Looking Back, Leading Forward: Rethinking Gender and Leadership

For five decades, research on gender and leadership has sought to explain the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles. Although women have made considerable progress in becoming leaders, progress has slowed in the business context and women leaders remain scarce in political arenas. Why are there not more women leaders? This symposium rethinks gender and leadership as complex and dynamic, shaped by context and time. Across five presentations, the symposium offers novel theoretical insights and new empirical evidence that illuminate both persistent barriers and emerging dynamics shaping women’s access to leadership. The symposium further advances understanding of gender and leadership by illustrating how leadership behaviors intersect with structural and societal expectations across organizational, political, and digital contexts, while highlighting how leader prototypes have shifted over five decades. These findings emphasize the importance of context, time, and evolving societal norms for understanding and addressing persistent leadership inequalities. This session will offer attendees actionable insights into how gender dynamics shape leadership processes and outcomes, fostering future research agendas and evidence-based practice to advance equity in leadership.