Sonia Kang & Chong He

Shifting Stereotypes to Improve Leadership Aspiration and Self‐Efficacy among Female Leaders.

In this project, we aim to develop a novel and impactful intervention for reducing barriers to leadership among women in a way that minimizes backlash and negative spillover effects. By changing the framing of the leadership role to include more traditionally feminine attributes, we hope to increase the perceived compatibility between the female gender role and the leader role and to increase leadership aspiration and leadership self‐efficacy among women.

Publication: Covering in Cover Letters: Gender and Self-Presentation in Job Applications, Academy of Management Journal 64(4), 2021

Media:

• Downplaying Femininity in Cover Letters for Male-Dominated Job Backfires, UCLA Anderson Review, 2021
• What women need to know about writing cover letters, Quartz, 2021
• Gender and Self-Preservation in Job Applications, Dear Human Resources podcast, 2021
• Women Using Less Feminine Terms in Cover Letters Are Less Likely to Get Hired, Academy of Management Insights, 2020