We advance our understanding of women’s continued underrepresentation in leadership positions by highlighting the subtle, but damaging, role benevolent sexism, a covert and socially accepted form of sexism, plays in this process. Drawing on and integrating previously disparate literatures on benevolent sexism and social support, we develop a new theoretical model in which benevolent sexism of both women and those in their social networks (i.e., managers and intimate partners) affect women’s acquisition of career social support for advancement at two levels, interpersonal and intrapersonal, and across multiple domains, work and family. At the interpersonal level, we suggest that managers’ and intimate partners’ benevolent sexism may undermine their provision of the needed career support to advance in leadership positions for women. At the intrapersonal level, we suggest that women’s personal endorsement of benevolent sexism may undermine their ability to recognize and willingness to seek out career support from their family members (i.e., intimate partners) and managers for advancement to leadership positions. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.

中文翻译：

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为什么还是这么少？仁慈的性别歧视和职业支持在女性担任领导职位的持续代表性不足中的作用的理论模型

我们通过强调微妙但具有破坏性的仁慈性别歧视（一种隐蔽且被社会接受的性别歧视形式）在此过程中发挥作用，加深了我们对女性在领导职位中持续代表人数不足的理解。借鉴和整合以前关于仁慈性别歧视和社会支持的不同文献，我们开发了一个新的理论模型，其中女性及其社交网络中的人（即管理者和亲密伙伴）的仁慈性别歧视影响女性获得职业社会支持以促进进步在两个层面上，人际交往和个人内在，并跨越多个领域，工作和家庭。在人际层面，我们认为经理和亲密伙伴的仁慈性别歧视可能会破坏他们提供所需的职业支持以提升女性领导职位。在个人层面，我们认为女性个人对善意的性别歧视的认可可能会削弱她们认识和愿意从家庭成员（即亲密伙伴）和经理那里寻求职业支持以晋升到领导职位的能力。讨论了对理论和未来研究的影响。