Gender (Under)Representation in the CIP Model

The continued advancement of women into leadership positions has prompted investigations into the generalizability of the extant body of knowledge regarding leadership to this population. As previous research reveals, women face unique challenges and encounter distinct experiences that shape their mental models and how they lead. Although this phenomenon has been explored in the leadership literature more broadly, the CIP model of leadership remains engrained in an almost exclusively male-dominated framework. Drawing on the gender and leadership literature, the present chapter provides an initial look into how the CIP model and its underlying dimensions may apply to women’s effectiveness and perceptions of their effectiveness in leadership positions and why a reexamination of CIP’s theoretical foundations are needed if it intends to represent how both men and women lead. Further, the chapter argues that the unique gendered expectations placed on women in both organizations and society more generally may create incongruity between women’s mental model formation and expressions. With a notable absence of empirical data available on the topic of women in CIP, the present chapter seeks to provide a framework for advancing the theory in an inclusive manner to further both its development as well as the development of women in leadership.