Could the aging workforce reduce the agency penalty for female leaders? Re-examining the think manager–think male stereotype

Older workers make up a substantial portion of today’s labor force. Yet little is known about the beliefs held by this age group. Our study offers some much needed insights into intersectionality around this group, by investigating how older workers’ perceptions of supervisors performing a gendered leadership behavior are impacted by a supervisors’ sex, age, and gendered attributes. The results show that these supervisors are perceived most favorably when they possess communal qualities and/or when they are depicted as being older than their direct reports. Our results also reveal that, when these supervisors are not perceived as communal, male but not female supervisors, experience a backlash. Within this context, young female leaders appear to be at an advantage when compared with young male leaders. This study advances the literature on the ‘think manager–think male’ stereotype and has the practical benefit of offering insights into leader-follower interactions in today’s aging workplace.