Climbing Through Gender Workplace Bias: Exploring How Emotional Intelligence Can Help Women Navigate Barriers to Career Advancement and Satisfaction

Women face invisible barriers and obstacles that hinder their career advancement, often referred to as the broken rungs on the corporate ladder. This exploratory study examined whether emotional intelligence (EI)—conceptualized as perceived relationship awareness and leader-member exchange (LMX)—contributes to explaining women’s career advancement and career satisfaction, beyond the effects of self-reported gender biases in the workplace. The study assessed six related but distinct gender-related workplace biases: self-shielding, unequal standards, queen bee effect, lack of mentorship, challenges to competence, and glass cliff. The research design was a cross-sectional survey that adapted validated multi-item scales, with a sample of 165 full-time employed women across various industries. Findings indicate a more consistent negative relationship between self-reported gender workplace biases and career satisfaction versus career advancement. Relationship awareness and LMX each had significant positive relationships to both career variables. However, in hierarchical regression analyses, only LMX had a significant positive additive impact for explaining both career advancement and career satisfaction, beyond controlling for demographic and gender workplace bias variables. Relationship awareness had a significant positive additive impact for only career advancement. These results reinforce awareness that relational competencies can add to understanding career outcomes for professional women beyond experienced gender workplace biases.