Beyond Proving Competence: Evidentiary Substantiation and the Gendered Production of Professional Authority

This study examines how women leaders in male-dominated industries substantiate professional expertise when they perceive heightened demands for evidentiary support. It focuses on the forms, timing and persistence of evidentiary work through which existing expertise becomes recognised as professional authority, and what this reveals about the gendering of authority after formal leadership inclusion. This is a preprint of a manuscript submitted to Gender, Work & Organization on 29 September 2026. It has not yet undergone peer review.