2.4.2 Devaluation of women by others and by themselves

Often women are blamed for not having the necessary qualities for board positions, e.g. because they lack ambition, self-confidence, relevant knowledge, experience or the proper education for leadership.1 Women’s (lack of) qualities may be the reason for women’s underrepresentation at the corporate top.2 Women may also be considered as too old by the time they have gained enough experience (at the age of 40), whereas men are not considered too old at that age. This can result in women refraining from leadership positions or being excluded from leadership positions.3

Women’s underrepresentation is also attributed to women’s reluctance to put themselves forward for promotions. Men are more inclined than women to indicate their ambition and to put themselves up for a promotion.4 Consequently, women may not be considered for promotion because their superiors assume that women are happy in their present position and have no ambition to be promoted. By doing so, women may limit their own promotion opportunities.5 However, if women promote themselves, they run the risk of being negatively judged due to prescriptive stereotypes that their behavior is incongruent with women’s communal traits.6 This finding gives an indication that devaluation of women is related to gender stereotypes (barrier 1.1), as shown in Figure 2.3, arrow 3.