Male leaders who are allies of the women in their companies supporting their efforts to be treated equally and have the same opportunities and rewards as men are more effective if they can convince men in the company to follow their leads. Whether they can do so depends on different factors.
Women continue to battle inequality and discrimination in many different forms in companies and organizations. While progress has been made, many women continue to be paid less than men, to have fewer opportunities for advancement than men, and to be subject to subtle or overt sexual harassment. If women are to overcome these barriers, they must have the full support of the organization’s top leaders, especially the CEO or equivalent. These leaders must demonstrate that they are allies of all women in their organizations. Allyship is an effective tool to foster women’s inclusion and belonging.
The effectiveness of such allyship, however, depends in large on the willingness of observers watching the leader’s actions and words to follow the leader’s lead and emulate the allyship: that is, to support women in the organization in any way that they can. This can include actively supporting women, for example in efforts to improve their workplace conditions; advancing women’s careers, e.g., by helping to share job knowledge; not excluding women from social interactions or work opportunities and seeking allyship-related learning more about the barriers women face and how to overcome them.
A Canadian study from Simon Fraser University and the University of Calgary shows that encouraging observers in an organization to emulate the leader’s support of women can depend on several factors.
The first factor is whether observers identify with the leader and whether they believe that the leader is like them and has their best interests at heart. Identification with a leader makes observers want to be like them and act like them including in their allyship with women.
However, the researchers found that identification with the leader can depend on whether the organization is dominated by men or is more gender-balanced. In the male-dominated environments studied, men were less likely to identify with a leader who supports women. In gender-balanced environments, men were more likely to identify with a leader who is an ally of women in the organization.
The reason for this difference is the question of what is prototypical. Group prototypes reflect what the group values, and what behaviors the group believes are desired and appropriate. In a male-dominated environment, explicit support for women is not considered prototypical behavior. Thus, a leader who proclaims his or her support for women is not acting according to the norms of the organization, and therefore, observers (mostly men) will identify less with that leader and be less likely to emulate his or her support. In a gender-balanced environment, in contrast, supporting the inclusion of women is considered prototypical.
Another factor is authentic allyship vs. performance allyship. Some leaders will argue that women in the workplace should have equal rights and opportunities, but their actions and even their speech indicate these leaders are only paying lip service. This is called “performance” allyship, as opposed to the “authentic” allyship of leaders who sincerely want to work to make a more equitable workplace for women. In a male-dominated environment, men don’t identify with leaders who display authentic allyship for the reasons cited above. However, they are also less likely to identify with leaders who display performance allyship since these leaders are bringing attention to the issues women deal with (even if this attention is just for show). In a gender-balanced environment, authentic allyship boosts observer identification with a leader; performance allyship, unsurprisingly, does not.
Top leaders have a significant impact on the treatment of and attitudes toward women, both professionally and personally, in their organizations. However, observers in their organizations must be willing to follow their lead. The authors of this study reveal some of the mechanisms notably the concepts of identification and prototypicality and the impact of the gender environment that influence the success of allyship in an organization. Understanding these mechanisms can lead to solutions.
For example, the researchers argue that one potent weapon to convince observers to emulate allyship is storytelling. Leaders should find and tell peer allyship stories in a male-dominated environment, for example, stories about male employees and managers who have actively supported women. Such stories can show men that even in male-dominated organizations, supporting women is prototypical of the organization. Once they believe a leader is behaving prototypically, they will identify with the leader more closely, which leads to a willingness to emulate the leader’s attitudes and behaviors.
Zhanna Lyubykh’s profile at Simon Fraser University
https://beedie.sfu.ca/profiles/ZhannaLyubykh
Natalya Alonso’s profile at Simon Fraser University
https://beedie.sfu.ca/profiles/NatalyaAlonso
Nick Turner’s profile at University of Calgary
https://profiles.ucalgary.ca/nick-turner
Beyond allies and recipients: Exploring observers’ allyship emulation in response to leader allyship. Zhanna Lyubykh, Natalya M. Alonso, Nick Turner. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (March 2024).
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597823000845?via%3Dihub
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