Graduation Year

2025

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Reader 1

Jennifer Ma

Reader 2

Heejung Park

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Abstract

Gender stereotyping is pervasive across many societal contexts. Stereotypes indicate that male leaders are agentic - assertive, results driven, and engaged in technical details. Female leaders on the other hand, are supposed to be more communal oriented - communicative, collaborative, and nurturing. These stereotypes further affect the perceptions of men and women as leaders. Women’s colleges however, have been proposed as institutions which enable women to grow their leadership capabilities. This study expands on this literature, looking at how women’s colleges compare to coeducational institutions in reducing self stereotype perceptions towards women’s leadership. Using a longitudinal within subjects design, female participants from womens and coed institutions will be asked during their freshman year to complete a set of originally compiled scales which measure communal, agentic, soft, and hard skills perceptions pertaining to leadership abilities. Participants will then be asked for some demographic information such as age, school, and grade in school. The same participants will be asked to complete the same scales during the first month of their senior year of college. It is anticipated that attending a women’s college will reduce alignment with communal and soft skill leadership stereotypes, and that perceptions of leadership stereotypes will decrease from first to senior year. Results can be used to emphasize the pervasiveness of women’s leadership stereotypes, and provide valuable insight as to how to reduce leadership stereotypical thoughts and behaviors in the educational contexts, and beyond.

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