In short, the double bind is defined as a series of interlocking stereotypes about men, women, and leadership. For a woman, being nice, kind, or friendly is a gender stereotype. Alternately, being tough and decisive is a leadership stereotype. The so-called double bind occurs when women can't be both. If a woman is seen as kind or friendly, they are perceived as weak, but if a woman is tough or decisive, they are perceived as competent but cold or unlikeable. All in all, this happens because our minds try to align stereotypes about men and women with stereotypes about leadership (Vedantam, 2018).

This 22-minute podcast from NPR dives into this double bind in minute detail and provides multiple perspectives about this topic.

One main takeaway from the podcast refers to suggestions for women to escape this double bind. One way to go about it is to ignore criticisms about incompetence and to move full steam ahead (Vedantam, 2018). This to me seems more the way to go because it instills a sense of confidence when they simply let go of the criticism. The other method suggests going out of your way to demonstrate kindness if seen as unlikeable. What makes this suggestion particularly disturbing arises from the fact that we are essentially asking women (in this case victims of gender bias) to compensate for the biases of others (Vendantam, 2018).