Plate Nº 84 · recorded November 11, 2026
Neuroscience & MindReported finding
Gender-Fair Language Fails to Budge 'Leader Means Male' Stereotype
A study of nearly 23,000 people in 42 countries finds that 'he or she' phrasing fails to weaken the stereotype that political leaders resemble men more than women.
By Elena Vasquez3 min read657 words
In brief
- Nearly 23,000 participants in 42 countries took part in the study across 30 languages.
- Only about one in eight countries has elected a woman as head of state or government.
- Gender-fair language like 'he or she' showed no significant effect on leadership stereotypes.
- The study is published in The Leadership Quarterly (2026), led by Professor Kim Peters of the University of Exeter.
Nearly 23,000 people across 42 countries took part in an international study, and the verdict is blunt: gender-inclusive language does little to weaken the stereotype that a political leader is a man.
The research, led by Professor Kim Peters of the University of Exeter and published in The Leadership Quarterly (2026), tested whether so-called gender-fair language—phrases like "he or she"—could soften people's habit of picturing leaders as male. It couldn't. The effect was negligible.
The backdrop is stark. Only about one country in eight has ever elected a woman as head of state or government. Worldwide, women hold roughly one in four parliamentary seats. Some researchers had hoped that tweaking language might loosen the stereotypes that help keep those numbers low.
What did the study actually test?
The team asked participants to evaluate profiles of political leaders—both men and women—using adjectives covering attributes from dominance and competence to morality and kindness. Some respondents saw gender-fair phrasing such as "this man or this woman" or paired pronouns; others saw neutral wording.
The project's scale was unusually large:
- Nearly 23,000 participants
- 42 countries or regions across six continents
- 30 languages, all with grammatical gender in some form
The languages fell into three types: languages that encode gender only in the meanings of certain nouns (like Hungarian), natural gender languages with gendered pronouns (like English), and languages with heavily formalized grammatical gender systems (like Polish and German). Researchers included Polish co-author Professor Agata Gąsiorowska, a psychologist at SWPS University in Wrocław.
The core result held everywhere. Stereotypes linking leadership to men are prevalent worldwide.
Which traits drove the stereotype?
"We found that the profile of traits attributed to political leaders was more closely aligned with the profile of traits attributed to men than to women," Gąsiorowska said. The gap centered on agency-related attributes—dominance, competitiveness, assertiveness—rather than communal ones like sympathy, warmth or sensitivity to others' needs, which participants stereotypically linked to women.
Contrary to the researchers' expectations, the linguistic intervention didn't move the needle. Regardless of phrasing, the stereotypical image of a leader stayed closer to the male stereotype than the female one. That's a genuinely discouraging result for a cheap, widely promoted fix.
Do people think others are more biased than they are?
Yes, and that matters. When describing stereotypes held by their community, participants saw the leader-as-man association as stronger than when expressing their own personal views. In plain terms: people assumed society around them was more biased than they themselves were.
That perception can do damage on its own. Believing such stereotypes are widespread may discourage women from pursuing political careers—regardless of what individuals actually think.
Where does this leave inclusive language?
Not in the trash, the authors insist. The study only tested political leadership. Inclusive wording might work better in other domains, such as corporate managers or employees, and the researchers suggest exactly that as a future research direction.
There's another possible benefit: such communication may strengthen women's own sense of agency, inspiring them and boosting motivation to aim for the highest levels of power.
But language alone won't fix representation. "While ensuring gender-inclusive communication is important, this study indicates that minor linguistic adjustments in documents or media will not eliminate stereotypes surrounding leadership," Gąsiorowska said. "The image of a leader is deeply rooted in social and cultural structures; changing it in any meaningful way requires comprehensive educational and system-wide interventions."
Her bottom line is plain. If you want more women leaders, create actual space for women in leadership roles—don't rely on pronouns to do the heavy lifting.
Publication details: Kim Peters et al., "Think political leader—think he or she? A multi-country test of a gender-fair language intervention to reduce gendered leadership stereotypes," The Leadership Quarterly (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2026.101991.
via phys.org/rss-feed/ (Source)
More from Elena Vasquez
Show full bio
Correspondent covering money, funding and market shifts around general science news at SciBeat.
384 articles
Nearby plates
- 78% of Psychology's Masculinity Scales Measure Only the Negative
- COP31 Indigenous women demand direct climate finance
- Brain Scans Show AI Chatbots Don't Track Who Did What to Whom
- Neuroscience Reports of Sex Differences Often Rest on Weak Evidence
- Why Women Feel More Heard by Specialists Than GPs: New Study