Professor Deborah Gruenfeld, Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, has reached some interesting conclusions about gender differences between male and female executives. “There are very few differences in what men and women actually do and how they behave. But there are major differences in perception. Men and women doing the same things are perceived and evaluated differently”.
Professor Gruenfeld said that “people possess entrenched cultural ideas that associate men with leadership qualities like decisiveness, authoritativeness, and strength and women with nurturing qualities like warmth, friendliness, and kindness. Consequently, when women behave in dominant ways, they are seen as unlikeable because they violate norms of female niceness. Alternatively, women displaying feminine traits are judged as less competent and capable. Women, then, face a kind of trade off: competency vs. likeability. Men do not face this kind of trade off”.
So what are women to do? Professor Gruenfeld suggested that women may be able to navigate this trade-off through non-verbal behaviour. She noted that “research consistently shows differences in the non-verbal behaviors between those at the top and bottom of social hierarchies. Those with higher status take up more space through expansive postures like sitting with legs and arms spread apart, smile less and stare directly into another person’s eyes. Those with lower status take up less space through constrictive postures like crossing one’s legs, smile more, and glance away”.
“Women give away power all the time,” she said, “by smiling or looking away when they are saying something authoritative.” However, research shows that people unconsciously defer to those who use dominant physical postures. Professor Gruenfeld suggested, therefore, that using dominant postures may be a subtle way for women to overcome the trade off they face by enabling them to both assert power and remain likeable.
You can read more about Professor Gruenfeld’s research and suggestions for dealing with this issue here.
