Leadership Challenges Women Face in New York City Local Government

This dissertation examines some of the challenges women face in the public sector in New York City. Workplace communal and agentic attributes and transactional and transformational leadership provided the theoretical frameworks through which women are viewed when they ascend to executive or managerial positions in city agencies. Communal and agentic attributes delve into feminine and masculine roles, the leadership challenge and biases toward women, and the preference in leadership style for women and men.
Scholars organize these attributes to help us understand gender stereotypes whereby men are described as independent, assertive, and initiating, while women are described as caring, emotionally expressive, and responsive to others. Because leadership has been associated with men for centuries, women leaders’ evaluations create incongruencies. Perceived social norms are activated in people’s minds about women not conforming to their gender role and communal attributes and the expectations of what a leader should be. Therefore, the perceived dissimilarity creates a dilemma and potential for prejudice against women leaders. Some policies, non-discriminatory laws, and different administrations changed some of those perceptions and enabled women to lead numerous city agencies in New York City. Nevertheless, challenges remain.