Social signals inside teams and organizations reinforce those patterns. Everyday interactions — who speaks up, who is interrupted, who gets credit — steer opportunities toward people who fit leadership stereotypes. Belonging and influence depend on more than qualifications; they rely on how others read authority, and those readings create different paths for people with the same skills. Mindsets about change also shape outcomes: when people expect traits to be fixed, stereotypes harden and gatekeeping grows; when people believe skills can develop, barriers weaken.
This review connects psychological processes to real-world gaps in pay and promotion, and points toward interventions that change how organizations think about leadership, learning, and fairness. The questions that follow have direct consequences for diversity and human potential: how can institutions redesign signals of authority, cultivate growth-oriented cultures, and build leadership models that reward competence rather than conformity? Click through to explore specific mechanisms and strategies that influence who rises and who is held back.
Despite decades of progress, gender inequalities in workplace authority and compensation persist. This review reveals recent advances in understanding how gendered careers emerge through three psychological mechanisms prevalent in organizations: (i) intrapersonal gender biases, (ii) interpersonal power dynamics, and (iii) intergroup gender relations. Because power is perceived as masculine, women in authority face systematic backlash. While status offers women an alternative leadership route, it proves less valuable than power – lacking resource control and requiring constant social validation rather than conferring formal authority. We suggest that mindsets about human malleability moderate these dynamics: fixed mindsets amplify stereotyping and power-based challenges for women leaders, while growth mindsets attenuate barriers. Our framework aims to illuminate gender disparities and to suggest promising intervention pathways.