Sterre van Niekerken

Gender inequality in leadership is a global challenge (Word Economic Forum, 2024). Leader emergence is one of the main areas in which women continue to lag behind men (Badura et al., 2018; World Economic Forum, 2025). To counteract this pattern, many countries have introduced gender quota policies. These initiatives rest on the assumption that more balanced team gender ratios increase women’s chances to emerge as leaders (Kanter, 1977). Yet empirical evidence on the effects of gender ratio is inconsistent. Additionally, despite the interactional and behavioral nature of leader emergence, past studies have rarely observed actual behaviors (Banks, 2023; DeRue & Ashford, 2010). In this study, we address these gaps by taking a behavioral approach to leadership emergence. We apply a coding scheme to capture leadership behaviors in teams with varying gender ratios (Nteams = 50). We then link these behaviors to leader emergence for men and women, using ratings from team members, and leadership evaluations from external HR experts.