Gender ingroup projection and the evaluative connotation of leader prototypes

The underrepresentation of women in top corporate ranks is a topic of ongoing discussion. Manager prototypes are proposed to be more male-typed than female-typed because historically men more often than women have held leadership roles. Why then is the maleness of manager prototypes even more pronounced among men than among women? Given that most personnel decision makers in organizations are men this phenomenon is problematic for women's advancement to top management positions. We address this question by investigating peoples' use of ingroup projection and their endorsement of evaluative attributes in constructing gender and leader prototypes.