Abstract

Senior leadership positions are dominated by men in almost any organization. The underrepresentation of women in senior leadership positions is not only harmful to women. Organizations with few women leaders are failing to exploit the potential of their female employees and thus, not taking full advantage of all their resources (Appelbaum, Audet, & Miller, 2003). Besides, the benefits of having women leaders have been largely studied. In more than a half of the 1000 Fortune firms, the presence of woman directors on the board reliably predicted the firm value (Carter, Simkins, & Simpson, 2003). Women in high leadership positions help enterprises achieve gender diversity at this level and, with it, attain on average better financial results (Catalyst, 2013). Due to the importance of this topic, numerous authors have studied the reasons why there are so few women in leadership (Appelbaum et al., 2003; Carli & Eagly, 2012; Kark & Eagly, 2010). Research on external factors (i.e. the ones that attribute gender differences in leadership to someone or something that is not part of women themselves) has proliferated, for example addressing the impact that discrimination against women has on their development as leaders and their achievement of high leadership positions (Carli & Eagly, 2012; Davies, Spencer, & Steele, 2005; Davison & Burke, 2000; Haslam & Ryan, 2008; Riach & Rich, 2002). However, the possibility of changing the context women face is very low as it depends on the willingness and possibilities of organization to change their environment and their employees’ views and beliefs. A complementary approach in research takes an internal perspective exploring factors inherent to women that have an impact on women’s underrepresentation in leadership positions, such as their attributes and leadership styles (Carli & Eagly, 2012; Eagly & Carli, 2007; Judge & Piccolo, 2004; Van Vugt, 2006). One particularly interesting internal factor is how women see themselves and experience leadership roles (Karelaia & Guillén, 2014; Koenig, Eagly, Mitchell, & Ristikari, 2011). Identity is defined as “…the subjective knowledge, meanings, and experiences that are self-defining” (Ramarajan, 2014, p. 593). This definition emphasizes the subjective nature of the knowledge people might derive from their position in the world and the different roles they pursue (Ibarra, 1999; Tajfel, 1978), for instance, the different meanings that could be assigned to the membership of a social group. Thus, the way in which women make sense of their identity as a leader or as a woman can vary dramatically from one to another.