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Abstract: The paper considers various aspects of women's leadership and analyzes the factors that led to a more active involvement of women in social, economic and political life in the late 20th century. The authors study the influence of common gender stereotypes on the behavior of people. The article presents the results of research of the content of gender stereotypes. Both male and female respondents show similar opinions about the qualities men and women are expected to possess. Women are ascribed such qualities as kindness, wisdom, and femininity; men are believed to be responsible, masculine, honest and purposeful. Conventional stereotypes of public consciousness create difficulties for women leaders. They experience inter-character conflict as the role of the leader is traditionally associated by society with masculine qualities. The problems of women leaders are analyzed from the viewpoint of the authors of leadership theories: R. Kanter’s tokenism conception and A. Eagly’s social-role theory. The data collected indicates the male prevalence at the managerial level in academic institutions of Russia and other countries. Two ways are significant to reduce the gender disproportion in management: institutional and psychological-educational.