Many of the boldest and brightest women leaders walk around on eggshells. If you're assertive, people say you're too tough. If you're too collaborative, you're not tough enough. What's a woman leader to do?

This gender stereotyping not only puts women leaders in a daily no-win bind, but it's likely one reason only 15.6 percent of Fortune 500 corporate officers and 14.6% of their board directors are women.

That's one conclusion from the 2007 study, The Double-Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership: Damned if You Do, Doomed if You Don't, released by Catalyst, a research organization.

Companies simply don't realize how this gender stereotype bias affects leadership choice, with findings strongly suggesting that companies routinely underestimate and underutilize women's leadership talent, says Catalyst.

The study looked at perceptions from over 1200 male and female senior executives in the U.S. and Europe and identified three "double-bind" dilemmas women leaders face. They are that:

1. Women leaders are seen as "never just right."

If women leaders act consistent with gender stereotypes, they are considered too soft. If they go against those stereotypes, they are considered too tough.

2. Women leaders face higher standards than men leaders and are rewarded with less.

They often must work twice as hard to achieve the same level of recognition as men for the same level of work and to prove they can lead.

One woman interviewed said that it seems as if they need to show they can do something over and over before others believe it is really part of her capabilities.

3. Women are seen as competent but disliked.

When women demonstrate traditionally valued leadership behaviors such as assertiveness, they tend to be seen as competent, but not personable or well-liked, say the survey results. On the other hand, those who adopt a more stereotypically feminine style are liked. But they're not seen as having valued leadership skills.

As one female respondent said, "There does seem to be a little more tolerance for harsh behavior from men rather than women. Women are quicker to get labeled and with men, it's easier to brush it off."

It can be reassuring to know you are not the only one who may experience such "damned if you do, doomed if you don't" dilemmas. As a result, though, many of these women who want to be key leaders in their companies get fed up and leave. Some go off to start their own companies.

If you stay and strive for senior roles in your company, there's only so much an individual can do. Companies, though, can influence such negative effects of gender stereotypes, first by understanding that this phenomena is not a "paranoid over-reaction," as one of my clients was told by her boss.

These biases exist and they play out ever so subtly in offices everywhere --including performance reviews where you may get ambiguous evaluation criteria and feedback like this that my female clients receive: "Needs to work on style and be less direct."

© by 2007 Andrea Kay