Renowned leadership expert John C. Maxwell (2007) is often quoted saying “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” This quote underscores the importance of leadership to making organizations, teams and employees perform well. It is then also no surprise that being a leader comes with a certain level of admiration and prestige. Another insight that has arisen in the last few decades is that achieving leadership positions in organizations is affected by a subtle gender bias. Surveys have revealed that despite the fact that in the US women earn more than 57 percent of undergraduate degrees and 59 percent of all master’s degrees, the reality nevertheless is that only 28 percent of CEOs are women (Hincliffe, 2020). These numbers show that a problem exists when it comes down to women’s mobility on the hierarchical ladder, or also called “leadership emergence”.
Over the years several accounts have been offered to explain why this may be the case and the most popular explanations refer to the reality that as humans we have implicit stereotypes about the qualities that makes someone fit the idea of being a leader (Shondrick, Dinh, &
