5: Benders (and Leaders) Come in All Genders: Implicit Theories of Leadership and How to Support Leaders of All Genders

When Korra is in training to be the Avatar, there are those in the world (and even some fans!) who don’t think she is “worthy” to be the Avatar. They look to the previous Avatar, Aang, and their own ideas of what an Avatar should be like in making that judgment. How others treat Korra is impacted by these ideas of who an Avatar “should be.”

We actually see a similar situation with leadership, where there are beliefs about what a leader should be, despite many of these beliefs being unrelated to performance. In our own world, we see biases that leaders should be male and have particular masculine characteristics.