Gender and Hierarchy in Groups over Time

Little is known about how gender influences the shape of social hierarchies in groups. We examined different models of how sex composition may influence group hierarchy over time and tested these models with two longitudinal studies of groups. In both studies, women preferred equality norms more than men did. All-male and majority-male groups began with, and retained, relatively steep hierarchies. All-female groups began with, and retained, relatively flat hierarchies. Balanced and majority-female groups resembled all-male and majority-male groups at the onset of group interaction, but were less centralized over time. Women led more than men in majority-male groups after 10 weeks of interaction. Otherwise, there were no sex differences in leadership. Leadership centralization and inequality were negatively related to interpersonal relations and morale in groups, and with group performance in Study 2. Results were most supportive of a model based on sex differences in preferences for equality in groups.