Understanding Women’s Leadership Motivation : The role of participative decision making and leader role framing

Persistent gender inequalities in leadership representation, and thereby in decision-making influence, remain a significant obstacle to workplace equality. Theoretical perspectives and empirical findings suggest that gender stereotypes embedded in organizational structures shape women’s and men’s experiences of organizational influence, their leadership aspirations, and their willingness to apply for leadership positions. Building on theories that emphasize the value of more feminine conceptions of leadership as a counterbalance to masculine defaults, this thesis investigates how organizational practices—such as participative decision making (PDM) and the feminine framing of leadership roles—relate to women’s leadership motivation. Study I examined women’s and men’s experiences of being included in decision-making at both the workplace and organizational levels, using nationally representative data from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH; N = 10,500). The study found that women reported lower levels of inclusion in organizational decision-making than men, whereas no gender differences emerged in workplace decision-making. Furthermore, the findings indicated that women felt less included than men across both male-typed and non-male-typed professions, regardless of whether they occupied leadership positions or not. As such, even women in leadership roles reported having less influence over organizational decisions, indicating that gender disparities in perceived inclusion in decision-making persist across occupational hierarchies. Study II investigated the relationship between PDM and leadership aspirations and whether this relationship differs between women and men, among leaders and among non-leaders. Using survey data from Swedish employees (N = 989), the study found that PDM was positively associated with leadership aspirations among both leaders and non-leaders, and for both women and men, although the strength of this association differed across groups. For non-leaders, the association was stronger for women, suggesting that inclusion in decision-making may be particularly motivating for women’s leadership aspirations if they have not yet entered leadership positions. Among leaders, however, the association was stronger for men, pointing to potential gendered differences in how leadership and influence are experienced at higher organizational levels. Study III tested the validity of the widely circulated claim that women are less likely than men to apply for a leadership position when they do not meet all job requirements, and examined whether this pattern is moderated by masculine versus feminine framing of the role as reflected in the requirements. Using two U.S. samples, Study IIIa (N = 575) found that women reported lower application intentions than men when they perceived themselves as fulfilling fewer of the stated requirements, whereas Study IIIb (N = 792) showed that this gender gap emerged only when the requirements reflected stereotypically masculine characteristics. When the leader role framing emphasized stereotypically feminine characteristics, the gender gap in application intentions at lower levels of requirement fulfillment did not emerge. Taken together, the three studies underscore that gendered organizational structures—reflected in differential inclusion in decision-making processes—and the persistence of masculine leadership norms continue to shape women’s and men’s pathways to leadership. The findings illustrate how organizations can promote gender equality through participative decision-making and by integrating more feminine aspects into descriptions of leadership.