How Feminine is the Female Advantage? Incremental validity of gender traits over leader sex on employees' responses

We address complexities on gender role theory and trait analyses of leadership to explain how sex and gender interrelate to produce asymmetric effects on different leadership outcomes (i.e., positive attitudes vs. evaluations). In three studies across different set-ups, gender traits demonstrated incremental validity over sex on employees' positive attitudes (e.g., satisfaction, loyalty). For evaluations (e.g., perceived effectiveness), gender traits had generally weaker effects and in some cases predicted effectiveness more for stereotypical leaders, in line with role-congruency predictions. Penalties for counter-stereotypical behavior were weaker for female than male actual leaders, pointing to mitigated effects of role congruity prescriptions on female leaders´ evaluations. Remarkably, agency did not correlate more strongly than communion with any leadership effect. These findings underscore the relevance of (female and male) leaders' communion to improve followers' positive attitudes -but not evaluations- and call for an updated perspective about the complex influences of gender on leadership beyond the oversimplified female advantage approach.