When you think of leadership, what do you think of? It’s probable that the terms we use to describe leaders play a role in the images we conjure. Research from the University of Houston suggests that if we used more gender-neutral terms to describe leadership positions we would encourage more diversity in leadership roles.

The researchers examined what happened when masculine language and gender-neutral language were used to describe leadership positions. They conducted a couple of experiments to explore the impact and found that the language we use strongly reflects our stereotypes about leadership.

“Our results first reflect the stereotype that leadership positions belong to men: when reading about Chair Simmons, a little more than half of respondents assumed the leader was a man even though Simmons’ gender was not specified,” the researchers explain.

Leadership stereotypes

When the participants read about Chairman Simmons, they were much more likely to assume they were male, which underlines how masculine language can accentuate stereotypes that suggest leaders are men.

Suffice it to say, the gender of a leader is often known in the real world, so the second experiment took this into account and asked what happens when we know the gender of a leader who goes by either the title “chairman” or “chair”.

“In yet another demonstration of the power of gendered language and unconscious stereotypes, we found masculine titles affect recollections of women and men leaders differently,” the researchers explain.

The simple title of “chairman” was enough to increase the accuracy of recall when the leader was male, yet the recall was reduced when the leader was a woman. In other words, a woman who goes by the title “chairman” was less likely to be recalled than a man.

What’s more, the gender of the participants themselves didn’t seem to make any difference, with women just as susceptible to this phenomenon as men were. The researchers believe this is likely to be because of the way in which gender stereotypes are transmitted at a societal level, which means biases emerge often unintentionally and unconsciously.

“Overall, we found that masculine leadership titles really do matter—they affect assumptions about and recollections of leaders’ gender. Titles like ‘chairman’ increase people’s assumptions that men are in leadership positions and decrease recollections that women hold such positions of power,” the researchers conclude. “This suggests gender-neutral and masculine leadership titles are not just synonyms for each other. Masculine leadership titles reinforce stereotypes that tie men to leadership and undermine the connection between women and leadership.”