Chapter 3: A Fairytale Career: Media Representations of Australia’s First Female Banking CEO

Leadership is a highly gendered phenomenon. The prevalent underrepresentation of women in executive leadership positions and ongoing challenges for the few who occupy those positions reflect an abiding association between leadership and men and masculinities (Alvesson & Billing, 2009). Mainstream theorizing, development, and practice have traditionally defined leadership in masculine terms, romanticizing paternalism and conquest (Collinson & Hearn, 1994; Kerfoot & Knights, 1993). Consequently, female leaders often find themselves in a “double bind” (Jamieson, 1995), in which they are expected to simultaneously enact stereotypical notions of masculinity to persuade their competence and stereotypical notions of femininity to maintain their likeability (Hall & Donaghue, 2012).