Documentary film producer Robin Hauser gives a compelling Ted Talk about the challenge for women leaders who often find themselves having to choose to either be likable or competent and how that impacts their ability to lead.
My favorite part of the talk is her description of a Columbia professor's experiment involving Heidi Roisin, a successful venture capitalist. The professor took all of Heidi's real accomplishments and attributed some to Heidi and some to a fictitious "Howard." He gave the class the resumes of both Heidi and Howard and the students had to rate each of them with regard to competency and liability and who would they hire or like to work for.
The students found both Heidi and Howard equally competent. However, the students, by a wide margin, did not like Heidi. Both male and female students said she was too aggressive and they did not want to work for Heidi nor would they hire her.
The study surmised that women are penalized if they act in a manner that violates gender norms. Men are expected to be decisive, assertive, strong and competent. These characteristics happen to be exactly what society views as leadership qualities. How can women be leaders if expressing leadership qualities means they are not likable? People who are not likable cannot get elected. It's a quandary Robin says will take generations to change.
See the talk here: https://www.ted.com/talks/robin_hauser_the_likability_dilemma_for_women_leaders_sep_2022/transcript
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