Such contextual moderators were discussed in Eagly and Karau’s RCT (2002), which suggested that, in general, prejudice
toward female leaders follows from the perceived incongruity between the characteristics of women and the requirements of leader roles. Eagly and Karau (2002) also proposed that prejudice toward female leaders can vary depending on features of the leadership context as well as characteristics of leaders’ evaluators. An early meta-analysis on gender differences in leadership effectiveness conducted by Eagly, Karau, and Makhijani (1995) reflected this RCT that two of its authors later published (Eagly & Karau, 2002). The current meta-analysis also uses RCT as a theoretical framework, yet we believe that our study can extend this theory in two ways. First, due to the recent cultural shifts supporting a possible female advantage in leadership, we argue that RCT can be applied beyond female leaders, to also explain perceptions of incongruence affecting male leaders.