Gender bias rewards assertiveness in male leaders but can penalize the same trait in women.

Judgments of women’s likability and appearance can overshadow their policies and competence.

Rosalind Cardinal identifies four positive leadership archetypes a woman can embody.

As humans, we all have unconscious biases that influence our most important choices: where we live and with whom; who we consider friends and enemies; who we choose to govern; what we believe about our universe and about God. It may be impossible to rid ourselves of all our biases, but we can become aware of them and how they shape our decisions. Biases lead us to create stereotypes of people or ideas, and these stereotypes can limit our interactions with and understanding of others and the world.

With early voting, many Americans have already gone to the polls or will go in less than a week. What leadership qualities do you consider essential in a candidate? Does a candidate’s gender affect your evaluation? Do you consider some personality traits as masculine or feminine? Take a minute to remember when and how you first developed these beliefs.

In 1984, psychiatrist and Jungian analyst Jean Shibola Bolen wrote a revolutionary book, Goddesses in Everywoman: A New Psychology of Women. Bolen’s aim was to deter women from identifying with repressive cultural stereotypes that narrowed their self-image, capabilities, and role in society. Using the Greek goddesses as models, Bolen offered modern women portraits of the female deities that represented archetypal patterns still active in modern women’s psyches.

Women might discover their “inner Athena,” the warrior goddess, ally to male heroes and known for her strategic prowess in battle. Born fully formed from her father Zeus’s head, Athena was depicted in full battle armor—breastplate, helmet, spear—and honored for her practical intelligence and sound planning. Bolen examined seven goddess types—nurturing Demeter, intuitive Persephone, calm Hestia, queenly Hera, creative Aphrodite, and autonomous Artemis—each with her own backstory and attributes, breaking through old stereotypes........

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