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Abstract
This study examined two different gender-related stereotypes of transformational and transactional leadership to determine if ratings of male and female leadership stereotypes were affected by experience with leaders of each sex. Literature has shown that there are gender stereotypes associated with certain leadership styles, but few studies have examined stereotypes associated with transformational and transactional leadership.
Results indicated that ideal leaders are rated as highly transformational. In addition, ratings of typical leaders on transactional leadership behaviors were affected by past experience with female leaders, whereas ratings of typical leaders on transformational leadership behaviors were affected by experience with male leaders. With ideal leaders, there was no significant interaction between level of experience with male and female leaders and ideal leader sex, as expected. However, contrary to predictions, ratings of ideal leaders on transactional leadership were affected by participants' experience with both male and female leaders.
