Role congruity
and the lack of fit theories (Heilman, 1983; Eagly and Karau,
2002) explain this dilemma whereby the requirements of the
leader role and the female gender role are often inconsistent.
Given the emphasis on the true self in authentic leadership, how
can women enact their true self when they are faced with this
double-bind? Maslow (1971) discussed the authentic or true self
as one who is not hindered by others’ expectations of them; and
Kernis (2003) proposed that the true self is not developed through
conforming to social norms or pressures. However, women need
to stay within a “narrow band of acceptable behavior – to
combine seemingly contradictory behaviors” (Morrison et al.,
1992, p. 54). To illustrate this point, a recent study examined
the media representations of one male CEO and one female
CEO of two major Australian banks during the global financial
crisis in the latter part of the past decade