No, many things must change to impact gender inequality.

While it’s tempting to look at data on stereotypes above to explain the continued underrepresentation of women in organizational leadership, the true picture is more complicated. Here are a few of the kinds of barriers women experience on their path to leadership that either block their path or simply tire them out and encourage them to look elsewhere:

• women don’t often get the kind of credit they deserve, performing better and still rated as lower potential for promotion
• women are less interested in running for political office due to facing more obstacles than men
• when women encounter barriers earlier in their careers they fall out of the pipeline for top levels of leadership, making the pool smaller at the top
• Women often encounter bias in hiring processes

The Bottom Line

Despite frequent male dominance in leadership roles, reinforced by a male-oriented stereotype of good leadership, women match and often surpass their male counterparts in the characteristics, skills and traits they need to lead effectively. But for organizations to perform well, we need both women and men operating in positions of power, bringing their unique strengths, talents and experiences.

Support for this comes from a variety of different kinds of studies, where female leaders consistently demonstrate their prowess in crucial leadership abilities.

The solutions are multifaceted, including leaders learning to manage their own biases and beliefs about gender stereotypes and leadership stereotypes. But we must go beyond individual actions and take organizational actions that mitigate the natural tendencies individuals have to see leadership through a gendered lens. This is how to bridge the gender gap in leadership.

So, what do you think? Are women better leaders than men?