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Gender stereotypes have been generally stable over the past five decades (Broverman et al., 1972; Haines et al., 2016). That is, there has been relatively little change in beliefs about the traits of the typical male (masculine) vis-à-vis the typical female (feminine). According to the most recent results (Eagly et al., 2020), men are seen as just as masculine or agentic as ever, and women are seen as more feminine or communal than ever. This stability in gender stereotypes begs the question, “If gender stereotypes have not changed over time, what about the linkage between gender and leader stereotypes?”

To address this question, I re-analyzed combined data from my four previous studies of descriptions of a good manager described earlier (Powell & Butterfield, 1979, 1989, 2015a; Powell et al., 2002) for the purposes of this book to examine trends over four decades. In the new analysis, I followed Powell and Butterfield's (1979) four-quadrant classification scheme for individuals’ good-manager descriptions based on their masculinity and femininity good-manager scores on the Short BSRI (Bem, 1981): androgynous (high in masculinity and femininity), masculine (high in masculinity and low in femininity), feminine (low in masculinity and high in femininity), or undifferentiated (low in masculinity and femininity). Data from different samples at each of four points in time, from women and men, and from undergraduate business students and part-time MBA students, were weighted equally to prevent larger subsamples from exercising greater influence over the results than smaller subsamples.

The results of this analysis indicated that the proportion of survey respondents who described a good manager as masculine decreased over time from 61% to 50%, a significant decline. The androgynous proportion also significantly decreased from 27% to 19%, the feminine proportion stayed steady at 2–5%, and the undifferentiated proportion significantly increased from 10% to 27%. Thus, although the masculine proportion decreased over time, it remained the largest proportion by far, whereas the feminine proportion remained the smallest by far. Consistent with this trend, the difference between masculinity and femininity good-manager scores favoring masculinity significantly decreased over time.

Koenig and colleagues (2011) also examined differences over time between masculinity and femininity leader scores in studies that followed the think manager – think masculine paradigm inspired by Powell & Butterfield (1979) or the think manager – think male paradigm inspired by Schein (1973, 1975). In studies following each of these paradigms, they found that differences between masculinity and femininity leader scores favoring masculinity significantly decreased over time.

In summary, research results suggest that, although gender stereotypes have tended to be stable, leader stereotypes have become decreasingly masculine over time, although they still emphasize masculine over feminine traits. Next, I consider possible explanations for this trend as well as for the continued overall emphasis on masculinity in leader stereotypes.