Women and men politicians: are some of the best leaders dissatisfied?

Today’s political arena calls for strong leadership. As technology facilitates information sharing, constituents are becoming more vocal in governmental affairs. Legislators are now expected to be transformational leaders who envision the future needs of constituents and are capable of negotiating, mediating, and championing these causes in an effective and credible manner. Using transformational leadership theory, this article examines the perceived leadership styles among state‐level legislators in the United States as well as the relationship between leadership style and perceptions of extra effort, effectiveness, and satisfaction. Leaders in this study described their style as transformational and perceived high extra effort from their followers. Yet, compared to women, male politicians had more positive perceptions of effectiveness and satisfaction with their leadership style. This substantiates research that women in male‐dominated careers report less self‐confidence. Future research might verify this study’s contradictory findings that female politicians, with transformational styles, are not satisfied with their leadership.