Despite some improvements in gender representation on corporate boards, research has attributed such improvement to the firms’ impression management efforts to mitigate stakeholder pressures (e.g., Benton, 2021). This implies that gender bias persists within boardrooms, requiring female directors to overcome the double bind of being perceived as having lower competence and warmth when seeking leadership positions on boards. To address this issue, this research investigates how board members evaluate female directors’ leadership potential as indicated by her likelihood of serving board leadership positions. By integrating insights from status characteristics theory and research on gender stereotypes, we offer a nuanced understanding of female directors’ attainment of board leadership positions by examining how different status cue indicated by their specific career backgrounds signaling her agency and communion may complement or violate the stereotypes against female directors. Analyses using S&P1500 company data from 2009 through 2020 revealed that the leadership gap between female and male directors disappears when a female director had financial experience and longer board tenure, whereas such gap widens when a female director had managerial experience.
