How Women on Boards Navigate the "Warmth-Competence" Line: Interviews with more than 40 women explore how they exert power and influence while being held to a different standard than their male peers.

This article examines how women directors on U.S. publicly traded company boards navigate the "warmth-competence" line—a gendered expectation to simultaneously display warmth and empathy alongside competence and directness—to exert influence without facing backlash. Based on interviews with 43 women board members, the research identifies six participation tactics—asking, connecting, asserting, qualifying, waiting, and checking—that women use strategically to balance these expectations and enhance their effectiveness. The article highlights ongoing gender-based barriers in boardrooms that can contribute to burnout and turnover among women directors, and it recommends organizational strategies such as broadening board selection criteria, fostering inclusive participation norms, improving onboarding processes, and facilitating support networks to better integrate and empower women on boards.