The impact of gender and ethnic stereotypes on women’s leadership evaluations

Purpose Through an intersectional lens, this study explores the stereotypes women hold of eight demographic identities in leadership roles, intersecting gender and ethnic identities. Design/methodology/approach The Stereotype Content Model (SCM) (Fiske et al., 2002) was used as a standardized framework to understand the impact of demographic stereotypes on leadership expectations. A total of 125 employed female participants completed three questionnaires to assess stereotype content as well as their emotional and behavioural reactions to the stereotypes. Cluster analyses were used to determine the clusters of stereotypes along the warmth and competence dimensions, and differences between the clusters were analysed. Findings This study found that all leaders, regardless of demographic identity, were evaluated with high warmth and high competence. Despite overall positive ratings, however, biases persisted. Social implications Findings reaffirmed the pervasive impact of societal biases and highlighted the barriers that women and ethnic minority individuals must continue to navigate in the workplace. Originality/value Most research on stereotypes and their consequences has overlooked the complex interplay of multiple identity dimensions. This study is among the few that explicitly examine evaluations of leadership expectations through an intersectional lens, applying the SCM in leadership studies. It also focuses on women’s perspectives, amplifying a historically underrepresented voice in workplace research. Findings suggest that organizational roles can function as salient identity dimensions in their own right, indicating that understanding stereotypes of intersecting identities in the workplace should extend beyond demographic categories to include the influence of role-based identities.