Gender stereotypes may not influence the choice of female leaders: Experimental evidence from a crisis framed as social or economic during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This research examined whether female (vs. male) leaders are preferred during a pandemic when stereotypically feminine leadership is deemed useful. We hypothesized that citizens prefer female (vs. male) politicians when the crisis is framed as a social (vs. economic) crisis because they believe it requires feminine (vs. masculine) leadership. In a pilot study and three online experiments with US residents (Ntotal = 1675), we manipulated crisis type or a leadership candidate's gender for a task force. While participants indicated that a crisis framed as social (vs. economic) required more feminine leadership, they did not appoint a woman more or rated her as more suitable for the social crisis (vs. economic crisis or a no-crisis situation). Furthermore, the female (vs. male) candidate was not perceived to possess more feminine leadership traits. Overall, participants did not rely on gender stereotypes when explicitly evaluating politicians. We discuss potential explanations for these unexpected results.