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Leading ladies: Gendered perceptions of chief executives and international threats
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Leading ladies: Gendered perceptions of chief executives and international threats

Lindsey A. Goldberg and Brian Lai
International interactions
07/15/2026
DOI: 10.1080/03050629.2026.2700521

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Abstract

How do people perceive women chief executives internationally, and how do those perceptions shape foreign policy preferences? Previous research has focused on the ways in which gender stereotypes shape domestic audiences’ perceptions of their own chief executives. Past work has also demonstrated that those gendered perceptions drive how political leaders are expected to respond to national security threats. However, little research has explored how gender stereotypes shape perceptions of women chief executives in external states or how those perceptions shape foreign policy preferences across different international security contexts. We theorize that preferred actions toward international allies and adversaries are conditioned by the gender stereotypes that are leveraged against chief executives worldwide. As such, we argue that individual support for military action against an international adversary or in support of an international ally depends, in part, on whether those external states are led by a man or a woman. We test these expectations using two different survey experiments in the United States, and we find support for our claims.
 Gender oreign policy chief executives survey experiment

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