Unconscious Gender Bias: Implications for Women's Leadership Development

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JOURNAL OF LEADERSHIP STUDIES, Volume 12, Number 1, 2018
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UNCONSCIOUS GENDER BIAS:
IMPLICATIONS FOR WOMEN’S
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
SUSAN R. MADSEN AND MAUREEN S. ANDRADE
ere is still no question that we do not have enough
women leaders in politics, business, government,
education, nonprots, and other settings and sectors
around the globe (Adler, 2015; Goryunova, Scrib-
ner, & Madsen, 2017) although hundreds of studies
have documented the benefits of having women in
top management and leadership positions in any type
of organization and in society (Madsen, 2015). In
addition, it is clear that gender and other types of diver-
sity are vital in today’s world for groups and organiza-
tions to thrive. Hence, a continued focus on developing
leadership skills and abilities in women through a host
of leadership development eorts and interventions is a
critical imperative for organizations and communities
today. Yet, researchers have noted that the majority
of leadership development programs currently being
designed and implemented are not eective, which sug-
gests that simply providing more options is not the best
solution (e.g., Bierema, 2017; Boatman & Wellins,
2011).
What is the answer to ensuring that leadership
development eorts are eective for the development of
women leaders and can actually move the needle both in
organizations and in society as a whole? First, it is criti-
cal that those who design and develop these interven-
tions have both the education and expertise to do so.
For women’s leadership development, this means that
designers and developers must have a background and
experience in leadership, gender, adult learning, and
organizational change (Bierema, 2017). Second, wom-
en’s leadership development must be based on current
research and theory (Madsen, 2017). us, the design,
development, and content of eective women-only pro-
grams, the focus of the current article, must align with
the current literature. In terms of content, the subject
of unconscious gender bias has been excluded from
many women’s leadership development programs, yet
Ibarra, Ely, and Kolb (2013) argued that it should be
a foundational element of these programs. ey pur-
ported that “persistent gender bias too often disrupts
the learning process at the heart of becoming a leader”
(p. 61). e purpose of the remainder of the current
article is to take one critical leadership development
content component—unconscious gender bias—and
use it as an example to demonstrate how eective wom-
en’s leadership programming can be guided by theory
and research.
Unconscious Gender Bias Theory
and Research
Research focusing on conscious or deliberate biases
toward women, particularly in workplace settings,
has led to the study of unconscious bias. Unconscious
gender bias (also referred to as implicit or second-gen-
eration gender bias) occurs when a person consciously

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rejects gender “stereotypes but still unconsciously
makes evaluations based on stereotypes” (American
Association of University Women, 2016, p. 24). Ely,
Ibarra, and Kolb (2011) dene it as “the powerful yet
often invisible barriers to women’s advancement that
arise from cultural beliefs about gender, as well as work-
place structures, practices, and patterns of interaction
that inadvertently favor men” (p. 475). According to
Cook Ross Inc. (2016), unconscious bias was Sigmund
Freud’s primary gift to the science of the mind and
drove the development of modern psychology, but it
has been overshadowed by behavioral psychology for
many decades. Today researchers are nding that an
awareness of unconscious bias can help leaders funda-
mentally rethink the way their organizations approach
strategic decision making, organizational culture,
inclusion, and talent management (Cook Ross Inc.,
2016). As such, it should be a key element of women-
only leadership development programs (Bierema, 2017;
Diehl & Dzubinski, 2016; Ely et al., 2011).
e current section highlights a few tools that emerge
from theoretical and conceptual frameworks and can
be directly applied to workplace settings in a host of
cultures and contexts. Addressing bias begins with
becoming aware of those biases both externally (e.g.,
organizational practices, individual actions) and inter-
nally (i.e., gender bias within oneself) (Madsen, 2017).
Ross (2014) argued that even people who view them-
selves as progressive on gender issues and dynamics,
including women themselves, have hidden gender-
based biases. Although most women’s leadership lit-
erature focuses on helping women navigate the biases
around them, interventions geared toward helping
women strengthen their leadership by becoming aware
of their own biases is only now beginning to emerge
(Bolton, 2016).
Ely et al. (2011) argued that successful leadership
programs consist of more than simply organizing
pieces of content. ey proposed specic theory-based
design principles that should undergird any leadership
development program specically for women. One of
these principles is that programs should situate topics
and tools in an analysis of unconscious bias. is means
that program facilitators must use related research to
inform the way leadership topics are taught and tools
are utilized.
Programs should oer women an “empirically based
framework for diagnosing their workplace experiences
and taking eective action” (Ely et al., 2011, p. 486).
Ely et al. (2011) found that women are less susceptible
to the negative eects of unconscious bias once they
become aware of how it is manifest within an organiza-
tion (e.g., few role models, organization practices, sub-
optimal networks, and excessive performance pressure).
After women are aware of these biases, program facil-
itators can take standard leadership topics and tools
(e.g., negotiations, leading change, networking, 360°
feedback, and managing career transitions) and help
women interpret them through an unconscious bias
lens to “facilitate women leaders’ identity work and
movement into leadership roles” (Ely et al., 2011,
p. 475). When program participants have a deeper
appreciation for how unconscious gender bias operates
in their organizations, their commitment to being a
change agent on behalf of other women is also strength-
ened.
According to Bierema (2017), “there is a range of
approaches that organizations can take on issues related
to developing and advancing woman leaders according
to theories of change from a feminist perspective”
(p. 156). She provided detailed descriptions of six strat-
egies (moving from weakest to strongest) that orga-
nizations can use to consciously assess active change
strategies: (a) xing individual women; (b) valuing the
feminine; (c) “adding women and stirring”; (d) making
small, deep cultural changes or “small wins”; (e) cre-
ating new organizational structures, and (f) transform-
ing gendered society. She explored the limitations of
the strategies, particularly how most reinforce current
problematic attitudes and practices as well as systemic
biases, and makes recommendations for more eective
approaches. e nal two strategies have the potential
to result in lasting organizational change and sweeping
social change respectively. Bierema argued that organi-
zations with a low awareness of unconscious gender bias
lack strategies to address structural inequity, a practice
that thwarts the entities’ eectiveness. Her gender con-
sciousness framework can be utilized by organizations
to determine where they t within awareness, action,
unconsciousness, and consciousness.
ese theory-based principles and frameworks can
be directly applied as tools for strategic change in

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organizations. In particular, the design of women-only
leadership interventions should be carefully crafted
based on the frameworks in order to increase women’s
awareness of their own biases and how various types of
biases (e.g., gender, prejudice, racism) are manifest in
their organizations. Once women become conscious
of their own biases, they can identify how biases are
reinforced through structures, policies, and practice,
and initiate change to impact organizations positively.
Because of limited space, we cannot provide greater
detail on the frameworks, but we encourage readers to
refer to the original sources.
Implementation Factors
In order to eectively implement leadership programs
that have unconscious bias as a foundational compo-
nent, we broaden the discussion to critical components
of women-only leadership training and the need for
these programs to have a distinct, inclusive focus that
recognizes the various identities of women through an
unconscious bias lens. As we established earlier, under-
representation of women leaders in all sectors of society
continues to be an issue in spite of signicant invest-
ments in leadership development programs (Gurdjian,
Halbeisen, & Lane, 2014; Kassotakis & Rizk, 2015).
is points to the need for more eective approaches.
Recent research emphasized the need for women-
only leadership development programs (Ngunjiri &
Gardiner, 2017) as opposed to mixed-gender training.
Such programs should not be deciency-based, focusing
on topics such as personal branding and assertiveness,
but should provide a safe place for women to engage
with each other, unpack bias issues, and create networks
of support (Ely et al., 2011; Kassotakis, 2017). Indeed,
creating a safe environment for women to explore
their potential, share successes and failures, and receive
feedback, mentoring, and coaching is a critical element
in women’s leadership development (Debebe, 2011; Ely
et al., 2011; Sugiyama, Cavanagh, van Esch, Bilimoria,
& Brown, 2016; Vinnicombe, Moore, & Anderson,
2013). Women in mixed-gender training programs do
not feel free to share concerns that are unique to them
(Ngunjiri & Gardiner, 2017).
Additionally, women tend to have a participative,
rather than a directive, leadership style (Vinnicombe
et al., 2013). As such, women’s leadership programs
may conceptualize the leader’s role as relational whereas
mixed-gender programs emphasize the leader as one
who manages business performance (Sugiyama et al.,
2016). Teaching women to lead in a masculine way is
not eective (Ngunjiri & Gardiner, 2017) despite pres-
sures for women to behave like men in business organi-
zations (Ely et al., 2011; Vinnicombe et al., 2013) and
to believe that this is how women need to behave to be
successful (Ngunjiri & Gardiner, 2017). e uncon-
scious bias within women themselves and within orga-
nizational structures, practices, and policies must also
be explored.
Ngunjiri and Gardiner (2017) introduced an inter-
sectional model, which accounts for how “gender inter-
sects with race and other identities” (p. 431), based
on three components. The first exposes hierarchical
discourse that ignores women in the theory and prac-
tice of leadership development. It encourages a nuanced
treatment of power and privilege by considering the
range of identities represented by women rather than
just the single category of gender. Second, focusing on
gender alone does not address issues related to the com-
plexity of women’s identities and the need for inclusive
practices to ensure that leadership roles are not just for
women with traditional privileges. e last element
of the model considers global issues and their impact
on the development of women as leaders and identity
changes due to culture and context. e premise behind
the intersectional theory is “to ensure that leadership
development programs are cognizant of the intersecting
roles women play, and the identities women occupy,
in an environment that is safe for engaging in identity
work” (p. 434). Underlying the intersectional approach
to women-only leadership development is the construct
of unconscious bias.
Adding unconscious bias as a component to leader-
ship development is a nascent development, and to be
eective, it must be based on genuine knowledge and
expertise, a point that is emphasized in a recent Harvard
Business Review article that acknowledged “growing
skepticism about whether unconscious bias training
is an eective tool to meet corporate diversity goals”
(Emerson, 2017, para. 1). e article, titled “Don’t Give
Up on Unconscious Bias Training—Make It Better,”

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observes that unconscious bias can be taught eectively
only if it is designed and implemented in certain ways,
which include gender bias training along with a host
of other types of unconscious biases. In fact, a recent
meta-analysis found that training can be eective, but
it depends on content, length, audience, accompanying
eort, and other factors (Emerson, 2017). e content
must be geared toward specic behavioral outcomes,
and this is important for women-only training as well.
Emerson highlighted “three evidence-based tenets to
guide the design of any unconscious bias training”
(para. 5). First, “strike a careful balance between lim-
iting defensiveness about unconscious bias, while com-
municating the importance of managing bias” (para.
6); second, “structure the content around workplace
situations” (para. 7); and third, “design training to be
action oriented” (para. 8).
Researchers have provided additional guidance toward
the design of effective programs. For example, Cook
Ross Inc.’s (2016) and Ross’s (2014) research found that
program participants need to begin their development
by increasing awareness of their own unconscious bias,
which will help them navigate others’ biases as well.
ey also need to learn to reframe related conversations
from negative constructs to positive ones—for example,
shifting conversations about discrimination to topics of
respect, fair treatment, and inclusivity. Using examples
of hidden bias from the attendees’ own workplaces or
similar settings gives experiential examples for mean-
ingful training and development. Additionally, Ely et al.
(2011) noted, “participants can share their feedback with
bosses, direct reports, and peers to counter gender stereo-
types that might otherwise bias these coworkers’ percep-
tions of participants’ leadership potential and leadership
eectiveness” (p. 481). Eectiveness also depends on the
degree to which organizational leaders have strengthened
their own awareness of their unconscious biases.
Conclusion
The purpose of the current article was to take one
critical leadership development content component—
unconscious gender bias—and use it as an example
to demonstrate how effective women’s leadership
programming can and should be guided by theory and
research. We argue that training and development must
include the element of unconscious gender bias to help
women leaders overcome invisible barriers and recog-
nize such bias in themselves and in their organizations.
More broadly, it has also established the critical need
to improve the eectiveness of leadership development
programs for women by ensuring that training is based
on current research and theory focused on gender, lead-
ership, adult learning, and organizational change. We
also highlight a few research-based tools, principles, and
strategies that serve as theoretical frameworks. Finally,
we provide some examples of how these can be imple-
mented in leadership development interventions to
inuence practice and policy so that women can more
fully contribute to today’s organizations.
Lastly, it is also important to mention that “the con-
text must support a woman’s motivation to lead and
also increase the likelihood that others will recognize
and encourage her eorts—even when she doesn’t look
or behave like the current generation of senior execu-
tives” (Ibarra et al., 2013, p. 62). Because men have
historically been in the workforce longer and continue
to hold the majority of leadership positions, “these ste-
reotypically-masculine leadership styles continue to be
viewed consciously and unconsciously as superior to
stereotypically-feminine styles” (Correia, 2016, p. 43).
According to Ibarra et al. (2013), “despite a lack of dis-
criminatory intent, subtle, ‘second-generation’ forms
of workplace gender bias can obstruct the leadership
identity development of a company’s entire population
of women” (p. 63). All of these elements are critical to
understand so that women’s leadership development
eorts can strengthen the impact of women in organi-
zations and communities around the world.
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Susan R. Madsen is the Orin R. Woodbury Professor of
Leadership and Ethics in the Woodbury School of Business
at Utah Valley University. Dr. Madsen is considered one of
the top global thought leaders on the topic of women and
leadership, has authored or edited six books, and has pub-
lished hundreds of articles, chapters, and reports. She is a
sought-after globally recognized speaker in local, national,
and international settings. She had founded many women’s
networks, and she serves on a host of nonprot, community,
and association boards and committees. She has received
numerous awards for her teaching, research, and service.
Dr. Madsen is also coediting the seven-volume book series
focused on Women and Leadership. Communications can
be directed to madsensu@u.edu.
Maureen S. Andrade is a professor in the Organizational
Leadership Department at Utah Valley University. She has
an EdD in higher education leadership from the Univer-
sity of Southern California. She also holds the distinction
of Principal Fellow from the Higher Education Academy

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in the United Kingdom for leadership in teaching and
learning, evidenced by a consistent record of impact at
institutional and international levels. Dr. Andrade’s
research interests are business education, international
student transitions and linguistic development in schools
of business, assessment, and learning outcomes for business
programs, expatriate adjustment, leadership, and work–
life balance.