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This book represents an extended essay on the state of knowledge regarding the linkage between gender and leadership. It is intended to provide a personal perspective on as well as an overview of issues regarding gender and leadership. It is also intended to provide a useful resource to both scholars who are subject specialists, and scholars and students who have an interest in this topic. It draws upon research on gender and leadership conducted worldwide in several disciplines, including management and organizational behavior, human resource management, psychology, sociology, economics, communications, and gender studies.

The linkage between gender and leadership, which historically has favored men and disadvantaged women, is troubling and problematic from an equal opportunity and social justice perspective. It has been a major topic of interest in the broader literature on gender issues in the workplace that has significantly grown since the 1970s (e.g., Acker, 1990; Alvesson & Due Billing, 2009; Bartol, 1978; Broadbridge & Hearn, 2008; Broadbridge & Simpson, 2011; Calás & Smircich, 1996; Davidson & Cooper, 1992; Elliott & Stead, 2008; Kanter, 1977; Kumra et al., 2014; Marshall, 1984; Mavin et al., 2014; Ryan & Haslam, 2005; Vinnicombe et al., 2013), including edited volumes of classic articles (e.g., Gatrell et al., 2010).

Nonetheless, the book arrives at a time when some have speculated that “gender fatigue” (Joshi et al., 2015, p. 1466), or weariness with researching gender issues in the workplace, has set in among scholars. Such fatigue, if it exists, may be a response to the marginalization or de-legitimation of scholarship on gender-related issues by other scholars who find them unworthy of interest (Jané et al., 2018). Gender fatigue may also arise from what has been called a “postfeminist sensibility” at work (Gill et al., 2017, p. 226). According to this sensibility, gender inequalities existed in the past (not in the present); gender inequalities occur elsewhere (not in my place of work); being a woman is an advantage (not a disadvantage); and, if any gender inequalities exist, that's just the way the workplace is and it needs to be accepted (Gill et al., 2017). In short, a postfeminist sensibility suggests that “the problem of gender has been ‘solved’” as much as it ever needed to be solved (Broadbridge & Simpson, 2011, p. 475).

However, rest assured that you will find no gender fatigue in this corner. Indeed, I feel that we as scholars are, or should be, just getting warmed up in examining the linkage between gender and leadership because (1) even though it may have evolved, this linkage persists; and (2) it has serious consequences for individuals, organizations, and the conduct of work.

Further, heightened and sustained public interest in the linkage between gender and leadership begs our attention as scholars. For example, in recent years, extensive media attention has been devoted to the periodic rise and fall of the small number of female CEOs of large corporations (e.g., Zarya, 2018), the appropriate role of masculinity in leadership given the “hyper-masculine” leadership style of Donald Trump as US president (Powell et al., 2018) and the release of guidelines for counselors regarding the mental health hazards of expecting males to be highly masculine (American Psychological Association, 2018), and rampant sexual harassment by male top executives directed towards women seeking employment or advancement (e.g., Kantor & Twohey, 2017) and the emergence of a #MeToo Movement in response (e.g., Peters & Besley, 2019); new examples are regularly arising. Popular interest in this topic remains strong and shows no signs of going away. As the book describes in detail, important issues regarding the linkage between gender and leadership that draw considerable public attention continue to warrant our attention as scholars.

In this chapter, I first offer my perspective on some of the issues that arise when examining gender as a construct and group differences on the basis of gender. Next, I describe how I became involved in examining the topic of gender and leadership and how my answer to the question posed in the chapter's title has evolved over four decades of researching and writing about it. Finally, I introduce specific research questions regarding the linkage between gender and leadership to be addressed in the next four chapters, with a conclusions chapter to follow.