The Routledge Critical Companion to Leadership Studies

14 The legitimacy trap for women leaders Why leadership legitimacy is unstable for women

Carole Elliott, Valerie Stead, and Sharon Mavin

DOI: 10.4324/9781003363125-17

Introduction

In this chapter, we explore how women in leadership face a Legitimacy Trap by revisiting our recent empirical studies. In our work, we view women leaders’ legitimacy as a persistent problem that renders women leaders’ authority unstable and a key element in the gendering of leadership. We illustrate the Legitimacy Trap as a configuration of gendered patterns that function to destabilize women leaders’ legitimacy. Women leaders’ legitimacy is fragile and at risk; they “can be renounced, sidelined and/or stigmatized” (Harding et al., 2013, p. 57). By theorizing recent ...