Tomorrow\u27s Leading Ladies: How Core Self-Evaluations, Leadership Perceptions, and Social Support Influence Young Women\u27s Leadership Aspirations

Given that women are an underrepresented population in organizational leadership, the purpose of this dissertation was to understand the forces driving college-aged women’s leadership aspirations. Using a two-study design, the current research sought to understand the influence that internal (psychological) and external (social) factors can have on a young woman’s desire to lead. In Study One, which included 228 college-aged female participants, results indicated there was a significant, positive between Core Self Evaluations (CSE) and leadership aspirations and provided partial support for the mediating effects of leadership fit on the CSE-aspiration relationship. Results from Study One failed to support the hypothesized mediating effects of mentor presence on the CSE-leadership aspiration relationship. In addition, results of Study One failed to support CSE as a mediator of the relationship between role model status and leadership aspirations. Thus, Study One supported the importance of CSE in aspirations and suggests that the fit between self-perceived leader traits and stereotypes of a successful leader may also be important in understanding aspirations. Study Two, which only included those participants that indicated they had a mentor within the last 12-months, again supported the relationship between CSE and leadership aspirations, but failed to support the mediating effects of mentor quality on the CSE-aspirations relationship. Overall, results support the influence of internal factors on leadership aspirations, highlight the importance of a woman’s self-identification as a potential leader, and provide insight to help better understand how to best utilize mentoring to increase young women’s desires to reach leadership positions within their careers. A discussion of the results, limitations, and potential future directions for research are also provided