The American Council on Education's (2017) most recent "American College President Study" found that only 30% of colleges and universities in the United States are led by female presidents. While some previous scholarship has addressed female college and university leaders in various ways, this study focused on communication factors that…

The body of work regarding gender bias in academia shows that female instructors are often rated lower by students than their male counterparts. Mechanisms are complex and intersectional and often associated with role congruity theory. Little research has examined parallel patterns in graduate teaching assistant (TA) evaluations. In research…

This study investigated the typology of female and male superintendents in Ohio to determine if a difference exists in the typology of female superintendents when compared to their male counterparts. Theories of gender differences and leadership styles, role congruity theory, and transformational leadership provided the framework for this study.…

Experts bring necessary comprehensive and authoritative knowledge to address issues as they arise throughout a project. This expertise is critical for construction and engineering organizations because the characteristics of each project are dynamic and unique. Practitioners often perceive expertise as objective across demographics; however, this…

The purpose of this study was to gather data about male leadership bias and how it affected women's treatment, evaluation, and promotion in a predominantly male leadership environment. This was explored through the lens of role congruity theory (Eagly & Karau, 2002) which underscored the impact of gender stereotypes on women leaders, mainly…

The convergent mixed methods study highlighted the career demographics, barriers, and strategies for public high school athletic directors affiliated with the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association. The purpose of the study was threefold: 1) Understand the career profile of athletic directors; 2) Explore the barriers women encounter in…

Little is known about methods to address gender-based bias against male elementary educators. Framed by social role and role congruity theories, this study explored the effects of gendered traits and teacher gender on perceptions of elementary educators. Participants (N = 246) were randomly assigned to view websites that varied gendered traits…

While women may occupy the majority of administrative roles on college campuses, the glass ceiling persists as an obstacle for female leaders aspiring to the presidency (Warner et al., 2018). The American Council on Education (ACE, 2017a) reports that as of 2016, women represented 30% of college presidents in the United States. Although the number…

Women are strongly underrepresented at top positions in research, with some research suggesting the postdoctoral career stage is a critical stage for female researchers. Drawing on role congruity theory and social cognitive career theory, we tested the gender-differential impact of work values (extrinsic rewards-oriented work values and work-life…

In Division III athletics, women hold 30% of athletic director positions, a percentage that has decreased when women held 90% of athletic director positions for women's athletics in 1972, which was the enactment of Title IX (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014). This study used role congruity theory as its conceptual framework to examine how…

Leadership represents an abstraction of human thought. While functionalist theories propose leader-centric models, contemporary leadership theories embrace a postmodern paradigm acknowledging ontological and epistemological assumptions of qualitative study. This ideology suggests a multi-dimensional model of leadership that reflects the complexity…

In 1972, Title IX was implemented to provide males and females equal opportunities in public education. However, since this time, the percentage of female collegiate head coaches of female sports has decreased from 90% to 42%. The specific problem examined is the underrepresentation of females in head coaching positions in collegiate athletics,…

In 2014, statisticians at the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that women constitute 45% of the workforce. Women's participation in high-level organizational leadership roles remains low. In higher education, women's representation in top-ranking leadership roles is less than one-third at colleges and universities. The conceptual framework for…

This narrative analysis/life story study was designed to understand the factors influencing the career trajectory of female athletic directors in National Collegiate Athletic Association affiliated institutions and to discover how those factors functioned as a road map for future female administrators. Both social role and role congruity theories…

This study compares self-categorization, expectation states, and role congruity theories' explanations for female influence. Male and female participants (N = 267) listened to a recording of a female speaker who used either tentative or assertive language under conditions that led participants to categorize her as a woman or as college-educated.…