Social Perceptions, Gender Roles, and Female Leadership

Abstract

Recent research continues to recognize the need for scholarly attention to top-level management as it relates to gender diversity in the workplace. As suggested, a high degree of diversity in top management could positively influence business growth and enable companies to address an aging workforce, attracting and/or retaining the most qualified talents for leadership positions. However, vertical gender segregation in organizations' top management levels remains common practice. Thus, to inform best practices for developing and sustaining a diverse leadership talent pool, this disparity needs to be addressed by identifying the underlying theories of this issue, which can facilitate a timely understanding of the structural oppression faced by women in their ascensions to senior management positions. This chapter presents a synthesis of American literature with the aim of identifying theoretical relationships related to social perceptions of gender roles regarding women's relatively delayed advancement to corporate senior management positions.