Looking at leadership: Does dominance really hold women back?

Researchers revisited a 2012 study that suggested Black women managers could show dominance without facing penalties that White women did. The original work found White women leaders got judged more harshly when they acted assertive, while Black women didn’t seem to suffer the same consequences. But twelve years later, new tests with nearly 2, 000 adults online found something different. This latest experiment showed that showing dominance hurt the status of both Black and White women. The same penalty applied to men too. That result clashes directly with the earlier findings. Some other research since then has also suggested Black women might face extra backlash when leading or when they express anger.The mixed results make it clear that the link between gender, race, and leadership judgments is still murky. The latest team ran a strict, high-quality replication. Their finding challenges ideas about who gets penalized for taking charge. It also raises questions about whether theories on gender backlash need an update. What looked like a protected space for Black women leaders might not be as solid as once thought.