CEO gender and audience responses: the role of gender stereotypes in organization sustainability communication

Purpose The aim of this article is to examine how CEO gender influences audience responses to corporate sustainability communications by adjudicating between two competing theoretical perspectives. While general leadership stereotypes suggest male CEOs should receive more favorable social evaluations across contexts, domain-specific stereotypes linking feminine traits with prosocial and sustainability-related values suggest female CEOs might have advantages specifically in sustainability communication. The study aims to resolve which theoretical mechanism prevails and identifies subsequent stakeholder attitudes and behavioral intentions. Design/methodology/approach We conducted two between-subjects survey experiments utilizing AI-generated CEO personas that systematically manipulated CEO gender while holding all other observable characteristics constant. Participants watched identical sustainability communications delivered by either a male or a female CEO avatar and evaluated the CEO’s leadership quality and likability, the sustainability message, and their behavioral intentions to support the company. Findings Results supported the general leadership stereotype perspectives over the domain-specific advantage perspective across both studies. Male CEOs received significantly higher ratings on perceived leadership quality and likability compared to female CEOs delivering identical sustainability messages. These differences in perception systematically predicted more favorable attitudes toward the sustainability initiatives and stronger behavioral intentions to support the firm, including a willingness to work for the company. Originality/value Addressing a critical theoretical tension, this article adjudicates between competing perspectives on gender stereotypes in leadership, demonstrating that evaluative disadvantages for female leaders face persist even in domains where feminine traits might confer advantages. This establishes important boundary conditions (of lack thereof) for leadership categorization processes. Methodologically, our use of AI-generated CEO personas provides a novel approach for studying observable CEO characteristics while maintaining experimental control.