Have you ever noticed that women are typically the ones spearheading gender equality movements? Think of the suffragettes, the #MeToo, and #TimesUp movements, the March for Women.
All fronted by women – but at what cost? Research increasingly shows that relying solely on female leaders is not enough to achieve equality. Indeed, male and female pro-equality leaders experience vastly different evaluations regarding their motivations and effectiveness when discussing gender equality.
Research on these issues driven by UON Psychology researchers, Dr Stephanie Hardacre and Dr Emina Subasic, has recently been discussed in a new book by former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and economist Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
There’s been a recent upsurge in male-led initiatives, such as the HeForShe movement, and the Male Champions of Change initiative. Both of these call on men to use their privilege and power to place gender equality on the agenda.
These types of initiatives aren’t just companies taking a stab at something new – they’re backed by social psychological research. For example, two studies by Hardacre and Subasic looking at how leader gender affected individuals’ responses to calls for equality found that men and women were more likely to follow a male leader (than a female leader) into action. It will be interesting to see how long the male ally advantage persists: in the longer term, effective feminist leadership (such as that embodied by recently re-elected New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern) will presumably eliminate the ironic inequality. But this is for future research to establish!
This research has been featured in the new book “Women and Leadership”, by Julia Gillard and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, which sought to put the academic work about women in leadership to the test in the real world.
If you want to know more about this line of work, email Stephanie.Hardacre@newcastle.edu.au
