Gender and Leadership in the Public Sector

Traditionally, men have occupied top managerial positions in the public as well as the private sector. In recent decades this tradition has gradually changed. Although slowly and with significant variation between countries and sectors, the share of female top managers has been increasing. This article analyzes whether this demographic change may be related to the leadership priorities of public top managers. Is gender significantly related to the leadership priorities of public sector top managers? The article presents a short review of theories and empirical research in the relations between gender and leadership behavior. Based on this review, hypotheses are formulated and tested in an empirical analysis of survey data from the Danish local government context. The results indicate that the behavior of female top managers is significantly more task and change oriented and significantly less policy oriented than their male colleagues. These findings, however, cannot be explained by theories based on simple gender stereotypes. Different interpretations of the findings are discussed and some implications are suggested.