Leadership Behavior of Male and Female Managers, 1984–2002

Using data collected from 1984 to 2002 from 2,371 male and 1,768 female middle and senior managers in the United States, the authors of this article demonstrate not only that traditional gender role stereotypes do not hold up, but also that counterstereotypical patterns exist. Using the Connective Leadership Model, based on nine sets of achieving styles, the authors found that the traditional gender gap in competitiveness has decreased sharply, but for an unanticipated reason: Men's competitive scores have dropped, whereas women's have remained rather stable. Men's collaborative and contributory behaviors also have decreased significantly, whereas women's have increased.