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The Legitimacy Trap for Women Leaders: Why Leadership Legitimacy is Unstable for Women

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Sharon MavinORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).

Abstract

This chapter develops the concept of the Legitimacy Trap in relation to women leaders to illustrate a configuration of gendered patterns that function to destabilise women’s leadership legitimacy. The Legitimacy Trap concept was developed following a re-examination of previous studies that analysed women leaders’ experiences through a legitimacy lens. This re-examination of previous studies led us to identify seven elements that form the Legitimacy Trap. These elements constrain women leaders within a set of dialectics that collectively destabilize their authority and reinforce leadership as a masculine activity. The chapter contributes to critical understandings of leadership by problematising individualised solutions to the lack of diversity in leadership roles.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Elliott C, Mavin S, Stead V

Editor(s): Knights, D., Liu, H., Smolović-Jones, O. and Wilson, S.

Publication type: Book Chapter

Publication status: Published

Book Title: The Routledge Critical Companion to Leadership Studies

Year: 2024

Volume: 1

Pages: 175-186

Online publication date: 30/04/2024

Acceptance date: 01/06/2023

Publisher: Routledge, Taylor & Francis

Place Published: New York, OXON

URL: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003363125/routledge-critical-companion-leadership-studies-david-knights-helena-liu-owain-smolovi%C4%87-jones-suze-wilson?refId=70611509-abd2-4151-af33-3a6ffbcc1848&context=ubx

DOI: 10.4324/9781003363125

ePrints DOI: 10.57711/ggd8-pj56

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