Gaslighting Female Leadership: All Gas, No Brakes!

Abstract

In this study, we asked: Does female leadership style safeguard Black female leaders against gaslighting? Between September 2023 and December 2023, we read case studies, reviewed numerous government publications and documents, and read peer-reviewed published articles and scholarly books retrieved from Google Scholar and library databases. Burn’s (1978) definition of a transformational leader is how we, too, define a leader. One definition of gaslighting stood out, and we used that definition to operationalize our investigation (Duignan, 2023). We found that when female leaders are exposed to gaslighting, they are less likely to participate in workforce leadership initiatives. Gaslighting negatively impacts female leaders’ performance; nonetheless, a few female leadership styles safeguard female leaders from the drawbacks of gaslighting. We make four recommendations that will help Black female leaders avoid the pitfalls of gaslighting.