2026/01/01 by Vedika Lal, Janneke K. Oostrom, Kathleen Ann Stephenson +1 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Psychology · Business, Management and Accounting · #Gender Diversity and Inequality #Coaching Methods and Impact #Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
paper · doi:10.1177/02134748251405198
openalex publication_date 2026/01/01 · openalex created_date 2026/01/09 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/12
Our research examines which factors enable women to relate to and aspire for stereotype-inconsistent roles, like leadership. Across two studies, we tested the effects of supervisor gender and supervisor characteristics on women's social comparisons and their leadership aspiration. Our first survey study ( N = 303) found that women had higher social comparisons with communal supervisors irrespective of supervisor gender. Our second experiment ( N = 465) found that women had higher social comparisons with female supervisors and with communal supervisors. Overall, we found that social comparisons serve as a mediator that enhances women's leadership aspiration. By focusing on social comparisons as a psychological mechanism, we address the value of stereotype-inconsistent supervisors as presenting women with the opportunity to relate to such exemplars and envision occupying roles that dismantle existing gender-leader stereotypes through increased leadership aspiration.