FSS-DSOC Luncheon Seminar 2026 Spring#1 & Mini-Methods Meeting (M3)

Research on the effects of women leaders on people’s perceptions of women’s leadership potential has produced mixed results, with some studies suggesting a positive impact and others reporting varying outcomes. In the present research, drawing on the power dynamics literature, we highlight the importance of distinguishing between substantive and symbolic women leaders. This distinction is critical because substantive leadership positions, unlike symbolic ones, grant real decision-making power, enabling women leaders to demonstrate agency—a potentially important factor in shifting perceptions of women’s leadership potential. We analyzed a large-scale archival dataset and found that substantive, rather than symbolic, women leaders were associated with higher perceptions of women’s leadership potential. We label this phenomenon the substantive leadership effect. Furthermore, we investigated how male and female respondents differ in their change of perceptions of women leadership capacity. We found that male respondents tend to trust women leaders less, yet when exposed to female national leaders, their increase is more evident that female counterparts. Our study implies the importance of increasing a more comprehensive representation in political leadership.

Dr. Tony Huiquan ZHANG is an associate professor and master program coordinator at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Macau. He obtained his PhD degree from the University of Toronto (2018). His research interests include political culture, social media, diversity and tolerance, and Asia-Pacific societies. His works have been published at journals such as the British Journal of Sociology, Sociology, China Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, Chinese Sociological Review, Political Psychology, among others.