Gender stereotypes of leaders: An analysis of the contents of obituaries from 1974 to 1998

The present study investigates changes in gender stereotypes by an unobtrusive method. Obituaries of deceased women and men in leading positions as published in four German language newspapers between 1974 and 1998 were analyzed. Following a previous study (E. Kirchler, 1992), terms used in the obituaries to describe former leaders were classified into 58 categories. Frequencies of descriptions were analyzed with regard to leadership success, stability of attributes, and person-orientation versus task-orientation. Results show that gender images were dissimilar in content each of the years. In 1992 and 1998, however, female and male stereotypes became more similar.