Despite gender equity in many professions, men continue to dominate in leadership. Although just as effective as male leaders, women leaders (WLs) may experience unique challenges that undermine their health. Why? Prejudice against women in leadership persists. Women develop within social institutions ill-equipped to foster their leadership skills. The need for a more complete understanding of how women """"""""do"""""""" leadership motivated the proposed research. The focus is on the implicit, non-conscious communication of status. Research has shown that during a communication task, men in lower status roles (followers) converge non-conscious aspects of their speech toward men in higher status roles (leaders), whose speech does not change. Because behavioral mimicry elicits liking, such an asymmetrical pattern is consistent with a defensive response to being in a subservient role. However, mimicry is also predicted by perspective taking ability. Unexpectedly, in the same communication task, WLs converge their speech toward followers (Pardo, 2006). Thus this task can potentially provide a window into gender differences in the implicit communication of status. It is unclear whether WLs'convergence is a social threat response (akin to men in the subservient role) or evidence of heightened social skills. To address this puzzle, the proposed research uses an established communication paradigm, during which pre-, post-, and during-interaction speech is recorded. Participants (Ps) complete a collaborative task in either the Leader or Follower role. Listeners judge the speech samples to establish how much each P's speech converges toward the partner. Three studies will address the following questions with students at a university (50 percent female) that emphasizes educating future leaders: (a) Are prior findings of gender differences in implicit speech convergence robust? (b) What does convergence imply for partner's assessment of one's likeability and competence and for partner's affiliative behavior? Does convergence by WLs increase their likeability but reduce estimates of their competence? (c) Is convergence exaggerated or muted among WLs when their identity as female leaders is situationally threatened or when they are dispositionally concerned about gender-based rejection? (d) Is convergence predicted by a physiological pattern of threat? Do gender and status moderate the pattern? (e) What are the physiological and psychological consequences of one's convergence? Does this depend on gender and status?
By examining gender differences in implicit communication of status, the research may help clarify why leadership may be more costly to women's health than to men's.
