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Status incongruity and backlash effects: Defending the gender hierarchy motivates prejudice against female leaders
Abstract
Agentic female leaders risk social and economic penalties for behaving counter-stereotypically (i.e., backlash; Rudman, 1998), but what motivates prejudice against female leaders? The status incongruity hypothesis (SIH) proposes that agentic women are penalized for status violations because doing so defends the gender hierarchy. Consistent with this view, Study 1 found that women are proscribed from dominant, high status displays (which are reserved for leaders and men); Studies 2–3 revealed that prejudice against agentic fe-male leaders was mediated by a dominance penalty; and in Study 3, participants' gender system-justifying beliefs moderated backlash effects. Study 4 found that backlash was exacerbated when perceivers were primed with a system threat. Study 5 showed that only female leaders who threatened the status quo suf-fered sabotage. In concert, support for the SIH suggests that backlash functions to preserve male dominance by reinforcing a double standard for power and control.
... men) to work parttime. Conversely, following the expectation to be agentic, especially men may aim to be career-oriented (e.g., Eagly et al., 2020;Rudman et al., 2012b). As such, men might typically not self-select into part-time work (see above), as doing so would be at odds with just that expectation (Kjeldstad & Nymoen, 2012;Ng & Feldman, 2008;Weeden et al., 2016). ...
... When it comes to overtime (e.g., Brereton, 1990;van der Lippe et al., 2006;Van Echtelt et al., 2009), following the expectation that especially men be agentic breadwinners (e.g., career-oriented and ambitious; Rudman et al., 2012b), men (more than women) should work overtime to advance their careers and to attain additional income (e.g., Berdahl et al., 2018;Lott & Chung, 2016). By climbing up the career ladder and bolstering their paychecks, men can signal that they "put work first" (Berdahl et al., 2018, p. 433)-actions they should value themselves when they conceive of themselves as agentic (e.g., Hsu et al., 2021). ...
... Conversely, women, in particular, are expected to be helpful and cooperative (i.e., communal; e.g., Eagly et al., 2020;Rudman et al., 2012b). Therefore, women (more than men) likely work overtime because they "step in" for colleagues (Heilman & Chen, 2005). ...
Gender inequities can be partly traced back to gender differences in working time
arrangements. In fact, it is established knowledge that women as compared to men are more (less) likely to work part-time (overtime). Based on social role theory, however, we also expect gender differences among part-time and overtime workers, such that women and men differ in why they work part-time or overtime. In a preregistered and highly powered study conducted in Germany (N = 3,844–17,361, depending on the analysis), we observed that, on average, women were more likely than men to work part-time (i.e., fewer than 35 hours per week) because of personal or family obligations. Moreover, in comparison to men, women
were less likely to work overtime (i.e., at least two hours per week) to attain additional income, but more likely to work overtime to step in for colleagues. Altogether, people had “gendered” reasons to work certain hours. Furthermore, as people’s paid working time arrangements are intertwined with their lives outside of the workplace, we examined women’s and men’s work–life interface and observed that women (as compared to men) deemed it less acceptable to be available for work-related issues during leisure time. We discuss implications for future theorizing and for practitioners who aim to design work schedules that consider the different lived experiences of women and men.
... In the case of gender, the gender hierarchy reflects an unequal system in which men have an advantageous position over women and benefit from higher social status and power than women. Gender stereotypes, which assign characteristics such as assertiveness, competitiveness, and ambition to men and characteristics such as sociability, warmth, and sensitivity to women, contribute to this gender hierarchy (Rudman et al., 2012b). Indeed, the characteristics which are stereotypically associated with men are labeled agency and reflect higher status, while the characteristics associated with women are labeled communion and reflect lower status (Rudman et al., 2012b). ...
... Gender stereotypes, which assign characteristics such as assertiveness, competitiveness, and ambition to men and characteristics such as sociability, warmth, and sensitivity to women, contribute to this gender hierarchy (Rudman et al., 2012b). Indeed, the characteristics which are stereotypically associated with men are labeled agency and reflect higher status, while the characteristics associated with women are labeled communion and reflect lower status (Rudman et al., 2012b). The backlash effect thus builds on system justification theory and suggests that by displaying traits or behaviors which are incongruent with their assigned status as men or women, counter-stereotypical individuals threaten the gender hierarchy. ...
... The questionnaire also included a measure of perceived competence, asking participants to rate how competent they thought the target was on a 7-point Likert scale (1-Not at all to 7-Very much). This item is often included in backlash research on adults and usually shows no backlash effect against counterstereotypical targets (Rudman et al., 2012b;Sullivan et al., 2018). ...
Research on the backlash effect has long studied the social sanctions that individuals impose on those who do not conform to stereotypical expectations. Specifically, research has focused on reactions to gender stereotype violations. Studies have shown that adults, adolescents, and even children will sanction others when they fail to conform to gender stereotypes. The present pre-registered research (https://tinyurl.com/4epypv3a) studied this gender backlash among adolescents in French middle and high-schools. For this study, we were also interested in exploring the moderating role of participants’ socioeconomic status in their expression of backlash. We created four profiles of adolescents presenting their candidacy for a school representative role. The profiles varied in the personality traits and behaviors they contained (stereotypically feminine vs. masculine) and the gender of the target (boy vs. girl). A sample of 840 participants between the ages of 13 and 18 rated the target adolescent on measures intended to capture backlash, as well as gender stereotypicality items. Using multilevel models to analyze our data, we did not find evidence of backlash as hypothesized. However, unexpectedly, on a measure of perception of arrogance, we found that participants judged a counter-stereotypical target more positively than a stereotypical target. Furthermore, we also found evidence that, compared to stereotypical targets, counter-stereotypical targets were judged more competent, mostly by high SES adolescents. Possible methodological and theoretical explanations for these results are discussed, as well as implications for future research on the backlash effect, particularly among adolescents.
... Men's gender role prescribes agency and competitiveness (the desire to win and succeed as a breadwinner), unlike women's prescribed communal gender role (Eagly et al. 2020;Eagly and Wood 2012;Hsu et al. 2021;Rudman et al. 2012). These gender roles, which are perpetuated via prescriptive stereotypes-how women and men should behave-and proscriptive stereotypes-how women and men should not behave (Bosson et al. 2022) are persistent. ...
... Social role theory, the predominate theory of gender roles, predicts that gender effects emerge when gender is salient and there is a lack of fit between one's gender and the gendered nature of the situation (Eagly and Karau 2002;Eagly and Wood 2012). As discussed earlier, women's prescribed gender role involves communality and caring for others, whereas men's prescribed gender role involves agency and assertive selfadvocacy (Eagly et al. 2020;Eagly and Wood 2012;Rudman et al. 2012). Importantly, these roles may be a better or worse fit depending upon the nature of the negotiation situation. ...
... In this way, transparent salary information may amplify perceived visibility, thereby inducing competitiveness in men to a greater extent than women. In other words, given that competitiveness is embedded in men's gender role (Eagly et al. 2020;Eagly and Wood 2012;Rudman et al. 2012), and negotiation is a context in which masculinity is at stake for men, especially when visibility is cued (Mazei et al. 2021), we theorize that transparent salary information could be perceived as a threat to masculinity, thereby spurring competitiveness in men, especially if the salary information implies certain types of social comparison. ...
Although pay transparency is a widely accepted remedy for the gender pay gap, research has devoted little attention to the specific types of salary information that are available to job seekers and whether the framing of this information moderates gender differences in negotiation outcomes. We first conducted an exploratory study to investigate whether men and women differ in how much they rely on and perceive the usefulness of various sources of salary information. A survey of experienced MBA students revealed that, relative to women, men tend to place greater value on sources that involve direct social comparisons (e.g., professional networks) as opposed to more aggregate, general sources (e.g., websites). We then conducted a controlled experiment using a hypothetical job offer negotiation to determine whether framing salary information in terms of social comparison moderates gender gaps in salary requests. Our results supported a moderated mediation model, revealing that men requested higher salaries than women when presented with upward social comparison information (i.e., what a more qualified employee earns), but not downward (i.e., what a less qualified employee earns) or lateral comparison information (i.e., what a similarly qualified employee earns). These effects were driven by heightened competitiveness among men. We also discovered that both men and women experienced the greatest boost in competitiveness and salary requests when presented with downward social comparison information. Overall, salary information is effective in reducing gender gaps, but the effects are nuanced, as they depend on the social comparison inherent to the information.
... A similar concept, often underestimated by women, is the 'double bind' (Kolb, 2012;Ely and Meyerson, 2010;Gerdes, 2010;Eagly and Karau, 2002). Women also face stereotypes (Rudman et al., 2012;Heilman, 2012;Koenig et al., 2010;Fiske et al., 2007), as noted in the gendered leadership and women's literature, which examines such issues. Researchers know that, although women encounter manifold barriers on their career paths toward top positions, these are only part of the overall situation. ...
... Agentic traits (a decisive and assertive attitude) are associated with men rather than women, whereas communal traits (a nurturing and caring attitude) are associated with women (Heilman and Caleo, 2018;Heilman, 2012). As a result, successful management is not ascribed to both genders (Rudman et al., 2012;Brenner et al., 1981;Schein 1973); this adds a dimension to 'doing gender' and 'doing leadership' (Fletcher, 2004). Likewise, recruiting processes (Doldor et al., 2012) make it more challenging for women to attain decision-making positions (Wippermann, 2010); here again, embedded gender images appear to guide the recruiting process (Tienari et al., 2013). ...
... The lack-of-fit model states that there is incongruity between the attributes that women are expected to have and the attributes associated with success in male-typed areas. The mismatch presents obstacles to women's career development (Rudman et al., 2012;Heilman, 2012;Koenig et al., 2011), thereby sustaining gendered work practices. Male networks are substantially larger and more powerful than women's networks because more men hold dominant positions (Carli and Eagly, 2011). ...
This study aims to explain the continued relative absence of female managers in top positions, within the context of the current legally binding gender-quota debate in Germany.
This study uses the concept of embedded gender images, rooted in a historical, cultural, and societal context, to explore the relationship between tokenism and gender quotas. To support this investigation, insights from research on stereotypes, barriers, and bias are incorporated into a discussion of the relationship between tokenism and gender quotas through the concept of embedded gender images.
... Proscriptive stereotypes dictate how men and women cannot or should not behave, i.e., women should not be dominant, while men should not be weak (Prentice & Carranza, 2002). Thus, prescriptive and proscriptive gender stereotypes pressure both men and women to engage in behaviors that are consistent with gender expectations and lead to social and economic penalties when they are challenged (Rudman et al., 2012). ...
... For instance, dominant women, or those who take on leadership roles, are perceived as higher in competence, but less likable, while non-dominant women are viewed as less competent, but more likable, negatively impacting women in the workplace, especially regarding salary negotiations and promotion (Bowles et al., 2007;Infanger et al., 2016;Rudman, 1998;Rudman et al., 2012). In a similar vein, research finds that men are viewed as less competent and likable when they show weakness, or when they appear as feminine (Kinahan & Bosak, 2016;Levant, 1996;Moss-Racusin, 2014;Moss-Racusin & Johnson, 2016), which not only negatively impacts their mental and physical health but also prevents them from engaging in counter-stereotypic behavior in the future (Charles & Walters, 2008;Heilman & Wallen, 2010;Himmelstein & Sanchez, 2016). ...
... Consistent with the gender backlash literature, we predicted that parents would be viewed more favorably (higher in likability, competence, and appropriateness) for reprimanding their children for gender deviant behavior (due to social pressure for gender stereotype consistency; Rudman et al., 2012) and viewed more negatively (lower in likability, competence, and appropriateness) for affirming their children's gender deviant behavior (due to parental failure to reaffirm gender consistent stereotypes). ...
Although adult women and men receive social and economic penalties for violating prescriptive gender stereotypes, few studies have explored the consequences that children may face for gender stereotype violations and even less are aimed at perceptions of parental responses to gender norm deviance in their children. Across three pre-registered studies using United States-based, English-speaking participants, we examined how parents are perceived by adults when they reprimand their gender-deviant children compared to affirming or a control condition, and how children are perceived for gender-deviant behavior in a classroom setting. We found that parents were perceived negatively overall when they reprimanded their child for deviant behavior and positively overall when they were accepting of their child’s behavior (Study 1). This pattern was observed when specific behaviors were mentioned (Study 2), and when age of the child was manipulated (Study 3). We also found across all studies that as participants identified as more conservative, they rated the parents more favorably when they reprimanded their gender-deviant child, whereas political orientation was unrelated to perceptions of parents who affirmed their child for gender deviant behavior, suggesting some ambivalence about how they believed parents should respond. Our data did not rule out the possibility that boys face at least marginally more negative perceptions than girls (Study 2 and Study 3), suggesting that adults' attitudes towards gender stereotype violations for boys are less flexible than girls.
... They usually span several different areas of people's characteristics, such as physical appearance, personality traits, behaviors, social roles and occupations. Stereotypical beliefs about gender may be divided into descriptive (how one perceives a person of a certain gender to be; [27]), prescriptive (how one perceives a person of a certain gender should be and behave; [28,29]) or proscriptive (how one perceives a person of a certain gender should not be and behave; [28,29]). Their content varies on the individual's culture of reference [30], but recurring themes have been observed in western culture, such as stereotypes revolving around communion, agency and competence [31]. ...
... They usually span several different areas of people's characteristics, such as physical appearance, personality traits, behaviors, social roles and occupations. Stereotypical beliefs about gender may be divided into descriptive (how one perceives a person of a certain gender to be; [27]), prescriptive (how one perceives a person of a certain gender should be and behave; [28,29]) or proscriptive (how one perceives a person of a certain gender should not be and behave; [28,29]). Their content varies on the individual's culture of reference [30], but recurring themes have been observed in western culture, such as stereotypes revolving around communion, agency and competence [31]. ...
... Women have stereotypically been associated with traits revolving around communion (e.g., supportiveness, compassion, expression, warmth), while men have been more stereotypically associated with agency (e.g., ambition, assertiveness, competitiveness, action) or competence (e.g., skill, intelligence). Both men and women may experience social and economic penalties (backlash) if they appear to violate these stereotypes [29,32,33]. ...
Media representations play an important role in producing sociocultural pressures. Despite social and legal progress in civil rights, restrictive gender-based representations appear to be still very pervasive in some contexts. The article explores scientific research on the relationship between media representations and gender stereotypes, objectification and sexualization, focusing on their presence in the cultural context. Results show how stereotyping, objectifying and sexualizing representations appear to be still very common across a number of contexts. Exposure to stereotyping representations appears to strengthen beliefs in gender stereotypes and endorsement of gender role norms, as well as fostering sexism, harassment and violence in men and stifling career-related ambitions in women. Exposure to objectifying and sexualizing representations appears to be associated with the internalization of cultural ideals of appearance, endorsement of sexist attitudes and tolerance of abuse and body shame. In turn, factors associated with exposure to these representations have been linked to detrimental effects on physical and psychological well-being, such as eating disorder symptomatology, increased body surveillance and poorer body image quality of life. However, specificities in the pathways from exposure to detrimental effects on well-being are involved for certain populations that warrant further research.
... Research has identified negative perception biases against young adults in leadership positions (e.g., Buengeler et al., 2016;Kunze and Menges, 2016). This is consistent with studies on gender and leadership, which reveal similar biases against female leaders (Ridgeway, 2001;Eagly and Karau, 2002;Rudman et al., 2012). These biases can be explained, OPEN ACCESS EDITED BY in part, by the lower status beliefs associated with demographic characteristics such as young age or gender (i.e., diffuse status characteristics, e.g., Lianidou and Zheng, 2022). ...
... We used the same leader evaluation measures as those employed in Study 1. These measures include perceived leader status (Djurdjevic et al., 2017), perceived leader effectiveness (Giessner and van Knippenberg, 2008;Gündemir et al., 2019), and leader liking (Rudman et al., 2012). Cronbach's alpha for perceived leader status was 0.95. ...
Research has recognized age biases against young leaders, yet understanding of how gender, the most frequently studied demographic leader characteristic, influences this bias remains limited. In this study, we examine the gender-specific age bias toward young female and young male leaders through an intersectional lens. By integrating intersectionality theory with insights on status beliefs associated with age and gender, we test whether young female and male leaders face an interactive rather than an additive form of bias. We conducted two preregistered experimental studies ( N 1 = 918 and N 2 = 985), where participants evaluated leaders based on age, gender, or a combination of both. Our analysis reveals a negative age bias in leader status ascriptions toward young leaders compared to middle-aged and older leaders. This bias persists when gender information is added, as demonstrated in both intersectional categories of young female and young male leaders. This bias pattern does not extend to middle-aged or older female and male leaders, thereby supporting the age bias against young leaders specifically. Interestingly, we also examined whether social dominance orientation strengthens the bias against young (male) leaders, but our results (reported in the SOM) are not as hypothesized. In sum, our results emphasize the importance of young age as a crucial demographic characteristic in leadership perceptions that can even overshadow the role of gender.
... Clinton may have paid a 'social dominance penalty' for competing agentically with men. See Rudman et al. (2012). have a common goal: to retain the patriarchal social order. ...
... While hermeneutical injustice is not perpetrated by individuals, its effects influence testimonial exchanges as when, for example, the complainant is accused of pursuing the accused for ulterior motives. These negative prejudicial stereotypes, which embody abiding systemic prejudices, are called forth when the status of powerful (successful, attractive, wealthy, influential) is threatened: the women are not conforming to patriarch expectations (Rudman et al. 2012). The demeaning stereotypes may also emerge from a pervading sense of aggrieved male entitlement that render sexism and misogyny normal. ...
The pandemic affected more than 1.5 billion students and youth, and the most vulnerable learners were hit hardest, making digital inequality in educational settings impossible to overlook. Given this reality, we, all educators, came together to find ways to understand and address some of these inequalities. As a product of this collaboration, we propose a methodological toolkit: a theoretical kaleidoscope to examine and critique the constitutive elements and dimensions of digital inequalities. We argue that such a tool is helpful when a critical attitude to examine ‘the ideology of digitalism’, its concomitant inequalities, and the huge losses it entails for human flourishing seems urgent. In the paper, we describe different theoretical approaches that can be used for the kaleidoscope. We give relevant examples of each theory. We argue that the postdigital does not mean that the digital is over, rather that it has mutated into new power structures that are less evident but no less insidious as they continue to govern socio-technical infrastructures, geopolitics, and markets. In this sense, it is vital to find tools that allow us to shed light on such invisible and pervasive power structures and the consequences in the daily lives of so many.KeywordsTheoretical kaleidoscopeToolkitMethodologyDigital inequalitiesPostdigitalCollaborative writing
... Herbst (2020) established that a lack of confidence triggers women to underestimate their performance and skills by not taking credit for success. A possible reason is that women are fearful of getting adverse comments about their personality if they behave aggressively, and they are often asked to tone down interpersonal behaviour (Rudman et al., 2012). Among other studies, Ashourizadeh et al. (2014) and Belás et al. (2015) found no evidence of gender differences in self-confidence levels. ...
... This could be because of the lower self-confidence level possessed by female CEOs relating to the decisions in managing business and innovation (Taylor & Hood, 2011;Lim & Envick, 2013;Zalata et al., 2019). Women are afraid to be perceived adversely if they behave aggressively, and they are usually asked to tone down their interpersonal behaviour (Rudman et al., 2012). In contrast, men are more prone to overestimate their abilities and overly optimistic about profits in risky projects and thus investing more in them (Herbst, 2020). ...
... Individuals who adopt roles incongruent with gender norms face a backlashi.e. strong social and economic penaltiesaimed at defending gender hierarchies and the current status quo, with men in the privileged position (Rudman et al., 2012). This can have widespread effects on labour market outcomes (lower wages or lack of promotion) and cause hostility in the working environment and social punishment (disapproval, mockery and taunting). ...
... Although the backlash effect is usually discussed in the context of female discrimination and remains understudied in men, Rudman et al. (2012) suggested that gender norms are strongly proscriptive on how both genders ought and ought not behave. Recent studies have provided support for the hypothesis that men who violate prescriptive and proscriptive gender norms also face the risk of backlash. ...
Purpose: Following Goldberg’s paradigm, the study investigates whether women and men are at risk of differential treatment by HR professionals in recruitment and dismissal processes and focuses on the impact of exogenous factors, such as discrimination and gender norms.
Design: A total of 155 individuals with experience as HR professionals participated in a randomised vignette study. In Task 1, they evaluated three applicants (all three either men or women) for the post of regional sales manager based on the applicant’s competences, hireability, likeability and proposed salary. In Task 2, participants were asked to select one of six employees for dismissal and provide a rationale for their choice.
Findings: In Task 1, female applicants were offered significantly lower salaries than male applicants. In addition, average and low-performing male applicants were assessed as less likeable than identical females. In Task 2, the willingness to dismiss increased when employees with frequent absences were presented as men.
Originality: By involving a sample of HR professionals, the study contributes to the literature and practice by highlighting the differential treatment of women and men in the labour market. While women are likely to experience direct discrimination in the form of significantly lower pay offers, men may suffer a backlash due to lower educational attainment and absenteeism. The findings suggest that the labour market situation for women is complex and affected by norms and expectations requiring men to behave in a masculine and career-oriented way.
... Women are traditionally seen as being more nurturing, caring, and gentle, while men are attributed traits such as being active, competitive, able to handle tools and machines (Acker, 2012). Women are still perceived as being less aggressive, ambitious, dominant, and independent than men (Rudman et al., 2012). ...
... The research also suggests that women who have been successful and are in leadership positions have encountered major challenges in terms of traditional gender roles, not only in their personal lives but also at work, particularly in the hospitality industry, a traditional sector strongly influenced by a masculine discourse that favours stigmatized jobs (Segovia-Pérez et al., 2018). Rudman et al., (2012) suggest that women who attain leadership positions end up being seen as dominant, being penalized for not being "nice enough" and failing to do what would be expected as women. ...
The hospitality sector is still very traditional and male-dominated in terms of values, it is segregating and discriminatory according to gender, not only horizontally but also vertically, the wage differences between men and women are critical, and many of the jobs are stigmatized. Indeed, despite women representing most of the workforce in hospitality, such numerical dominance is not reflected in the leadership positions they occupy. Traditionally, men and women occupy different roles in the hospitality industry: women are more often assigned functions that are in line with their social roles and that represents an extension of their domestic tasks so that it is easier to find women in-room service or cleaning. Men, on the other hand, are more easily assigned physically demanding tasks, administrative and management functions, which require more skills and are therefore better paid. This study aims to examine the female and male social representation associated with the performance of certain roles in the hospitality sector, as perceived by tourism and hospitality students, to explore gender representations associated with different hierarchical positions and departments, and to understand some of the (in)equalities that continue to persist between men and women in hospitality. A quantitative cross-sectional study was performed to achieve the study goals. Our sample consists of 200 higher education students in tourism and hospitality. Based on Bem Sex Role Inventory short-form traits questionnaire, we applied an online questionnaire with the purpose of knowing the students’ gender representations of different professional activities in the hospitality industry. Within our results, we expect to describe the gender bias of the professional functions in the hospitality sector. On the other hand, we expect to understand possible gender differences between operational and leadership positions, and from different departments. The findings of this study will help the hotels to analyse their gender practices and policies. By giving voice to the stereotypes that foster gender inequalities in the hospitality sector, hotels can become aware of their gendered practices and policies that impact the recruitment process and the various roles and functions that are assigned to men and women.
... Hostility Lenience: Hostility Seen as More Justified against Women Politicians One reason to expect more hostile constituent contacts targeting female political leaders is, to put it harshly, that they are more disliked than their male counterparts. Role congruity theory explains that, contrary to men, women are punished and face backlash when they demonstrate qualities typical of agentic leadership (Brescoll, Okimoto, and Vial 2018;Eagly and Karau 2002;Okimoto and Brescoll 2010;Rudman et al. 2012). People prefer women to exercise leadership in a communal way: being inclusive, nondominant, and non-powerseeking and instead serving in the interest of some greater good (Brescoll, Okimoto, and Vial 2018). ...
... However, political leadership, particularly in executive roles such as mayoral offices, requires agentic qualities such as individual leadership, assertiveness, and executive decision-making. In addition to being incongruent with their gender role, agentic women are incongruent with their gender's hierarchical status (Rudman et al. 2012). Women political leaders' incongruity with their stereotypical gender role and place in the gender hierarchy leads people to dislike women political leaders. ...
We know that women politicians are harassed by constituents to a greater extent than men, but we know less about why this difference exists. This study tests potential drivers of hostility against women politicans using an original survey experiment with 7,500 respondents in the United States and Sweden. First, I test whether constituents hold more lenient attitudes toward hostility directed at women than men, which would make hostility in messages targeting women representatives more likely. Second, I test whether constituents prefer to direct their complaints to women, which would increase the risk of hostility by generating a higher number of angry contacts. Results from both countries show a preference for directing complaints to women representatives over men, but no evidence of more leniency toward hostility directed at women.
... In most human groups, the gender distinction is grounded on a system of social hierarchy that tends to guarantee more resources and more power roles to men than to women. Psychological stereotypes that attribute a higher status to men than to women tend to legitimize this asymmetry and thus contribute, along with structural factors, to the maintenance of this system (Eagly et al., 1992;Ridgeway, 2011;Rudman et al., 2012). The influence of gender hierarchy norms on gender representations is evident from early childhood. ...
Recent research has shown that by the age of 4, preschool children tend to associate social power with the male gender. The present study examined this association with a group of children from a Maya community in Guatemala, where gender inequalities are high, and tested the prediction that a strong gender hierarchy reduces girls’ perception of themselves as being dominant in dyadic power situations. However, contrary to our predictions, we did not find that children associated power with the male gender. In Experiment 1, we asked 4 to 7 years-old children (N = 70) to identify themselves with a dominant or subordinate character in same-gender and mixed-gender relationships. In contrast, to what was previously observed with French children, the results showed no significant difference between male and female participants, both of whom strongly identified with the dominant character. In Experiment 2, we asked 4 to 6 years-old participants (N = 70) to assign a gender to a dominant and subordinate character and found a strong own-gender effect, with all participants, males and females, assigning their own gender to the powerful character. Again, this contrasts with previous findings indicating that children from France, Norway and Lebanon did consistently associate power with the male gender. The absence of a male-power association in Maya children is discussed in terms of cultural differences regarding exposure to gender stereotypes, power values and representations of female-male comparisons.
... SCM predicts that groups in the high-status, lowwarmth quadrant will elicit negative emotions, such as envy and jealousy. Women politicians fall under this category and would therefore experience prejudice, particularly because people are motivated to defend the gender hierarchy and women leaders violate that hierarchy by eschewing the prescribed status of women (Rudman et al., 2012). Hostile sexism measures individual-level variation in anger toward women who are perceived to be challenging men's power. ...
This volume contains 30 chapters that provide an up-to-date account of key topics and areas of research in political psychology. In general, the chapters apply what is known about human psychology to the study of politics. Chapters draw on theory and research on biopsychology, neuroscience, personality, psychopathology, evolutionary psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, and intergroup relations. Some chapters address the political psychology of political elites—their personality, motives, beliefs, and leadership styles, and their judgments, decisions, and actions in domestic policy, foreign policy, international conflict, and conflict resolution. Other chapters deal with the dynamics of mass political behavior: voting, collective action, the influence of political communications, political socialization and civic education, group-based political behavior, social justice, and the political incorporation of immigrants. Research discussed in the volume is fueled by a mix of age-old questions and recent world events.
... SCM predicts that groups in the high-status, lowwarmth quadrant will elicit negative emotions, such as envy and jealousy. Women politicians fall under this category and would therefore experience prejudice, particularly because people are motivated to defend the gender hierarchy and women leaders violate that hierarchy by eschewing the prescribed status of women (Rudman et al., 2012). Hostile sexism measures individual-level variation in anger toward women who are perceived to be challenging men's power. ...
This volume contains 30 chapters that provide an up-to-date account of key topics and areas of research in political psychology. In general, the chapters apply what is known about human psychology to the study of politics. Chapters draw on theory and research on biopsychology, neuroscience, personality, psychopathology, evolutionary psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, and intergroup relations. Some chapters address the political psychology of political elites—their personality, motives, beliefs, and leadership styles, and their judgments, decisions, and actions in domestic policy, foreign policy, international conflict, and conflict resolution. Other chapters deal with the dynamics of mass political behavior: voting, collective action, the influence of political communications, political socialization and civic education, group-based political behavior, social justice, and the political incorporation of immigrants. Research discussed in the volume is fueled by a mix of age-old questions and recent world events.
... The findings of this study can be connected and seen through the lens of occupational science. Furthermore, the study intends to contribute to international debates that have situated occupations in the context of power relations and social institutions, from a critical occupational perspective (Farias & Laliberte Rudman, 2016;Hammell, 2019;Hocking, 2012;Molineux & Whiteford, 1999;Ramugondo, 2018;Rudman et al., 2012). ...
ABSTRACT
Literature demonstrates that most girls incarcerated in juvenile justice
institutions in Brazil come from socially vulnerable groups that face
social inequality and racial and gender discrimination, which results in
occupational inequities. This study aims to understand the daily lives of
young Brazilian girls ahead of their incarceration based on their
occupational experiences and clarify how these occupations express the
deep social inequalities that mark their life trajectories. This crosssectional qualitative exploratory study used oral history as the research
method. Twelve young girls incarcerated at a juvenile justice institution
in Minas Gerais, Brazil in 2020 were the study participants. The impact of
gender and class issues on these young girls’ daily experiences and
occupations point toward the oppressions and social inequalities to
which they were exposed since childhood. Their life stories were marked
by daily violations of their rights, such as the difficulty of accessing and
staying in school, exploitation as child labor, the lack of leisure
opportunities, exposure to various forms of violence, including sexual
violence, and general vulnerability. The concept of occupation, read
through the lens of intersectionality, makes it possible to understand
the social inequalities that cross the daily lives of vulnerable
populations, as well as provoking a critical and activist position in the
area in the face of occupational injustices.
... Drawing from status incongruity hypothesis (SIH), we examine the sexual harassment of women leaders as an antecedent to turnover intentions. SIH proposes that women (a low-status position) who engage in leadership roles (a high-status position) are met with negative attitudes and backlash for their status violations with the goal of maintaining existing male-dominated power structures (Rudman, Moss-Racusin, Phelan, & Nauts, 2012). We examine the relationship between leadership status, sexual harassment, and turnover intentions with remote work as a moderating condition. ...
... The impact of the conflict on employee wellbeing, however, would depend on the social role expectations. Past research suggested that family roles as caregivers and breadwinners are gendered (Reid, 2015;Rudman et al., 2012). Furthermore, married people generally experience significant psychological distress due to increased family responsibilities compared with singles (Poortman & Van Der Lippe, 2009;Shelton & John, 1993). ...
Traditionally, individuals who prioritize work over other aspects of life have been lauded as ideal employees. Individuals vary in the extent to which they endorse the beliefs that work should be prioritized over other aspects of life, known as the Belief in Work Priority (BWP). Various lockdown restrictions imposed due to the COVID‐19 pandemic have blurred work‐family boundary, which consequently made prioritizing work over family responsibilities challenging. A repeated cross‐sectional study was conducted to examine the relationship between BWP and employee wellbeing during (vs. before) the pandemic outbreak. We recruited 398 participants who were employed and resided in the U.S. Results revealed that during the pandemic, BWP and employee wellbeing showed a negative relationship through increased work‐family conflict. Furthermore, such relationship was particularly strong among married employees and male employees.
... For a good example of this work, seeRudman et al. (2012). ...
How should we understand the arrogance of groups that do not seem to exhibit group agency? Specifically, how should we understand the putative epistemic arrogance ascribed to men and privileged or powerful groups in cases raised in the extant philosophical literature? Groups like these differ from others that are usually the subject of work on collective vice and virtue insofar as they seem to lack essential features of group agency; they are sub-agential groups. In this article, I ask whether extant summative or anti-summative accounts of collective epistemic vice offer a basis for understanding the structure of the epistemic arrogance of men and the privileged. I argue that a summative formulation and two prominent anti-summative positions fail to adequately account for the structure of group arrogance in such cases. This leaves us lacking an understanding of how sub-agential group arrogance works. To address this, I defend a collectivist account of group arrogance that takes social norms as the determinative basis of group arrogance.
... Stereotyping results in poor opinions of work-related competence of some minority groups, which may unfairly and negatively affect their performance evaluation (van Laar et al., 2019). For example, women exuding confidence and authority, perceived as necessary for success in high-status roles, are seen as less likable and are often penalized in hiring, salary, and job promotion (Rudman et al., 2012;Williams and Tiedens, 2016). Thus, even if performance and merit are formally designated criteria for evaluation, individuals may unconsciously or consciously be poorly evaluated based on reified traits including gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, and nationality, and be excluded from career advancement in the organization. ...
Workplace inclusion is a strategic concern for organizations, yet challenging to achieve. We investigate how Information and Communications Technology (ICT) use can enhance workplace inclusion. Based on qualitative data collected from a leading UK organization, we conceptualize four ICT-enabled workplace inclusion practices-Expanding, Orienting, Enculturating, and Reflecting. Each practice entails the use of multiple ICT applications to enhance workplace inclusion through a distinct set of organizational activities. We also highlight the Reflecting practice as key in enhancing other practices. Drawing from our findings, we develop a framework for ICT-enabled workplace inclusion that constitutes interrelated ICT-enabled practices focused on multiple organizational activities. We contribute to the literature on the strategic role of ICT for organizational/social good, a current area of research priority for the information systems discipline.
... Stereotypes can also impact how traits are perceived for different identity group members. Rudman and colleagues have found that people perceived as counterstereotypical (e.g., agentic women) and thus not adhering to identity-based prescriptive roles can face backlash from others Rudman et al., 2012). It is thus possible that perceivers who endorse gender stereotypes would negatively perceive a disagreeable woman due to a belief that she is violating prescriptive stereotypes rather than due to a belief that the disagreeable woman is prejudicial. ...
Objective:
Across four studies, we examined whether certain personality traits cue prejudice and serve as identity threat cues.
Background:
Stigmatized group members may be vigilant to personality cues that signal prejudice.
Method:
In Study 1 (N = 76), perceivers selected traits and behaviors associated with disagreeableness and closedness to experience as indicators of prejudice. In Studies 2-4, perceivers with stigmatized identities (Total N = 907) learned about a target person who was depicted as disagreeable or agreeable (Studies 2 and 3) and as disagreeable or another trait matched on perceived negativity (i.e., low in conscientiousness, Study 4).
Results:
Participants perceived the disagreeable target as more discriminatory and hierarchy-endorsing (Studies 2-4), more morally disengaged (Study 3), and more likely to discriminate against stigmatized identity groups (Studies 2 and 4) than the agreeable or low conscientious targets. The relationship between target disagreeableness and perceived discrimination was partially explained by higher perceived hierarchy endorsing beliefs (Studies 2-4) and perceived moral disengagement (Study 3).
Conclusions:
This research finds that perceivers with stigmatized identities utilize target disagreeableness as a cue of identity threat, inferring that disagreeable people are more likely to be discriminatory, prejudicial, and hierarchy-endorsing than agreeable and low conscientious people.
... Herek (2010) postulated that prejudice toward all sexual minorities is rooted in heterosexism, the negative evaluation toward any group that is not heterosexual or conforming to traditional gender norms. Indeed, many studies reported that perceivers rate individuals with gender-hierarchy-defying features (e.g., a woman leader) or atypical sexual characteristics (e.g., androgynous features) more negatively compared to individuals with gender-or sex-typical features (Rudman & Fairchild, 2004;Rudman et al., 2012;Stern & Rule, 2018; see also Stern & Axt, 2021). This account suggests that prejudice toward asexual people is not specific to them but is instead rooted in the perception that any deviation from the (sexual) norm is deficient and, therefore, "considered substandard and deserving of negativity by the majority" (MacInnis & Hodson, 2012, p. 739). ...
Similar to other sexual minorities, asexual individuals often face prejudice and stereotyping. However, the source of these attitudes and beliefs is not well understood. We hypothesized that asexual stereotypes stem from the belief that sexual attraction is an inevitable part of human development. This attraction inevitability assumption can lead to the deduction that people who identify as asexual do so because they are going through a transitory stage or excusing socially avoidant tendencies. To test this stereotype deduction account, we examined whether specific asexual stereotypes (immaturity and non-sociality) were associated with adherence to the attraction inevitability assumption. Heterosexual participants (N = 322; 201 women, 114 men; mean age 34.6 yrs.) from the UK and the US read vignettes describing a target character that was either asexual or heterosexual. People who assumed that attraction is inevitable were more likely to evaluate asexual targets (but not heterosexual targets) as immature and non-social. The impact of the sexual inevitability assumption was present even when social dominance orientation, an attitude closely related to negativity toward all sexual minorities, was accounted for. Participants who adhered to the attraction inevitability assumption also showed a reduced inclination to befriend asexual individuals. These findings suggest that generalized negativity toward sexual minorities does not fully explain stereotypes and prejudice against asexual people. Instead, the current study highlights how perceived deviation from the shared understanding of sexuality uniquely contributes to anti-asexual bias.
... Specifically, female students were seen to have a supportive communication style that builds relationships, whereas male students were seen to have a dominant style marked by interruptions and dominance [45,46]. The literature suggests that the cause of such gender difference in social interaction is likely due to variance in social expectations rather than biological attributes [46,47]. ...
This study investigated the effects of gender and gender pairing on behaviors and social interaction during collaborative learning in a blended learning environment. Three types of pairing (all-female, all-male, and mixed) were considered in an empirical study with 44 undergraduate students. The results revealed that, first, female students were more likely to perform well in listening, talking, and integrating during class, and in the quality of posts after class, whereas male students tended to engage more in irrelevant behavior in collaboration. Second, same-gender groups were more active in collaborative discussion, but all-male groups performed worst in quality of posts after class. Third, both male and female students were more active in same-gender groups than in mixed groups. Finally, same-gender groups tended to have greater interpersonal connectedness than mixed-gender groups. The paper ends with a list of practical implications for facilitating effective collaborative learning in co-educational college classrooms.
... Women are stereotypically considered more communal than agentic and are thus perceived to lack fit with leadership positions that require agentic traits such as assertiveness and confidence (i.e., "lack of fit model, " Heilman, 1983" Heilman, , 2001. When women do earn a leader position and behave in an agentic way, the lack of fit between gender and leadership stereotypes backfires; they receive negative evaluation for violating stereotyped gender roles (Rudman, 1998;Rudman et al., 2012). ...
The present study examined the difference between women and men in perceiving leadership roles. Two experiments, one conducted online and the other in a lab, investigated the subjective experiences of Japanese men and women when they are assigned with different roles (e.g., leader vs. subordinate). Both studies revealed that women perceived their role as less legitimate when they were assigned leader role (vs. subordinate role). In contrast, men did not differ in their perceived legitimacy according to the assigned roles. This discrepancy in legitimacy perception in response to different roles between men and women accounted for a significant variance in women's lower sense of status when they were a leader (vs. subordinate), but not among men. Our study results illustrate the psychological barrier operating for women in organizations that are embedded in a cultural context in which women leaders are highly underrepresented.
... Sole focus on mothers as caregivers perpetuates traditional gender stereotypes Women are traditionally stereotyped as warm, nurturing, and caregiving, whereas men are traditionally stereotyped as ambitious, competent, and dedicated to their work (Rudman et al., 2012). These traditional gender stereotypes undermine women at work, as traditional feminine traits are seen as incongruent with the traits required for success in professional and leadership roles where more masculine traits are valued (Eagly & Karau, 2002). ...
... Traditional masculine norms, as dictated by Western ideals, contend men should avoid femininity, conceal signs of weakness, strive for dominance, and seek adventure (see Levant & Richmond, 2008 for a review). These norms are often referred to as masculine "scripts" (i.e., socially prescribed norms that dictate how men should think, feel, and behave; Spector-Mersel, 2006) and are enforced by the punishment of men who challenge prescriptive (i.e., social rules guiding how men and women should behave) and proscriptive (i.e., social rules guiding how men and women should not behave) gender norms (see Rudman et al., 2012). These norms commonly manifest in a host of negative behavioral and psychological outcomes for men, including aggression, risk-taking, low self-esteem, and emotional isolation (see O'Neil, 2012 for a review). ...
The crime of rape is ubiquitous in the United States and around the world. Due to the traditional conceptualization of rape being perpetrated by men against women (e.g., Tjaden & Thoennes, 2006), the experiences of men who have been raped have been relatively understudied. Nonetheless, male rape is stigmatized, likely attributable to myths about male rape (e.g., men cannot be raped by women; Turchik & Edwards, 2012). The stigma of male rape, and in turn perceptions of men who have been raped, likely relate to masculine honor beliefs (i.e., MHBs; beliefs that male aggression is justifiable in response to threat, provocation, and/or insult; Saucier et al., 2016). Across two studies, I examined how MHBs related to the acceptance of male rape myths (Study 1) and perceptions of men who have been raped (Study 2). Consistent with my hypotheses, in Study 1, higher levels of MHBs were uniquely associated with male rape myth acceptance above and beyond relevant correlates (e.g., female rape myth acceptance, adherence to traditional gender roles). Study 2 extended this by examining how MHBs related to perceptions of a hypothetical male rape scenario, dependent upon the sexual orientation of the victim (i.e., gay or heterosexual) and the gender of the perpetrator (i.e., man or woman). Consistent with my hypotheses, higher levels of MHBs were uniquely associated with more disparaging attitudes towards a male rape victim (e.g., higher levels of victim blaming, higher ratings that the victim should have been able to resist the assault). Several of these relationships were moderated by situational factors. Most notably, higher levels of MHBs were associated with more attitudes that trivialize the victim's experience (e.g., lower ratings that the assault should be conceptualized as rape) when the perpetrator was a woman, compared to a man. Overall, my research suggests adherence to masculine honor ideology relates to beliefs that trivialize male rape-particularly when rape is perpetrated by a woman.
While researchers continue to develop their understanding of gender as a complex and multifaceted concept, the detrimental impact of gender-related inequity and social injustice persists. This conceptual paper describes the potential benefits of incorporating Relational Frame Theory (RFT) as a contextual and pragmatic approach to gender. An RFT lens might enhance our understanding of gender as a language-based phenomenon, involving patterns of derived relational responding and rule-governed behavior. Such an understanding might then facilitate the development of assessments and context-sensitive interventions that support flexible and expansive experiences of gender that promote thriving. Despite the potential utility of an RFT approach, RFT has rarely been applied to gender-related concerns. This paper aims to provide a starting point for exploring gender from an RFT perspective, highlight relevant RFT studies, acknowledge limitations of current lines of research, and provide recommendations regarding future research. We hope that the paper will also act as a call to action for contextual behavioral scientists, as well as demonstrate how an RFT perspective might both align with, as well as add to, existing perspectives from other disciplines.
While Susan Moller Okin found much to celebrate in Rawls's earlier articulation of his theory of justice, she worried that his later turn to political liberalism evacuated his theory of its feminist potential. Here, I argue that we need not be so pessimistic: some of the strongest arguments for pursuing certain feminist projects can and should be made from within a politically liberal framework. In advancing this claim, I develop Rawls's idea of primary goods—namely those goods that all citizens need qua citizens—as a key conceptual resource for arguing for the elimination of the gendered division of labor using public reason. Drawing on recent empirical literature, I point out that the gendered division of labor continues to distribute to women an unfair allocation of primary goods. I then advocate for a specific public policy, which I call Gender Egalitarian Daddy Quota—a parental leave policy that sets aside time specifically for fathers to encourage men and women to engage in childcare related leave-taking to similar extents—on the grounds that this policy would help secure a fairer distribution of primary goods, and thus is required as a matter of justice.
The contemporary global backlash against women has a dual structure of articulation. There is an over(t)‐articulation of the trend toward gender parity in social, political, and economic life and a simultaneous strengthening of subterranean forces of resistance and hostility against this trend. A proper understanding of the gender backlash should both identify the shortfalls in the over‐articulated parity trends, and also the hidden markers of hostility and resistance to them. Research shows that modern forms of war and conflict have taken an aggravated toll on women, children, and minority groups. The prevalence of intimate partner violence, the resistance to reproductive rights, asymmetries in the gender gap, anti‐women political discourse, and the phenomenon of “gendertrolling” are some other manifestations of the global backlash against women.
This chapter discusses the relevance of followers by reviewing Implicit Leadership and Followership Theories to identify gaps in gender and roles in followership. It discusses the bias among roles and gender and exemplifies with Bible women figures the relevance and importance of women in a follower position.KeywordsFollowersLeadersWomenMenGap
Unconscious bias is a prevalent and persistent issue in the workplace, particularly concerning gender. Even though men and women are getting closer to having the same rights, unconscious bias still keeps women from getting ahead at work. It contributes to the pay gap between men and women, fewer chances for professional growth, and other kinds of discrimination based on gender. Organizations must look at these biases and do something about them to make the workplace fairer and more open to everyone. This chapter will overview unconscious bias and its effects on women in the workplace. First, the authors will discuss unconscious bias and how it works in the workplace. Next, they will examine how women's unconscious bias affects their career growth, pay, and chances of getting ahead. Then, the authors will talk about different tools, strategies, and organizations which can be used to assess and deal with unconscious bias, such as bias interrupters, unconscious bias training, and diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Drawing on data from an ethnographic study of the introduction and implementation of a flexible work policy intended in part to improve gender equality at a STEM professional organization, I develop grounded theory on how managers’ gender shapes their implementation of such initiatives. I identify an equality policy paradox in which women managers, who openly support gender equality, are more likely than men managers to limit the policy. This apparent contradiction between intentions and actions is reconciled through an interactional role-based mechanism. Specifically, in this setting women managers encounter barriers to developing technical expertise, client relations, and respected authority. They respond by engaging extensively with subordinates, which allows them to effectively manage by brokering information (as an alternative to technical and client-facing tasks) and cultivating cooperation (as an alternative to formal authority). The policy undermines these interdependent activities; reflecting this, women managers generally oppose it. Men managers tend not to experience these constraints, and they focus on technical and client-related tasks that are largely independent of subordinates. The policy maintains these activities; reflecting this, they implement it. By identifying the equality policy paradox and the mechanism underlying it, this study advances theory on managers’ implementation of equality-related practices and policies as well as theory on gender and management.
In this chapter, I offer a postdigital feminist analysis of misogyny and its harmful manifestations online. The Internet is a powerful tool in the systemic and structural dissemination of gender-based violence against women and girls (VAWG). This violence includes technology-facilitated harmful behaviour, along with technological tools to violate victims’ rights, using devices like smartphones and surveillance cameras. I will offer a postdigital critique of VAWG, arguing that at the root of these behaviours is misogyny, a conceptual, descriptive, and analytical account of which I will give here. I will also analyse this phenomenon from the perspective of epistemic injustice to show how asymmetries in testimonial exchanges and hermeneutical resources sustain misogynistic, patriarchal practices. Despite the scale and prevalence of digital and cyber gender-based misogyny and violence, Big Tech are under little to no legal obligation to address the abuse, though legal measures such as the Online Harms Bill (UK) are in progress, and should, I argue, incorporate a VAGW Code of Practice. I conclude with a tentative formulation of what feminist postdigital analysis could consist in and its relevance to the postdigital condition.KeywordsViolence against women onlineMisogynyEpistemic injusticePostdigital researchFeminist postdigital analysis
In this study, we advance a more nuanced view of gender-based stereotypes about female chief executive officers (CEOs) to shed light on the divergent findings about outcomes associated with their firms’ actions. We draw on gender stereotyping literature and its delineation between prescriptive and descriptive gender stereotypes— how women ought to be/act versus how they actually are/act—to theorize that not all female CEOs embody the same prescriptive feminine ideals and, thus, variance in how they are perceived may affect outcomes manifesting from certain firm actions. Specifically, we theorize that there also exists a “double-edged” sword among female CEOs such that the more a female CEO is seen as descriptively aligning with prescriptive ideals of feminine actions and perceptions, the stronger the associated outcomes for their firms will be, whether positive or negative. We test how perceptions of communality and attractiveness—the two most desirable prescriptive perceptions for how women ought to be—affect the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and irresponsibility (CSiR) to firm performance relationship, which align, or fail to align, respectively, with desirable prescriptive feminine actions of helping or hurting others and society. We find that the more a female CEO descriptively aligns with such communality and attractiveness prescriptions, the stronger the CSR and CSiR to firm performance relationship will be. The results of our study suggest that the gendered beliefs to which female CEOs are subjected are more nuanced and complex than the current literature explains, contributing to theory and practice alike.
It is crucial to understand that development is an existent fact that demands the contribution of each gender in order to grasp gender roles factually and their significance in the defense of unassailable rights as well as how they affect them. This research examined gender issues in Nigeria and Africa in general and how they have affected development. A combination of the theory of recognition and structural functionalist theory was employed to examine gender concerns and how they might spur progress if well-managed. The researchers used secondary data sources to collect relevant information and used thematic analysis to analyse the data generated. The study shows that there are three categories of socially sanctioned moral rules that establish limits on how well individuals are accepted as members of society in contemporary cultures. The chapter recommends the need for men and women to view their positions as significant but not superior in order to attain sustainable development.
This article examines how penalizing men who “do gender” in nonstereotypical ways ultimately maintains the gender system. Leveraging data from an online survey experiment conducted with hiring decision-makers, I develop and test a theory of a help-seeking paradox whereby managers are less likely to interview and hire fathers who used career reentry assistance (CRA) relative to fathers who did not. However, this penalty does not emerge for mothers. A second online survey experiment reveals that two years of full-time employment after reentry diminishes the negative effects of CRA for fathers. Nonetheless, lingering stigma from having previously left paid work for childcare continues to disadvantage fathers relative to mothers, with perceptions of competence and commitment mediating long-term effects. These studies demonstrate how the reinforcement of cultural gender rules punishes both mothers and fathers seeking more equitable career coordination while providing novel insight into the boundaries of penalties for men who violate gender stereotypes.
Three experiments (N = 943) tested whether men (but not women) responded to gender threats with increased concern about how one looks in the eyes of others (i.e., public discomfort) and subsequent anger that, in turn, predicted attitudes about sexual violence. Consistent with predictions, for men, learning that one is like a woman was associated with threat-related emotions (public discomfort and anger) that, in turn, predicted the increased likelihood to express intent to engage in quid-pro-quo sexual harassment (Study 1), recall sexually objectifying others (Study 2), endorse sexual narcissism (Study 2), and accept rape myths (Study 3). These findings support the notion that failures to uphold normative and socially valued embodiments of masculinity are associated with behavioral intentions and attitudes associated with sexual violence. The implications of these findings for the endurance of sexual violence are discussed.
Role congruity theory proposes that bias may arise from the perceived incongruity between stereotypes about a social group and expected requirements for success in a social role. Since its introduction, with a focus on gender roles and the development of prejudice against female leaders, management scholars have applied role congruity theory to understand the emergence and consequences of prejudice in a wide range of organizational settings. We provide a review of management research that has incorporated role congruity theory. In this review, we first identify the key constructs and predictions that underlie the theory. Then, we summarize the adoption of the theory in the management literature based on the effects of role incongruity on target evaluation, outcome, and adaptation. Lastly, we suggest potential areas for future development of the theory, including the expansion of the theory to include social roles beyond gender, the examination of multilevel and multidimensional role incongruity effects, and other relevant emerging topics. We hope that this review will promote the accessibility of role congruity theory to management researchers and stimulate the development and application of the theory in the field of management.
Women journalists, as some of the most prominent and visible public figures, are frequently the targets of the cyber violence. Several studies stated that online abuse has a massive impact on women journalists and that it can cause psychological problems such as anxiety, stress, and fear, and it can lead to self-censorship. Through the analysis of existing data on online attacks on journalists in the Balkans, online survey addressing women journalists in particular and the series of interviews, the chapter aims to provide an overview of the online harassment of female journalists and explore their responses to abuse. The chapter shows the most common reported forms of abuse targeting female journalists victimize them in particular and gendered ways. They often don't report the violence due to lack of trust in authorities, and they are usually left alone facing intimidation and its psychological impact.
This article aims at disentangling the effect of judges' gender, experience, and caseload in the assignment of restraining orders in IPV cases. Previous literature has independently looked at the effect of gender on judicial decisions and found that it becomes relevant in gender‐related cases. However, we find that such effects are better understood in interaction with other contextual factors such as the experience of judges and the amount of work they face, because these determine the levels of uncertainty and information costs surrounding decisions. For our empirical analysis, we use data from on‐duty pretrial court decisions on restraining orders in Spain between 2010 and 2018. We find conditional effects of gender depending on experience and workload: more experienced female judges are more likely to grant protection orders than their male counterparts when the amount of caseload is high. These findings are relevant to understand the mechanisms behind judicial inequality under civil law systems, where judges' attributes tend to be unobservable by institutional design.
Purpose
This scoping review aims to examine peer-reviewed literature related to girls’ (age 0–18) and young women’s (age 19–30) leader identity development.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a scoping review. A research librarian was consulted at the start of the project. Two sets of search terms (one for each age group) were identified and then used to find publications via our selected databases. The search results were uploaded to Covidence and evaluated using the determined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The final sample of articles for the review was analyzed using exploratory coding methods.
Findings
From the analysis, four domains were identified that influence girls’ and young women’s leader identity development: relationships, personal characteristics, meaningful engagement and social identities.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to solely explore girls’ and young women’s leader identity development. The factors and domains identified provide useful guidance for future research and practice. The findings reveal considerations about leader identity that can inform the creation of effective leadership development initiatives for girls early in their lifespan. These interventions could provide girls with a strong leadership foundation that could drastically alter their leadership trajectories in adulthood. Previous research has conveyed the advantages of having more women participate in leadership. Thus, this potential not only benefits girls and women but organizations and society at large.
Introduction. Career development has become one of the most significant areas of human resource management in modern organizations. Despite considerable progress in increasing the representation of women in various industries and also a multiplication of women holding senior positions, today, the segregation of the labour market persists. Women and men are unevenly distributed in such fields as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; there are differences in wages and career advancement. Traditional career models have certain limitations in research and, therefore, require revision and updating.
Purpose. Generalization of foreign experience of gender studies in the field of women’s professional careers.
Materials and methods. The scientific review is presented by a systematic analysis of foreign gender studies over the past 10-15 years.
Theoretical justification. The authors describe the main methods of studies examining women’s career advancement and also consider the causes of gender segregation, such as career choice, gender discrimination in employment and the workplace, and the phenomenon of the “glass ceiling”. Factors influencing the choice of career strategies are competitiveness, self-esteem, self-efficacy, the influence of cultural perceptions of gender roles, self-stereotyping, the presence or absence of role models, the social costs of women’s careers and the possibility of their recognition by society as professionals.
Discussion and conclusion. A possible way to solve the problem of women’s career advancement may be to reduce the pressure of gender stereotypes, including even the distribution of household and child-rearing responsibilities and, ultimately, contributing to the improvement of well-being and life quality in general.
Gender is the core component of self-concept and a key dimension of social categorization. Gender Nonconformity refers to the psychological phenomenon that individuals show gender norms that do not correspond or are inconsistent with their birth sex. In recent years, the phenomenon of Gender Nonconformity has become increasingly prominent among adolescents. previous studies have shown that adolescents with Gender Nonconformity face challenges in social adjustment such as peer relationships, but these studies have neglected the psychological mechanism and dynamics behind the influence of Gender Nonconformity on adolescent peer evaluation. To address these limitations, the current study follows the logic of “phenomenon - explanation – prediction” and focuses on the scientific issue concerning the effects of Gender Nonconformity on adolescent peer evaluation and related dynamics. The overall aim of the study is to focus on the attributes (different degrees/types) of Gender Nonconformity, and to explore the impact of Gender Nonconformity on peer evaluation and its pathway mechanisms. On this basis, the study will also explore the dynamic evolution of Gender Nonconformity and provide possible interventions for changing negative peer evaluations of Gender Nonconformity individuals.
Keywords: Leader knowledge hiding Leader-based trust Leader-based self-esteem Change-oriented voice Knowledge hiding A B S T R A C T Extending the literature on "leader knowledge hiding" to employee work behavior, we present the first empirical investigation of how and when "leader knowledge hiding" impacts "employee change-oriented voice". We test the mediated effects of "leader-based self-esteem" and "leader-based trust" on the relationship between "leader knowledge hiding" and "employee change-oriented voice" by integrating the theoretical frameworks provided by the theories of self-consistency and social exchange. We also invoke social role theory and propose leader gender as the boundary condition for these mediating effects. Two field studies are conducted using multi-source (leader-employee dyads) data from various tourism and hospitality organizations. This study uncovers the dual mediation process of "leader-based self-esteem" and "leader-based trust" in transferring the negative consequences of "leader knowledge hiding" to "employee change-oriented voice" and presents evidence for the effect of "leader gender" as a boundary condition.
This study tests a gender threat hypothesis whereby having a financial advisor of the opposite gender results in gender stereotypical risk attitudes in portfolio choice. We employ a unique dataset of 1,621 advised UK investors, combined with information on the gender of their financial advisors. Confirming the hypothesis, our results show that men advised by a woman take more risk than when advised by a man. Women advised by a man adopt a more cautious approach than when advised by a woman. When the gender threat is alleviated, that is when women are advised by women, and men are advised by men, we found no gender gap in risk-taking.
The most commonly used method to test an indirect effect is to divide the estimate of the indirect effect by its standard error and compare the resulting z statistic with a critical value from the standard normal distribution. Confidence limits for the indirect effect are also typically based on critical values from the standard normal distribution. This article uses a simulation study to demonstrate that confidence limits are imbalanced because the distribution of the indirect effect is normal only in special cases. Two alternatives for improving the performance of confidence limits for the indirect effect are evaluated: (a) a method based on the distribution of the product of two normal random variables, and (b) resampling methods. In Study 1, confidence limits based on the distribution of the product are more accurate than methods based on an assumed normal distribution but confidence limits are still imbalanced. Study 2 demonstrates that more accurate confidence limits are obtained using resampling methods, with the bias-corrected bootstrap the best method overall.
In this article, we attempt to distinguish between the properties of moderator and mediator variables at a number of levels. First, we seek to make theorists and researchers aware of the importance of not using the terms moderator and mediator interchangeably by carefully elaborating, both conceptually and strategically, the many ways in which moderators and mediators differ. We then go beyond this largely pedagogical function and delineate the conceptual and strategic implications of making use of such distinctions with regard to a wide range of phenomena, including control and stress, attitudes, and personality traits. We also provide a specific compendium of analytic procedures appropriate for making the most effective use of the moderator and mediator distinction, both separately and in terms of a broader causal system that includes both moderators and mediators. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
We posit that pride and arrogance are tolerated for high-status group members but are repudiated for low-status group members. Thus, we predict that Blacks, but not Whites, who behave arrogantly will be penalized. Specifically, we investigated the context of penalties against football players for “celebrating” after touchdowns. We propose that such celebrations reflect a racially biased “hubris penalty” because: (1) celebrations are primarily perceived as displays of arrogance (rather than exuberance), and (2) arrogance is penalized for Black but not White players. Three experiments demonstrate that all players who celebrated after touchdowns were perceived as more arrogant than those who did not celebrate. Although celebratory Black and White players were perceived as being equally arrogant, Black players were penalized with lower compensation whereas White players were not. Mediation analyses show that perceived arrogance mediated the effect of celebration on compensation, even when controlling for perceived aggression.
We compared implicit and explicit ingroup bias across four minority groups who ranged in status from high (Jews and Asians) to medium (overweight people) to low (poor people). Minorities relatively high in status showed more implicit ingroup bias than minorities relatively low in status. In fact, overweight and poor people showed automatic preference for the dominant outgroup (i.e., own group devaluation). The relationship between ingroup bias and perceived status was reliably positive whether based on category membership (r = .54) or minority members' own perceptions of their status (r = .36), but only at the implicit level. By contrast, explicit attitudes were negligibly correlated with status differences. In addition, dominant group members showed stronger possession of implicit ingroup bias than did minorities, but particularly as their relative status increased. In concert, the findings support system justification theory (Jost & Banaji, 1994) by showing that minorities with the least status are the most susceptible to automatic ingroup devaluation. They also suggest that motives to legitimize the status quo are predominantly nonconscious, for minorities and dominants alike.
Attitudes toward female authority and their relationship to gender beliefs were examined using implicit and explicit measures of each. Implicit attitudes covaried with implicit gender authority beliefs (i.e., linking men to high-authority and women to low-authority roles). Explicit attitudes covaried with explicit gender authority beliefs, feminist identification, and hostile sexism. Thus, gender authority beliefs may influence both conscious and unconscious prejudice against female authorities. Although women showed less explicit prejudice than did men, their implicit attitudes were similarly negative. Finally, the relationship found between two different response latency methods (a priming task for attitudes, a categorization task for beliefs) supports the assumption that implicit measures assess similar constructs (i.e., automatic associations in long-term memory).
The questions the authors address in this chapter can be traced over two decades of work by J. T. Spence and her colleagues. More than any other single researcher, Spence has sought to establish the content of beliefs about women, to determine whether these beliefs are merely descriptions of women or prescriptions for how women ought to be, and to document what has changed and what has remained the same in attitudes toward women across decades of social turmoil in male–female relations. This article addresses the issue of whether gender stereotypes are purely descriptive expectations or prescriptions that are enforced through punishment when they are violated. Implicit in the question is the notion that "feminine" women are seen as very likable but as less competent than men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Examines why stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination are enduring phenomena. Social psychological research, reviewed here in 4 major sections, explains that stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination have (1) some apparently automatic aspects and (2) some socially pragmatic aspects, both of which tend to sustain them. But, as research also indicates, change is possible, for (3) stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination seem individually controllable, and consequently, (4) social structure influences their occurrence. Past and present theoretical approaches to these issues are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Bogus resumes were evaluated by 212 business professionals to discover what mediates sex discrimination in hiring decisions. We hypothesized that discrimination against women and men who applied for stereotypically "masculine" and "feminine" jobs, respectively, could be reduced by providing individuating information suggesting that the applicant was an exception to his or her gender stereotype and possessed traits usually associated with the opposite gender. We also hypothesized that individuating information consistent with stereotypes about an applicant's gender would decrease the probability that an applicant would be evaluated favorably for a job usually considered appropriate for the other gender. We found that individuating information eliminated sex-typed personality inferences about male and female applicants and affected applicants' perceived job suitability; however, sex discrimination was not eliminated. We suggest that sex discrimination is mediated by occupation stereotypes that specify both the personality traits and the gender appropriate for each occupation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The authors discussed the ways in which the distinction between the descriptive and prescriptive components of gender stereotypes may provide a context for thinking about the role of gender stereotyping in sex discrimination and sexual harassment They reviewed the research literature involving the descriptive and prescriptive components of gender stereotypes, with particular emphasis on research published since the American Psychological Association's 1991 amicus brief in
Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins (1989). They suggested that incidents of sex discrimination that involve disparate treatment are more likely to reflect the prescriptive component of gender stereotypes and that incidents of sex discrimination that result in disparate impact are more likely to reflect the descriptive component. The authors discussed the implications of this distinction for sex discrimination and sexual harassment litigation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The authors present a theory of sexism formulated as ambivalence toward women and validate a corresponding measure, the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI). The ASI taps 2 positively correlated components of sexism that nevertheless represent opposite evaluative orientations toward women: sexist antipathy or
Hostile Sexism (HS) and a subjectively positive (for sexist men) orientation toward women,
Benevolent Sexism (BS). HS and BS are hypothesized to encompass 3 sources of male ambivalence: Paternalism, Gender Differentiation, and Heterosexuality. Six ASI studies on 2,250 respondents established convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. Overall ASI scores predict ambivalent attitudes toward women, the HS scale correlates with negative attitudes toward and stereotypes about women, and the BS scale (for nonstudent men only) correlates with positive attitudes and stereotypes about women. A copy of the ASI is provided, with scoring instructions, as a tool for further explorations of sexist ambivalence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Adherence to masculine norms and stereotypes has been linked to negative consequences for men, suggesting that liberating men from the bonds of traditional masculinity would be beneficial (Courtenay, 2000; Pollack, 1998). However, when people deviate from stereotypic expectations, they encounter backlash (i.e., social and economic penalties; Rudman & Phelan, 2008). The current research demonstrated backlash in the form of prejudice against modest (i.e., atypical) men and supported predictions derived from the status-incongruity hypothesis (SIH) to account for backlash (Rudman, Phelan, Moss-Racusin, & Nauts, 2009). Modest men were perceived as violating men's proscriptions linked to low status (e.g., weakness and uncertainty), as well as agentic men's prescriptions linked to high status (e.g., confidence and ambition). By contrast, status-neutral communal traits were not an explanatory factor in backlash. These findings suggest that perceived status violations underscore backlash, pressuring men to conform to masculine norms and stereotypes that limit their human potential. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Comments on an article by F. J. Landy et al (see record
1981-00274-001) that suggests a method for excluding halo variance in rating scales. It is argued that this approach may result in excluding true variance. The present article presents a conceptualization of the halo effect in terms of a suppressor variable. Accordingly, a multiple regression approach for the treatment of halo variance is suggested. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In an experiment, job description and applicants' attributes were examined as moderators of the backlash effect, the negative evaluation of agentic women for violating prescriptions of feminine niceness (Rudman, 1998). Rutgers University students made hiring decisions for a masculine or “feminized” managerial job. Applicants were presented as either agentic or androgynous. Replicating Rudman and Glick (1999), a feminized job description promoted hiring discrimination against an agentic female because she was perceived as insufficiently nice. Unique to the present research, this perception was related to participants' possession of an implicit (but not explicit) agency-communality stereotype. By contrast, androgynous female applicants were not discriminated against. The findings suggest that the prescription for female niceness is an implicit belief that penalizes women unless they temper their agency with niceness.
A role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders proposes that perceived incongruity between the female gender role and leadership roles leads to 2 forms of prejudice: (a) perceiving women less favorably than men as potential occupants of leadership roles and (b) evaluating behavior that fulfills the prescriptions of a leader role less favorably when it is enacted by a woman. One consequence is that attitudes are less positive toward female than male leaders and potential leaders. Other consequences are that it is more difficult for women to become leaders and to achieve success in leadership roles. Evidence from varied research paradigms substantiates that these consequences occur, especially in situations that heighten perceptions of incongruity between the female gender role and leadership roles.
Stereotype research emphasizes systematic processes over seemingly arbitrary contents, but content also may prove systematic. On the basis of stereotypes' intergroup functions, the stereotype content model hypothesizes that (a) 2 primary dimensions are competence and warmth, (b) frequent mixed clusters combine high warmth with low competence (paternalistic) or high competence with low warmth (envious), and (c) distinct emotions (pity, envy, admiration, contempt) differentiate the 4 competence-warmth combinations. Stereotypically, (d) status predicts high competence, and competition predicts low warmth. Nine varied samples rated gender, ethnicity, race, class, age, and disability out-groups. Contrary to antipathy models, 2 dimensions mattered, and many stereotypes were mixed, either pitying (low competence, high warmth subordinates) or envying (high competence, low warmth competitors). Stereotypically, status predicted competence, and competition predicted low warmth.
Men who request a family leave are viewed as poor organizational citizens and ineligible for rewards. In addition to a poor worker stigma, we found that male leave requesters suffer femininity stigma. Compared with control targets, male leave requesters were viewed as higher on weak, feminine traits (e.g., weak and uncertain), and lower on agentic masculine traits (e.g., competitive and ambitious). Perceptions of weakness uniquely predicted greater risk for penalties (e.g., being demoted or downsized) and fully accounted for the effect of poor worker stigma on male leave requesters’ penalties. By contrast, the poor worker stigma and both agency and weakness perceptions contributed to their reward recommendations. Results were comparable regardless of the reason given for requesting a family leave, target race (White or Black), and participant gender. The implications of these findings for work–life balance and gender equality are discussed.
The social climate for women has changed considerably since the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS; Spence & Helmreich, 1972a) was developed in the early 1970s, but the pattern of change in AWS scores throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s is unclear. Published reports of data from 71 samples of American undergraduates responding to the AWS were located and analyzed for differences across time (1970–1995) and region (South and non-South). Women's AWS scores were strongly correlated with year of scale administration (r= .78, p < .001), and men's scores showed a similar trend toward more liberal/feminist attitudes (r= .60, p < .001). Scores show a steady trend toward more liberal/feminist attitudes, with no appreciable reversal or slowdown during the 1980s. Gender differences steadily increased from 1970 to 1985 and decreased from 1986 to 1995. Southern samples were marginally more conservative/traditional. The results are discussed in terms of generational differences, the effects of maternal employment on attitudes, and the individual's experience of cultural change.
This article reviews research on the evaluation of women and men who occupy leadership roles. In these experiments, the characteristics of leaders other than their sex were held constant, and the sex of the leader was varied. These experiments thus investigated whether people are biased against female leaders and managers. Although this research showed only a small overall tendency for subjects to evaluate female leaders less favorably than male leaders, this tendency was more pronounced under certain circumstances. Specifically, women in leadership positions were devalued relative to their male counterparts when leadership was carried out in stereotypically masculine styles, particularly when this style was autocratic or directive. In addition, the devaluation of women was greater when leaders occupied male-dominated roles and when the evaluators were men. These and other findings are interpreted from a perspective that emphasizes the influence of gender roles within organizational settings.
This article presents a four-category framework to characterize the contents of prescriptive gender stereotypes. The framework distinguishes between prescriptions and proscriptions that are intensified by virtue of one's gender, and those that are relaxed by virtue of one's gender. Two studies examined the utility of this framework for characterizing prescriptive gender stereotypes in American society (Study 1) and in the highly masculine context of Princeton University (Study 2). The results demonstrated the persistence of traditional gender prescriptions in both contexts, but also revealed distinct areas of societal vigilance and leeway for each gender. In addition, they showed that women are seen more positively, relative to societal standards, than are men. We consider the implications of this framework for research on reactions to gender stereotype deviants and sex discrimination.
Backlash effects are defined as social and economic reprisals for behaving counterstereotypically (Rudman, L. A. (1998). Self-promotion as a risk factor for women: The costs and benefits of counterstereotypical impression management. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 629–645). The present chapter outlines an impression-management dilemma that women face and describes the literature on backlash effects in organizations. Because women are perceived to be less competent, ambitious, and competitive (i.e., less agentic) than men, they may be overlooked for leadership positions unless they present themselves as atypical women. However, the prescriptive nature of gender stereotypes can result in negative reactions to female agency and authority (i.e., backlash). This dilemma has serious consequences for gender parity, as it undermines women at every stage of their careers. It also has consequences for organizations, as it likely contributes to female managers’ higher rates of job disaffection and turnover, relative to male counterparts. In addition to specifying the consequences of backlash for women and organizations, we consider potential moderators of backlash effects and the role that backlash plays in maintaining cultural stereotypes. Finally, we outline potential avenues for future research.
It was hypothesized that being outperformed on a task that is relevant to one's self-definition is threatening to self-esteem, and that this threat is greater when one is outperformed by a friend rather than by a stranger. When another's performance threatens self-esteem, persons will be less likely to help the other by making the task easy. To test these hypotheses, 52 friendship pairs participated with strangers in a word identification task described either as a measure of important skills (high relevance) or as a game (low relevance). Participants chose clues for both a friend and a stranger to use in identifying target words. As predicted, they gave harder clues under high-relevance than under low-relevance conditions. Moreover, they gave harder clues to strangers than to friends under low-relevance conditions, but gave harder clues to friends than to strangers under high-relevance conditions.
Psychological essentialism is an ordinary mode of category representation that has powerful social-psychological consequences. This article reviews those consequences, with a focus on the distinctive ways people perceive, evaluate, and interact with members of human categories they essentialize. Why and when people engage in this mode of thinking remain open questions. Variability in essentialism across cultures, categories, and contexts suggests that this mode of representing human categories is rooted in a naturalistic theory of category origins, combined with a need to explain differences that cross category boundaries.
provide a close examination of the intricate nature of gender stereotypes / [the authors'] discussion of the descriptive and prescriptive components of gender stereotypes illuminates the cause of sexual discrimination and sexual harassment / explore the reasons why gender stereotypes are especially complex and resistant to change / reveals how the basis, goals, and norms for expression of gender stereotypes differ in significant ways from those in other forms of stereotyping (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Respondents evaluated the thought disorder in vocabulary definitions obtained from patients at Central Hospital and Metropolitan Hospital. To establish extreme stereotypes, the most disturbed definitions were presented as deriving from one hospital, whereas the benign (nonpathological) definitions seemed to come from the other hospital. Moderate stereotypes were established by replacing some of the extreme definitions with midscale definitions. Following this induction series, respondents selected the more pathological definition in a series of midscale test pairs (one definition in each pair was said to come from a patient at Metropolitan Hospital, the other from a patient at Central). Moderate hospital stereotypes yielded clear evidence of assimilation; that is, the test definition that seemed to emanate from the more disturbed of the two hospital populations was regarded as more pathological than the definition with which it had been paired. Stereotypes that were extreme (and, hence, more distant from the midscale test items) yielded contrast effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Examined the effects of increased occupational participation by women. 114 male and 86 female undergraduates were led to believe that 5 high-status professions would include increasing proportions of female practitioners. Ratings of occupational prestige and desirability decreased when Ss anticipated increased proportions of women in 4 of 5 professions, and the decrease did not differ for ratings by male and female Ss. Ratings on adjective pairs taken from the semantic differential suggest that reductions in prestige and desirability were accompanied by attributions of increased passiveness, insecurity, and uselessness, and decreased success to occupations admitting more women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Argues that occupational sex bias is not inevitable nor invariable and presents a "lack of fit" model to describe the dynamics of sex bias and the conditions that prompt and support its occurrence in organizational settings. The model uses a single principle to explain how both self-directed sex bias (self-limiting behavior) and other-directed sex bias (discrimination) operate before and after a woman's entry into an organization. Areas considered include selection, evaluation, and causal explanations of success. A review of the literature demonstrates the integrative capacity of the model, and consideration of the model's implications illustrates its practical utility in furthering organizational change to reduce sex bias in the workplace. (71 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Examined whether traditional stereotypic discrepancies in the characterizations of women and men persist when they are depicted as managers. Ss consisted of 224 male managers (aged 24–63 yrs) that completed an attribute inventory describing either men or women in general, men or women managers, or men or women successful managers. Scales tapping traditional work-relevant sex stereotypes were created by combining subsets of inventory items. Although, characterizations of women on male stereotyped attributes were more favorable when they were depicted as managers than when depicted in general terms, women managers were characterized more negatively than were men managers. Only when designated as successful managers did the majority of discrepant characterizations on stereotypically male attributes abate. When depicted as successful managers, women were characterized more negatively in interpersonal attributes and more negatively than men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 112(3) of
Psychological Bulletin (see record
2008-10512-001). Some of the numbers in the Value columns of Table 1, page 11, were aligned incorrectly. The corrected version of Table 1 is provided in the erratum.] Reviews research on the evaluation of women and men that occupy leadership roles. While holding the characteristics, except for sex, constant and varying the sex of the leader, these experiments investigated whether people are biased against female leaders and managers. Although this research showed only a small overall tendency for Ss to evaluate female leaders less favorably than male ones, this tendency was more pronounced under certain circumstances. Specifically, women in leadership positions were devalued relative to their male counterparts when leadership was carried out in stereotypically masculine styles, especially when this style was autocratic or directive. Also, the devaluation of women was greater when leaders occupied male-dominated roles and when the evaluators were men. Findings are interpreted from a perspective that emphasizes the influence of gender roles within organizational settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
It is proposed that gender stereotypes arise to rationalize the distribution of the sexes into social roles. Ss read descriptions of members of two fictional categories, one having 80% "city workers" and 20% "child raisers," the other with the percentages reversed. They later made personality ratings of each category and of the category subgroups occupying each role. Ss formed role-based category stereotypes that affected their ratings even when targets' roles were specified. Stronger stereotypes arose when the categories were biologically defined or when Ss attempted to explain the category–role correlation. The basic effect was replicated using roles that are not differentially linked to familiar human groups. The findings are interpreted as showing that stereotypes can arise solely in response to a sexual division of labor and serve to rationalize this division by attributing to the sexes intrinsic personality differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
We review evidence of inequality associated with gender and social categories like ethnicity with respect to six types of power: control of resources, force, legitimacy, obligations, knowledge, and sexuality. Presuming that stereotypes are one means of legitimizing power differentials between groups, we review research on stereotype contents for both ethnicity and gender with respect to the six forms of power. The review reveals a number of rhetorical means by which stereotypes legitimize ethnic dominants and men having particular forms of power, such as disguising the exercise of power by describing it in individualistic rather than relational terms, and also how stereotypes de-legitimize women and ethnic subordinates from obtaining particular forms of power, such as by stating that what they desire and their virtues preclude exercising power. A new research agenda regarding stereotypes and how they legitimize group power differences is outlined.
Although the concept of justification has played a significant role in many social psychological theories, its presence in recent examinations of stereotyping has been minimal. We describe and evaluate previous notions of stereotyping as ego-justification and group-justification and propose an additional account, that of system-justification, which refers to psychological processes contributing to the preservation of existing social arrangements even at the expense of personal and group interest. It is argued that the notion of system-justification is necessary to account for previously unexplained phenomena, most notably the participation by disadvantaged individuals and groups in negative stereotypes of themselves, and the consensual nature of stereotypic beliefs despite differences in social relations within and between social groups. We offer a selective review of existing research that demonstrates the role of stereotypes in the production of false consciousness and develop the implications of a system-justification approach.
[T]he rationalizing and justifying function of a stereotype exceeds its function as a reflector of group attributes—G. W. Allport (1958, p. 192).
Female, male, and mixed-sex dyads in which one member was assigned the leader role interacted and rated their own dominance throughout the interaction. The effects of gender and romantic attachment status (whether one has an exclusive dating partner or is “unattached” and free to go out with someone new) upon these self-ratings of dominance within the interaction were examined. The results showed that both leaders and subordinates perceived female leaders to be less dominant than male leaders.
In addition, members of mixed-sex pairs rated themselves as less dominant than did those in same-sex pairs. Female leaders paired with males rated themselves least dominant and unattached female leaders interacting with males rated themselves least dominant of all. Female subordinates rated themselves as less dominant when with male leaders than when with female leaders, while the effect of the gender of the leader was insignificant for male subordinates. The results are discussed as evidence of a role conflict created by the contradictory roles of “dominant” leader and “subordinate” female, roles described by the sex role stereotypes prevalent in our culture.
Gender stereotypes regarding task competence may lead perceivers to set different standards for diagnosing competence in women versus men. Specifically, stereotypes may prompt lower minimum standards (or initial screening criteria) but higher confirmatory standards for women than men (Biernat & Kobrynowicz, 1997). In two studies simulating hiring decisions, predictions were that women would be (1) more likely than men to make a short list for a job but (2) less likely than men to be hired for the same job. Results were generally consistent with predictions only among female participants (Studies 1 and 2), among those exposed to a female experimenter (Study 1), and among those held accountable for their decisions (Study 2). The role of motivational factors in the setting of standards is discussed.
Results of an experimental study varying the sex of the employee and the gender-type of the job demonstrated that men, as well as women, are penalized when they are successful in areas that imply that they have violated gender norms. But the nature of these penalties differed. When depicted as being successful at a female gender-typed job, men were characterized as more ineffectual and afforded less respect than women successful at the same job or than men successful in a gender-consistent position. Women, in contrast, were more interpersonally derogated and disliked when said to be successful at a male gender-typed job. Regardless of these differing characterizations, both men and women successful in gender-inconsistent jobs were reported to be less preferable as bosses than their more normatively consistent counterparts. These results suggest that success, when it violates gender norms, can be disadvantageous for both men and women, but in different ways.
This article reviews theory and research on double standards, namely, the use of different requirements for the inference of possession of an attribute, de-pending on the individuals being assessed. The article focuses on double standards for competence in task groups and begins by examining how status characteristics (e.g. gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic class) become a basis for stricter standards for the lower status person. I also discuss other bases for this practice (e.g. personality charac-teristics, allocated rewards, sentiments of either like or dislike). Next, I describe double standards in the inference of other types of valued attributes (e.g. beauty, morality, men-tal health) and examine the relationship between these practices and competence double standards. The article concludes with a discussion of "reverse" double standards for competence, namely, the practice of applying more lenient ability standards to lower status individuals.