TITLE:
Cause and Cure: Women’s Perceptions of Responsibility in Gendered Leadership Inequity
AUTHORS:
Kristina J. Szilak
KEYWORDS:
Leadership Gender Gap, Internalized Oppression, Women in Leadership, Inherited Gendered Guilt, Systemic Discrimination
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Leadership,
Vol.15 No.1,
March
10,
2026
ABSTRACT: Despite evidence that women are effective leaders, they remain underrepresented in leadership positions. Drawing on a phenomenological analysis of interviews with 15 women in the United States who were working in or aspiring to leadership roles, this study examines how responsibility for gender inequity in leadership is internalized. Findings reveal a paradox in which participants recognized organizational and societal barriers while simultaneously viewing both leadership attainment and solutions to the gender leadership gap as contingent on personal confidence, determination, self-promotion, and other forms of individual effort, rather than systemic change. Viewed through a broader historical lens, participants’ perceived responsibility reflects internalized oppression shaped by cultural narratives of inherited culpability. Although participants acknowledged systemic discrimination and structural barriers, they positioned themselves as both the cause of and cure for gender inequities in leadership. These findings indicate that the responsibilities assigned to womanhood function as a mechanism of cultural reproduction, redirecting attention away from institutional accountability and allowing systemic inequities to persist.