Effects of sexism orientations and target attractiveness on perceived leadership effectiveness of woman managers portraying different leadership styles

Leadership involves many expectations such as attaining new skills and implementing one's style to the necessities of the given role and leadership effectiveness is influenced by the attitudes and stereotypes of subordinates. The first goal of my thesis is to examine the effects of employees' sexism orientations on perceived leadership effectiveness for women managers with the moderating role of employee gender. In line with the propositions of the ambivalent sexism theory (Glick & Fiske, 1996, 1997), in Study 1 it is suggested that both hostile and benevolent sexism orientations would be negatively related to perceived leadership effectiveness for women managers. The relationship between sexism ratings and perceived leadership effectiveness for women managers were analyzed for different leadership styles which were paternalistic, transformational, task-oriented, relationship-oriented leadership (PL, TL, T-O, R-O). In addition, the moderating role of employee gender in the associations between individuals' sexism orientations and perceived leadership effectiveness for women managers is examined. Data were collected from 407 participants. The results revealed that the links of evaluators' hostile sexism and benevolent sexism to perceived leadership effectiveness of women managers who demonstrated PL, TL, and R-O leadership styles were significant. In Study 2, I aimed to shed the light on the relationship between the 'femme-fatale' effect and the perceived leadership effectiveness of women managers. Data were collected from 425 participants. Participants were randomly assigned to target attractiveness and target gender conditions. The results revealed that there was a positive association between benevolent and hostile sexism with leadership effectiveness and preference ratings for PL style. In addition, both benevolent and hostile sexism was positively associated with leadership effectiveness ratings and preference ratings for R-O style for female managers. Finally, the link between hostile sexism and effectiveness for managers with T-O leadership style was significant. The findings were discussed regarding theoretical and practical implications along with directions for future studies on sexism and perceived leadership effectiveness for women managers.