Helgesen (1990) and Rosener (1995) proposed that female leaders are more inclined to fill this leadership need than men, by drawing upon characteristics they are encouraged to uphold as part of their femininity including an emphasis on cooperation rather than competition and equality rather than a supervisor–subordinate hierarchy. More recently, Koenig, Eagly, Mitchell, and Ristikari (2011) conducted a meta-analysis examining the extent to which stereotypes of leadership are culturally masculine and determined that “leadership now, more than in the past, appears to incorporate
more feminine relational qualities, such as sensitivity, warmth, and understanding” (p. 634). To the extent that organizations shift away from a traditional masculine view of leadership and toward a more feminine and transformational outlook, women should experience reduced prejudice, while men may be seen as more incongruent with leadership roles. We propose, based on RCT, that key aspects of the leadership context will affect the extent to which leadership roles are seen as congruent or incongruent with both male and female gender roles, which may help to explain whether
men or women are seen as more effective leaders in different situations. To address these contextual moderators of gender differences in leadership effectiveness, we undertook a quantitative synthesis of studies that compared men and women on measures of leadership effectiveness.