Men exert greater influence than women and resist women’s influence more than women do because ofthe greater power that men possess in group interactions. Men’s power advantageis reflected in research on the influence of solo men versus solo women over groupdecisions. Craig and Sherif (1986) reported research showing that solo men ingroups of women exerted a disproportionately large amount of influence over their groups’ decisions, whereas solo women did not. ... Why does being in a minority create an apparent disadvantage for females, but an advantage for males? Minority status tends to highlight gender stereotypes and elicit greater gender-stereotypical behavior (Yoder). As a result, theamount of task contributions of individual male members increases as the proportion of men in a group goes down, whereas the amount of task contributions offemale members increases as the proportion of women in a group goes up (Johnson&Schulman, 1989). Because task contributions typically facilitate influence(Mullen, Salas, & Driskell, 1989), especially for males (Butler & Geis, 1990;Ridgeway, 1982; Walker, Ilardi, McMahon, & Fennell, 1996), the high amount oftask contributions of males in the minority lead to considerable influence, whereas the relative silence of minority females interferes with theirs. The presence of other same-sex group members may empower women and girls and encourage their participation. It is also likely to change the nature of the interaction, including the behaviors shown by males, so that the group members display more mutual supportand agreeableness.

http://academics.wellesley.edu/Psychology/Psych/Faculty/Carli/GenderAndSocialInfluence.pdf