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Race matters for women leaders: Intersectional effects on agentic deficiencies and penalties
... Racial stereotypes of Black and Asian people have been found to affect perceptions of both competence and assertiveness. In general, East Asians, who are perceived as more prototypically Asian in the U.S. (Goh & McCue, 2021), are commonly believed to be high in competence (e.g., Balaji & Worawongs, 2010;Berdahl & Min, 2012;Rosette et al., 2008Rosette et al., , 2016Zhang, 2015;Zou & Cheryan, 2017) while Black people are believed to be low on competence (e.g., Knight et al., 2003;Powell & Butterfield, 1997;Rosette et al., 2008Rosette et al., , 2016Walzer & Czopp, 2011). Conversely, Black people are generally believed to be high on assertiveness (Carton & Rosette, 2011;Ghavami & Peplau, 2013;Madon et al., 2001;Rosette et al., 2016;Walzer & Czopp, 2011) while Asian people are believed to be low on assertiveness (Berdahl & Min, 2012;Carton & Rosette, 2011;Ghavami & Peplau, 2013;Lin et al., 2005;Lu et al., 2020Lu et al., , 2022Rosette et al., 2016;Zhong et al., 2006). ...
... Racial stereotypes of Black and Asian people have been found to affect perceptions of both competence and assertiveness. In general, East Asians, who are perceived as more prototypically Asian in the U.S. (Goh & McCue, 2021), are commonly believed to be high in competence (e.g., Balaji & Worawongs, 2010;Berdahl & Min, 2012;Rosette et al., 2008Rosette et al., , 2016Zhang, 2015;Zou & Cheryan, 2017) while Black people are believed to be low on competence (e.g., Knight et al., 2003;Powell & Butterfield, 1997;Rosette et al., 2008Rosette et al., , 2016Walzer & Czopp, 2011). Conversely, Black people are generally believed to be high on assertiveness (Carton & Rosette, 2011;Ghavami & Peplau, 2013;Madon et al., 2001;Rosette et al., 2016;Walzer & Czopp, 2011) while Asian people are believed to be low on assertiveness (Berdahl & Min, 2012;Carton & Rosette, 2011;Ghavami & Peplau, 2013;Lin et al., 2005;Lu et al., 2020Lu et al., , 2022Rosette et al., 2016;Zhong et al., 2006). ...
... In general, East Asians, who are perceived as more prototypically Asian in the U.S. (Goh & McCue, 2021), are commonly believed to be high in competence (e.g., Balaji & Worawongs, 2010;Berdahl & Min, 2012;Rosette et al., 2008Rosette et al., , 2016Zhang, 2015;Zou & Cheryan, 2017) while Black people are believed to be low on competence (e.g., Knight et al., 2003;Powell & Butterfield, 1997;Rosette et al., 2008Rosette et al., , 2016Walzer & Czopp, 2011). Conversely, Black people are generally believed to be high on assertiveness (Carton & Rosette, 2011;Ghavami & Peplau, 2013;Madon et al., 2001;Rosette et al., 2016;Walzer & Czopp, 2011) while Asian people are believed to be low on assertiveness (Berdahl & Min, 2012;Carton & Rosette, 2011;Ghavami & Peplau, 2013;Lin et al., 2005;Lu et al., 2020Lu et al., , 2022Rosette et al., 2016;Zhong et al., 2006). These findings suggest that perceptions of competence and assertiveness, the hallmarks of successful leadership that are generally attributed more to men than to women, may well be affected by the race of the target. ...
Two studies examined the effects of race on the think manager-think male effect, which has shown men in general to be viewed more similarly to successful managers than women in general. The first study directly manipulated the race of the male or female target in the think manager-think-male framework and examined the effects on two key measures of agency – competence and assertiveness – as well as on communality. Results indicated that the differences in agency characterizations between men and successful managers and women and successful managers that are emblematic of the think-manager-think-male effect were not always evident. While the think manager-think male effect was observed for men and women “in general” as well as for men and women designated as White, it did not hold for Black and Asian targets, whose characterizations were influenced not only by gender stereotypes but also by racial stereotypes. Additionally, a potential “think manager-think female” effect, as indicated by greater overlap in communality ratings between women in general and successful managers than between men in general and successful managers held for targets who were White and Black, but not for those who were Asian. A follow-up study focused on potential implications of the findings from the first study and indicated that competence was believed to be more important than either communality or assertiveness, while communality was believed to be more important than assertiveness in determining managerial success. These results raise questions about the universality of the think-manager-think-male effect and the scope of its generalizability. These findings also add to the growing concern about the precision and application of gender bias research findings when attention is not paid to crucial intersecting identities such as race.
... Regarding the stereotypes surrounding SAs, a key limitation of the existing research is the conflation of Asian-American groups treating South and EAs alike (Rosette, 2016). One exception is the study done by Hsin and Xie (2014), where they examined EAs, Filipinos, Southeast Asians, and SAs and found that EAs scored the highest on cognitive ability, but were rated similarly to the other groups on academic achievement and effort. ...
... The cluster analysis suggests that there is variance in personality ratings for different gender and racial groups in our sample since the clusters were clearly distinguished by "triggering" items" that accounted for large differences in our cluster groups in terms of Sociability/Extraversion, Agency/Agreeableness, Emotionality/Neuroticism while replicating previous research (Rosette, et al 2016) on more neutral items that have no distinctive racial and gender differences (Openness). Our cluster analysis highlights which items of the BFI-10 contain stereotypical content and are potentially triggering for each racial and gender group predicting differences in leadership ratings. ...
... Replicating previous research (Rosette et al., 2016) we also found that gender stereotypes universally predicted personality and leadership assessments. Team members are differentially penalized when they violate gender vs. leader stereotypes. ...
Despite substantial research on leadership, the nuanced differences in leadership perceptions of East-and South-Asians, and especially the women in these groups remain underexplored. We used an intersectional lens to examine the impact ethnicity and gender had on assessments of undergraduate business students (n=967) of South-Asian (SA, n=287), East-Asian (EA, n=568), Black (n=35), and White (n=77) descent enrolled in a mandatory leadership development course in a large metropolitan Northern American university. We examined a commonly used measure of the big five personality dimensions (BFI-10) for its stereotypical content. A cluster analysis of the 10 items on the BFI-10 revealed 3 distinct clusters: social-agency, self-containment, and communal-competence on which good leaders scored the highest. As predicted by the intersectionality model, women were rated higher on emotionality. Men who scored lower on emotionality benefitted the most on leadership ratings. SAs conformed to agentic stereotypes, EA women conformed to the shy stereotype, and SA women conformed to stereotypes of submissiveness and sociability. However SA women who scored high on agency, conforming to racial stereotypes and effective leadership but countering gender expectations of submissiveness received lower peer assessments of leadership. Conversely, EA students who exhibited agency counter to prescribed racial stereotypes but aligned with effective leadership behaviors, faced no such penalties. Our findings unveil a significant yet intricate ethnic and gender-based disparity in leadership evaluations, urging a deeper examination into the culturally-nuanced, contextual, and intersectional way stereotypes influence leadership ratings. Our study not only fills a significant gap in the existing leadership literature but prompts a re-evaluation of stereotypes ingrained in CONFORMING AND COUNTERING GENDER AND RACIAL STEREOTYPES 3 personality and leadership assessments to foster a more inclusive understanding and evaluation of leadership for EA and SA men and women.
... Research in intersectionality leadership, particularly at the nexus of gender and race, reveals nuanced stereotypes. Studies indicate that in North America, Black individuals are often associated with "masculinity," affecting leadership perceptions regardless of their gender (Galinsky et al., 2013;Goff et al., 2008;Johnson et al., 2012;Rosette et al., 2016;Schug et al., 2015), with Black women leaders facing less backlash for dominant behaviors compared to White women (Livingston et al., 2012). Conversely, Asians are perceived as more "feminine" across genders, encountering leadership barriers ("bamboo ceiling") and criticism for displaying dominance (Galinsky et al., 2013;Rosette et al., 2016;Schug et al., 2015;Lu et al., 2020;Yu, 2020). ...
... Studies indicate that in North America, Black individuals are often associated with "masculinity," affecting leadership perceptions regardless of their gender (Galinsky et al., 2013;Goff et al., 2008;Johnson et al., 2012;Rosette et al., 2016;Schug et al., 2015), with Black women leaders facing less backlash for dominant behaviors compared to White women (Livingston et al., 2012). Conversely, Asians are perceived as more "feminine" across genders, encountering leadership barriers ("bamboo ceiling") and criticism for displaying dominance (Galinsky et al., 2013;Rosette et al., 2016;Schug et al., 2015;Lu et al., 2020;Yu, 2020). Daldrop et al. (2023) explored how gender and youth intersect in leadership evaluations, revealing age biases that compound gender biases, particularly disadvantaging young leaders. ...
... Abdellatif et al. (2023) call to use various alternative research methods to give rise to marginalized voices in the study of leadership. The current methodological approaches are qualitative (e.g., Liu, 2019;Zheng et al., 2018a) and quantitative (e.g., Kearney et al., 2019;Rosette et al., 2016), but there is also a call to include less traditional critical feminist research methods they term as "methodologies of resistance," such as narrative inquiry, testimonies, and autoethnography (Abdellatif et al., 2023). This serves to give rise to alternative voices and to the understanding of who is included, as well as what experiences are privileged and who is silenced (Rhodes & Brown, 2005) in leadership scholarship. ...
Feminist thinking has contributed to changing views of women in society and in leadership positions. Yet women are still underrepresented in leadership, especially in key roles and at higher organizational ranks. In this commentary we examine the past, present, and future of leadership theories through a gendered lens, by considering them against the backdrop of feminist theory evolution. We first organize existing leadership theories according to four main feminist waves— gender reform feminism or “fixing the women” which corresponds with liberal feminism; gender resistance feminism or “the female advantage,” reflecting radical feminism; the gender rebellion feminism or “how is a wo(man) defined,” according to postmodern and intersectionality theories, and gender digital feminism or “hashtag and clicktivism revolution” that focuses on social media, cyber activism, sexual violence, and complex intersectionality. We further examine the implications and research findings of these theories for women and men in leadership. Second, we review the publications on gender and leadership in two exemplary journals publishing leadership research in the field between 2019 and 2022 and explore to which feminist wave the published works relate. We show that themes related to the first two waves of feminist thinking continue to be dominant in current leadership research and encourage moving into new terrains, utilizing current feminist thinking, in the study of leadership and gender. Finally, we raise awareness that in a gendered society, leadership theories may reproduce and reconstruct the existing social order and gendered arrangements, as well as map novel directions for future research.
... What facilitates effective leadership during high-strength events, though, is less known (Hannah & Parry, 2014). Drawing from research on the intersection of gender and race (Livingston, Rosette, & Washington, 2012;Rosette, Koval, Ma, & Livingston, 2016), we propose an intersectional leadership advantage (ILA), such that Black women leaders will be most effective in this event context. We argue that because their journeys to the top positions are fraught with obstacles (Davis, 2016), Black women tend to form a distinct leadership style (Allen, 1997;Green & King, 2001;Parker & Ogilvie, 1996;Smith, Watkins, Ladge, & Carlton, 2019). ...
... Examining the effects of intersecting marginalized identities, such as race and gender, is referred to as intersectional research (Cole, 2009;Rosette et al., 2018;Sanchez-Hucles & Davis, 2010). This research finds that race matters for women leaders (Rosette et al., 2016), as race and sex have historically interacted to spur various forms of subjugation for Black women (Collins, 2000;Davis, 1983;Giddings, 1985). Early Black feminism literature (Collins, 2000), which addressed the marginalization of Black women, referred to this demographic intersection as "multiple jeopardy" (King, 1988: 42): ...
... For instance, compared with Black men, Black women report experiencing fewer work hostilities (Motro, Evans, Ellis, & Benson, 2022;Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008). Similarly, Black women tend to be perceived as more agentic compared to White women (Hall, Everett, & Hamilton-Mason, 2012;Livingston et al., 2012;Rosette et al., 2016Rosette et al., , 2018, and because of it, agentic Black women tend to receive less backlash in the workplace compared with agentic White women (Rosette et al., 2016(Rosette et al., , 2018. 1 ...
Widespread social unrest occurred in the United States in the Summer of 2020. Citizens took to the streets to challenge the prevailing social justice framework. According to event systemstheory, these Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests were high-strength, as they represented novel, critical, and disruptive events. They were also mega-threats as they focused on threats to the social identities of the marginalized communities. Because different approaches were taken in navigating the BLM protests by authorities, it was unclear what constitutes effective leadership during these events. We integrate insights from event-oriented literature with intersectionality of gender and race research to introduce an intersectional leadership advantage (ILA). This framework suggests that Black women, owing in part to the rich tapestry of their social experiences, tend to develop a distinct leadership style characterized by sensitivity to racial injustice, leaning into risk, and commitment to the community. These qualities enable Black women leaders to be effective during events like BLM protests. Utilizing data from six public sources covering 11,540 protests across 3,338 U.S. cities from May to August 2020, we hypothesized an interaction of city police chiefs’ gender and race in relation to protest-related violence (measured in three ways). Results revealed that protests in cities with Black women police chiefs were associated with the lowest levels of violence compared to other groups. This study provides insights into qualities associated with leadership effectiveness in high-strength mega-threat events, and it connects diversity in leadership roles to favorable outcomes.
... In Experiment 1, we tested whether showing or not showing misbehavior could help us understand general discrimination against nonprototypical employees, something previous studies had not fully explored when there were no mistakes or misbehavior involved (Krings et al., 2014;Livingston et al., 2012;Niedlich et al., 2014;Rosette et al., 2016). In this way, we tested the differential impact of displaying misbehavior for women of German versus Turkish descent. ...
... Existing research underscores the potential of (information on) agentic behavior by women in male-typed jobs to reduce discrimination, while the same agentic and dominant behavior can lead to backlash (Glick et al., 1988;Rudman & Glick, 1999). An intersectional analysis underlines the importance of considering gender in interaction with other social categories like ethnicity/race or sexual orientation to fully understand the phenomenon (Hudson & Ghani, 2023;Livingston et al., 2012;Rosette et al., 2016). Our studies add to these findings by showing that additional information on behavior (whether a certain kind of misbehavior was shown or not) influences how normative gender expectations are differentially applied to Turkish compared to German women. ...
Based on the model of intersectional invisibility, we tested the consequences of work‐related misbehavior for women of Turkish and German descent (i.e., misbehavior involving mistakes that are stereotypically associated with masculine or feminine traits, eliciting negative evaluations). Across a series of four preregistered experiments ( N s = 746, plus two pre‐registered experiments in an Additional Supplement), we investigated evaluations of female targets in a male‐typed, highly qualified job context. We focus on exclusion and promotion decisions. A single‐paper meta‐analysis substantiates findings across samples who have different experiences regarding racism and in personnel selection. Our findings reveal a nuanced picture: Misbehavior associated with stereotypically feminine traits led to more negative consequences for Turkish women than for German women, resulting in more frequent exclusion and less frequent promotion for Turkish women. In contrast, misbehavior associated with stereotypically masculine traits led to more favorable outcomes for Turkish than German women. Thus, revealing a complex relationship between type of misbehavior and ethnicity, we identify leader prototypes as an explanatory mechanism, rather than aversive racism or shifting standards. Results suggest that Turkish women are discriminated against most for showing stereotypically feminine behavior confirming gendered racialized steretoypes, but may experience less backlash when showing counter‐stereotypical behavior than German women. We find double standards in evaluations of highly qualified women of Turkish versus German descent, with interactions with the type of misbehavior suggesting complex interplays of gender, ethnicity, and information provided about the individual in career advancement and exclusion.
... Recent intersectional theory posits that individuals' multiple identities either amplify or dilute stereotypes depending on if those identities are congruent or incongruent with one another (Hall et al., 2019). For example, for women of different races, Rosette et al. (2016) found that their agency and communality stereotypes vary; Black women are perceived as dominant and strong, Asian women as competent and passive, and White women as communal and not particularly agentic (Rosette et al., 2016). These race-specific gender stereotypes indicate that the implications of using agentic and communal resume language may differ depending on race or other intersectional identities. ...
... Recent intersectional theory posits that individuals' multiple identities either amplify or dilute stereotypes depending on if those identities are congruent or incongruent with one another (Hall et al., 2019). For example, for women of different races, Rosette et al. (2016) found that their agency and communality stereotypes vary; Black women are perceived as dominant and strong, Asian women as competent and passive, and White women as communal and not particularly agentic (Rosette et al., 2016). These race-specific gender stereotypes indicate that the implications of using agentic and communal resume language may differ depending on race or other intersectional identities. ...
Although significant advancements have been made, gender disparity in the form of unequal pay and underrepresentation of women in leadership positions and STEM fields still exists today. Research has shown that gender stereotypes can act as barriers for women aspiring to prototypically masculine-typed or leadership positions, and the way women are portrayed by others (i.e., in line with gender stereotypes during the hiring process) can result in negative career-related consequences (e.g., Madera et al., 2009). However, we know little about how men and women portray themselves during the hiring process. That is, do men and women describe themselves in line with gender stereotypes? If so, how does this impact career-related outcomes? To address these questions, these studies (1) examine if differences exist in the communal and agentic language that men and women use on their resumes and (2) determine if language differences result in consequences for applicants. Findings suggest that women use more communal language than do men when writing about themselves on their resumes. Furthermore, communal language use can negatively impact perceived leadership ability and hireability for women applying to prototypically masculine-typed jobs.
... As such, theorized gender differences in leaders' stereotype-relevant communication likely depend on leaders' race. For instance, Black women are seen as less feminine and more dominant than White women (Hall, Galinsky, and Phillips, 2015;Rosette et al., 2016). Moreover, Black women contend with the ''angry Black woman'' stereotype (Harris-Perry, 2011), the notion that Black women are angrier than other women (Durik et al., 2006). ...
... Second, academics must empirically determine whether gender-based phenomena tested among White women also apply to women of color. This study, along with seminal work by scholars such as Kimberlé Crenshaw (1991), Patricia Hill Collins (2008, and Ashleigh Rosette (Rosette et al., 2016), shows that we must consider the unique experiences of women at intersecting social identities. Social scientists studying gender should theorize how phenomena of interest may be racialized, disaggregate findings by race, note and justify the racial composition of their samples, and avoid making broad statements about gender-based phenomena that are predicated on White samples, before testing whether such phenomena apply to non-White populations. ...
Management scholars have long examined gender disparities in leaders’ communication and followers’ reactions. There is, however, a paucity of research that takes an intersectional perspective. This article takes that step, using an intersectional lens to examine women leaders’ use of dominant language and how others receive it. Leveraging advances in natural-language processing, I analyzed the stereotype content of more than 250,000 Congressional remarks (Study 1) and almost one million tweets (Study 2) by leaders. Women leaders referenced dominance more than men did (using more words like “powerful”), violating stereotypes that depict women as submissive. However, as theory on racialized gender stereotypes suggests, this effect was unique to White leaders. Two additional studies revealed backlash to women leaders’ use of dominant language. Analyzing almost 18,000 editorials revealed the more that women leaders referenced dominance, the more they were portrayed as dominant but also cold. Effects were strongest for Black and Latina women (Study 3). Finally, an experiment using simulated social media profiles found the more that Black women (but not men) leaders referenced dominance, the more voters rated them as less likeable, a result that was unique to Black leaders (Study 4). The article demonstrates the critical importance of intersectionality for understanding gender inequality in leaders’ communication and its reception by the media and the public.
... As of September 2022, women labor force participation was 58.4% (Roy, 2022). While women constitute a major portion of the labor force in the US, factor such as gender stereotypes, lack of work-life balance and mentorship opportunities, unequal pay, etc. hinder career progression (Rosette et al., 2016). These factors lead to dissatisfaction and de-motivation, and ultimately positively impacts turnover intentions among women. ...
An organization's employer branding activities strive to communicate to both external and internal stakeholders that it is a great place to work. This paper focuses on an organization's "external" employer branding activities (EEBAs)-recruitment messages used to attract job seekers in the external labor market. The competition for hiring skilled and qualified employees has increased over the years, and thus it is crucial for organizations to be able to attract job seekers and influence them in pursuing a position via appropriate EEBAs. While prior research has explored applicant attraction by considering separately the amount of information and attribute content in recruitment messages, this paper draws on marketing and consumer psychology literature to integrate these two related but theoretically distinct research streams and builds theory around four "external" employer branding activity (EEBA) types and their effectiveness. In addition, the feasibility of using different types of employer branding activities is discussed, based on industry, organization, and job-seeker characteristics.
... For instance, in the USA, Black women face discrimination when applying for stereotypically feminine positions (for example, librarian), whereas East Asian men experience discrimination when applying for traditionally masculine jobs (for example, security guard) 143 . East Asian women in the USA might feel the need to downplay their femininity in masculine workplaces, whereas Black women in the USA might worry about acting too aggressively 144 . By recognizing these distinct experiences and forms of discrimination, people acting as allies can ensure that they confront all types of bias (for example, admonishing a colleague who calls a Black woman aggressive) while acknowledging and addressing multiply marginalized individuals' concerns about mistreatment. ...
... Third, our research focuses on one demographic category in considering the effects of cultural dissonance on social entrepreneurship. However, greater nuance may be added due to effects ascribed to intersectionality, which suggests that simultaneous membership in different categories may result in a more complex set of consequences than consideration of any single category (Rosette et al., 2016). Individuals continually draw on a shared understanding of action rooted in cultural knowledge and social categories to justify or make sense of their actions (Swidler, 1986). ...
Scholars tend to evaluate the effects of cultural factors on social entrepreneurial activity based on either cultural values or cultural practices. However, societal inconsistencies between values and practices have the potential to create uncertainty in expected entrepreneurial behaviors. In this paper, we operationalize cultural dissonance as the gap between cultural values and cultural practices and draw on role congruity theory to theorize and test how cultural dissonance influences engagement in social entrepreneurship. Using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness, and the World Bank datasets (N = 23,828), we show that cultural dissonance can either impede or encourage social entrepreneurial activity and that female entrepreneurs are less sensitive to these effects than male entrepreneurs.
... Academic spaces continue to demonstrate resistance to varying leadership styles and instead continue to push an ethnocentric leadership model (Motapanyane & Shankar, 2022). When Black women take on leadership roles in predominantly White, male-dominated universities, the typical traits associated with leadership often clash with the stereotypes about Black women (Rosette et al., 2016;Showunmi, 2023). For example, the racist stereotype of the leadership and communication style of Black women as angry, blunt, and volatile perpetuates racial microaggressions (Flowers-Taylor, 2021;Motapanyane & Shankar, 2022;Showunmi, 2023). ...
Diverse women continue to be unrepresented in academia. Institutional structures and governance are strongly influenced by Eurocentric and androcentric worldviews. These ideologies construct, maintain, and legitimize biases, affecting the career progression of diverse academic women in senior leadership positions. This paper uses the intersectional theoretical framework (ITF) to inform how salient aspects of identity, such as race and gender, impact the lived experiences of diverse academic women (DAW). We draw from both empirical and conceptual discussions in the education, gender, and leadership literature to analyze relevant areas, such as the internal silencing of DAW and the need for us to move beyond inclusion to expansion in higher education. Attention is given to topical discourse surrounding gender and publication, conflict management, stereotypes, and cultural safety relative to DAW. Next, a discussion of the critiques and gaps in the academic literature is provided. Further, the Awareness, Rationale, and Choices (ARC) model highlights how leadership may be re-imagined by addressing matters of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) within academic institutions. The article concludes with the need to cultivate brave spaces in higher education leadership structures, whereby DAW can nurture their intersected identities and cultivate a sense of belonging.
... Asian) people are stereotyped as more physically strong (muscular) and athletic. Basically, gender stereotypes often incorporate noticeable physical and athletic attributes, as reflected in both gender roles (Bem, 1974) and stereotype contents (Alexander et al., 2005;Rosette et al., 2016). Previous research on gendered racial stereotypes has indeed predominantly focused on the physical, rather than behavioural, attributes of masculinity and femininity. ...
How are Asian and Black men and women stereotyped? Research from the gendered race and stereotype content perspectives has produced mixed empirical findings. Using BERT models pre-trained on English language books, news articles, Wikipedia, Reddit, and Twitter, with a new method for measuring propositions in natural language (the Fill-Mask Association Test, FMAT), we explored the gender (masculinity–femininity), physical strength, warmth, and competence contents of stereotypes about Asian and Black men and women. We find that Asian men (but not women) are stereotyped as less masculine and less moral/trustworthy than Black men. Compared to Black men and Black women, respectively, both Asian men and Asian women are stereotyped as less muscular/athletic and less assertive/dominant, but more sociable/friendly and more capable/intelligent. These findings suggest that Asian and Black stereotypes in natural language have multifaceted contents and gender nuances, requiring a balanced view integrating the gender schema theory and the stereotype content model. Exploring their semantic representations as propositions in large language models, this research reveals how intersectional race–gender stereotypes are naturally expressed in real life.
... On the other hand, race and gender intersectionality research has shown that members of two subordinate categories may face fewer prescriptive stereotypes and in turn backlash, and some research evidence suggests that the same applies to older women. For example, studies have found that Black women evade agency prescriptions and agentic backlash (Livingston, Rosette, & Washington, 2012;Rosette et al., 2016), and a recent study found that older women also elude the agency prescriptions and backlash that typically target older men and younger women (Martin, North, & Phillips, 2019). Another recent study asked participants to rate the degree to which various prescriptive stereotypes apply to men and women of di erent life stages. ...
The literature on individual differences constitutes a key area of research in organizational sciences, such as organizational psychology, organizational behavior, and behavioral strategy. In line with this, there is a vast and further growing body of knowledge within this literature. This volume aims to provide an accessible overview of the academic research that characterizes this area. Specifically, through 26 chapters written by 57 established academics, this volume explores key research streams, ranging from psychological to biological/physiological characteristics, and assesses the impact of individual differences in an era of technological and social disruption. In doing so, it assists academics and practitioners in understanding and utilizing individual differences to enhance organizational outcomes.
... These findings align with common stereotypes that associate Asian Americans more with follower (e.g., reliable, diligent) rather than leader traits (e.g., masculine, domineering), leading to the perception that Asian Americans are less suitable for leadership positions Kim et al., 2022;Rosette et al., 2016;Sy et al., 2010). As reflected in the IPM, race and gender interact with the domain of evaluation (i.e., leadership) to produce for Asian American women hypo-prototypicality in terms of leadership (Wong & McCullough, 2021). ...
Asian American women, who make up a growing proportion of the workforce, face unique intersectional forms of workplace discrimination and bias based on being both a racial and gender minority. In this review, we take an intersectional approach, applying social psychological research on gendered race theory and Wong and McCullough’s Intersectional Prototypicality Model, to document as well as explain how race and gender concomitantly inform the challenges and barriers Asian American women face in the workplace. Specifically, we review evidence that the category “Asian” is frequently associated with femininity, and that this in turn leads Asian American women to be viewed as hyper-prototypical or hypo-prototypical given the context of their work. We describe how this alignment or misalignment explains Asian American women’s workplace experiences across multiple domains including hiring, promotion, negotiation, and workplace harassment. By explicitly considering the intersection of race and gender, we conclude by articulating novel solutions and implications for creating better workplace environments for Asian American women.
... 5 Finally, it also appears that the "integrative" diversity strategy (Waldman and Sparr, 2023) is rooted in recognition of the fact that there does not currently exist a level playing field that provisions for members of minority and majority groups' equal access to opportunities and resources. As such, it is aligned with the rich body of research in the area of DEI in organizations that has offered compelling arguments about how members of minority groups are systematically disadvantaged as a direct result of the power asymmetries attached to the social identities that they occupy (e.g., Adamson, Kelan, Lewis, Sliwa, & Rumens, 2021;Roberson, 2019;Rosette, Koval, Ma, & Livingston, 2016). The consequences of these systemic disadvantages have been variously labeled, and include, among other things, the "risk tax," in the case of racial minorities (Glass & Cook, 2020); the "double bind," in the case of women (Eagly & Carli, 2007); and "double jeopardy," in the case of racial minority women (Berdahl & Moore, 2006). ...
In the last few years, we have witnessed growing backlash against “wokeness” from numerous actors. Indeed, politicians, social commentators, corporate executives, and academics have all taken aim at the concept. In this Exchange article, we respond to the recent criticisms laid against “woke” diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) scholarship and practice from researchers in the field of management, focusing particularly on those claims that have been expressed recently in this journal. We find particularly troubling the potential for anti-woke academic rhetoric to function as intellectual scaffolding for ideological and political efforts that undermine the hard-earned legal and organizational advances in the area of DEI made over the last several decades. We contend that, while such work is ostensibly framed within a broader critique of “wokeness,” the arguments put forward by its authors are, in actuality, directed toward challenging organizations as
sites where the privileges attached to membership in socially dominant groups are normalized and reproduced. Our discussion addresses three foundational areas of concern: (a) the conflation of “woke” with DEI scholarship and practice, (b) the misrepresentation of organizational DEI efforts, and (c) the under-appreciation of the importance of organizational inclusion for stakeholders. We elaborate on the implications that emanate from
this backlash against “woke” DEI scholarship and practice, including the undoing of progressive social policies and the concomitant legitimation of populist rhetoric.
Women of color are running for political office at higher rates in recent U.S. elections, and existing scholarship is only starting to investigate the communication strategies of women of color and how voters respond to their campaign messages. We shed light on how women of color use emotions in campaign messages and how voters respond to these emotional appeals. We employ an analysis of campaign advertising data across multiple election years from the Wesleyan Media Project to show that both white women and women of color rely heavily on enthusiasm in their campaign messages, even though white women use anger appeals at higher rates than women of color. We complement these results with an original survey-based experiment to examine how emotional appeals affect voting preferences for women of color candidates. Our results suggest that when women of color employ positive emotions, the effects of these messages do not differ when compared to positive emotions from white women. We also find that positive emotions in messages are especially beneficial for Black women candidates compared to negative emotions in messages. These results offer insights into how women of color can build effective communication strategies to broaden their representation in U.S. decision-making bodies.
This book delves into critical factors for women’s success in academia, offering strategies, and counsel anchored in a robust theoretical framework.
Hozien’s thoughtful, interdisciplinary approach to women leadership culminates in a comprehensive understanding of the critical factors that can influence career success in higher education. Grounded by an intersectional lens and data-driven analysis, the book’s focus on minority female populations informs the inherent challenges and shifting representation in educational leadership. Each chapter integrates real-world examples, case studies, and immediately actionable advice to advocate for and support current and aspiring female leaders, administrators, and policymakers.
A masterful blend of theory and practice, this book’s timely insights empower women to take charge of their leadership journeys with the intention of fostering a generation of confident and capable academic leaders who can drive positive transformation.
In this research we address the ongoing debate about the existence of the glass‐cliff phenomenon by investigating boundary conditions and mechanisms influencing its persistence and decline. Drawing on signalling theory, we hypothesize that the glass‐cliff's presence fluctuates with the clarity of signals associated with appointing women board members at various stages of quota policy implementation. In Study 1, we analyzed a dataset of 258 board appointments in German‐listed companies from 2003 to 2020. We found that women executives were more likely to be appointed following periods of declining performance during Stage 1 (pre‐quota announcement) and Stage 3 (post‐quota enforcement), but not in Stage 2 (post‐announcement, pre‐enforcement). In Study 2, an experiment with 476 respondents, we tested for changes in signal clarity as an underlying mechanism. Results indicate that signal clarity associated with appointing women following performance decline is influenced by quota policies. Signal clarity was highest during stages 1 and 3, but diminished in Stage 2. These findings support the signalling explanation for the glass‐cliff, highlighting that its occurrence is influenced by country‐level policies and emphasizing that the symbolic value of appointing women to board positions as indicators of change depends on the clarity of these signals.
Normalized, dominant leadership styles favoring masculinity and aggressiveness disregard the impact of intersectional social identities and inequities on leadership practices and perpetuate leadership gaps and inequities in organizations, for example, preventing women and people of color from advancing into leadership roles. This study aims to explore how intersectionality plays a role in workplace leadership and propose a framework for future leadership research and practice that foregrounds intersectionality. To achieve this aim, this study systematically classified and reviewed 160 empirical studies on intersectionality in leadership in work and organization contexts. Most studies described the leadership experiences and strategies of individuals from multiple marginalized, historically excluded (MMHE) groups and the factors that influence their leadership. Some studies presented the intersectional effects of leadership and illuminated relational and contextual aspects of the leadership process. We discussed tensions within the findings and proposed a framework for intersectional leadership based on the results of the literature review. We conclude with a call for illuminating intersectional leadership as a promising process to achieve organizational social justice.
In response to persistent gender inequality in corporate leadership, many countries have implemented board gender diversity reforms, either through legislation or by revising governance codes for board appointments. Whereas these reforms aim to enhance women’s representation and influence in leadership roles, their effects on corporate outcomes, such as innovation, remain unclear. This study develops a two-mechanism institutional contingency model to investigate how board gender diversity reforms affect firm innovation through representation and empowerment mechanisms. Using a unique hand-collected data set on worldwide board gender diversity reforms and a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences design, we find that these reforms significantly improve innovation outcomes, with the empowerment mechanism having a stronger positive effect than the representation mechanism. Additionally, we show that rule-based reforms, although they are effective at increasing female board representation, often lead to symbolic compliance and tokenism, which limits their ability to enhance innovation. In contrast, comply-or-explain reforms, which emphasize empowerment and genuine engagement, yield more meaningful progress in firm innovation. Our findings also reveal that countries with higher prereform gender disparities and a larger pool of qualified female directors experience greater innovation gains following the implementation of these reforms. By distinguishing between the effects of representation and empowerment, this study provides a nuanced understanding of how gender diversity regulations can serve as catalysts for innovation and offers valuable insights for policymakers designing reforms to promote gender equality and economic outcomes.
Funding: K. T. Wang and L. Cui gratefully acknowledge financial support from the College of Business and Economics at the Australian National University, and N. Z. Zhu acknowledges financial support from the School of Management at Zhejiang University.
Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.22.16956 .
This chapter investigates the unique challenges faced by Women of Color (WOC) in professional environments through the lens of intersectional invisibility and the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. Intersectional invisibility highlights the compounded marginalization experienced by WOC, leading to both hypervisibility and invisibility in the workplace. The chapter delves into the psychological and physical impacts of increased job demands, such as microaggressions and selective incivility, and their effects on mental health, stress, and burnout. It explores strategies for WOC to mitigate these demands and emphasizes the crucial role of organizational support, including inclusive leadership, equitable policies, and supportive work environments. The significance of mentorship and networking opportunities for career advancement is also discussed. The chapter concludes with practical implications for organizations and future research directions, advocating for systemic changes to foster more inclusive and equitable workplaces.
Black women remain the target of gendered racism. The current chapter reviews stereotypes of Black women: the Mammy, Jezebel, Sapphire/Angry Black Woman, and Strong Black Woman. In doing so, we discuss how negative portrayals of Black women within the media contribute to workplace discrimination. In drawing from Black Feminist Thought (Collins, 2000) and identity shifting (Jones & Shorter-Gooden, 2004), we discuss the specific strategies Black women professionals report to adapt and navigate White-dominated spaces. Following this review, we discuss implications for public policy (e.g., CROWN Act). Further, with the rise of anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion bills across the country, we conclude with a consideration of how such legislation is likely to stifle Black women professionals' voice, significantly leaving them vulnerable to discrimination. We challenge organizations to create inclusive practices that will lead to a more hospitable climate for Black women.
Purpose
This qualitative study explores the career trajectories of women of color (WOC) leaders through the “From Assimilation to Alienation” framework, building upon Thomas et al .’s (2013) “Pet to Threat” work and incorporating intersectionality and the Stereotype Content Model. By examining 71 WOC leaders across various industries and racial groups (Black, East Asian, Latina and South Asian), this study aims to uncover the challenges, coping strategies they employ and the nuanced variations in their career experiences. The findings seek to inform organizational practices and DEI interventions in workplaces and leadership positions by considering the complex interplay of race, gender and stereotypes in corporate environments.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study employs an interpretivist paradigm, featuring semi-structured interviews with 71 WOC leaders (18 Black, 18 East Asian, 17 Latina and 18 South Asian) from various industries, including Fortune 10 to 500 companies. Participants were purposively sampled based on leadership roles and racial backgrounds. Virtual interviews lasted approximately 60 min each. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, focusing on predefined themes from the “From Assimilation to Alienation” framework while allowing for new themes to emerge. This approach enabled the exploration of participants' experiences, challenges and coping strategies within their corporate environments.
Findings
The findings reveal that WOC leaders experience a trajectory “From Assimilation to Alienation,” with nuanced variations across racial groups. Initially, they face tokenism, overlooked competencies and patronization. As they challenge the status quo, they encounter alienation, professional legitimacy challenges and insufficient recognition. Black women leaders face the most adverse experiences, followed by South Asian, Latina and East Asian leaders. Isolation emerges as a persistent theme across racial groups and career tenures. WOC leaders employ coping strategies such as demonstrating high work proficiency, relying on merit, utilizing diplomacy and setting boundaries when facing adversity.
Research limitations/implications
This study’s limitations include a focus on specific racial groups (Black, East Asian, Latina and South Asian), excluding white women and other diverse groups. It also does not explore intersectionalities such as religion, sexual orientation and age. However, the “From Assimilation to Alienation” framework developed in this study provides a foundation for future research to examine how multiple intersectionalities impact work and leadership experiences across a broader range of diverse groups.
Practical implications
The findings of this study provide valuable insights into the unique challenges faced by WOC leaders, highlighting the need for organizations to develop targeted interventions that address the “From Assimilation to Alienation” trajectory. Leadership training programs should incorporate modules that raise awareness about the experiences of WOC leaders and provide tools to assess and mitigate the adverse effects of tokenism, isolation and professional legitimacy challenges. These modules should also emphasize the importance of recognizing and rewarding the contributions of WOC leaders. By fostering a deeper understanding of the experiences of this group and providing practical strategies for support and inclusion, organizations can create a more equitable and inclusive leadership landscape that harnesses the full potential of diverse talent.
Originality/value
This study extends the Pet to Threat theory (Thomas et al. , 2013) by exploring the “From Assimilation to Alienation” experiences of women of color leaders in corporate environments, integrating intersectionality and the Stereotype Content Model. Examining leaders from four racial groups (Black, East Asian, Latina and South Asian) provides a nuanced understanding of their challenges and coping strategies. The findings offer insights for organizations promoting DEI in leadership, highlighting the need for targeted interventions. This research contributes to the limited literature on career trajectories of this underrepresented group and lays the foundation for future studies on intersectionality of race, gender and leadership in the workplace.
Despite the psychological benefits of authenticity, Black employees within predominantly White organizations often face the dilemma of whether to downplay versus highlight their social identity. Our research introduces social uncertainty as a unifying lens to understand the reluctance of these employees to express their social identity. Highlighting the central role of social uncertainty also helps identify novel factors at both the organizational level (authenticity climates) and individual level (perspective-taking) that can encourage Black employees to engage in social identity affirmation—authentic expressions of the positive aspects of their social identity. To test our hypotheses, we conducted two survey studies, two experiments, qualitative interviews, as well as coded text responses to our experimental prompts. Across our studies, authenticity climates were associated with greater social identity affirmation by Black employees, and this relationship was strengthened when these employees engaged in perspective-taking. Consistent with our theorizing, social certainty mediated these direct and moderated effects. In addition, social identity affirmation increased Black employees’ organizational involvement. Our experimental studies offer causal evidence for the roles of both authenticity climates and Black employees’ perspective-taking, our qualitative interviews vividly illuminate our hypotheses, and our text response analyses provide insight into how authenticity climates operate. Overall, the current research highlights how organizations can help Black employees feel comfortable emphasizing and expressing their true selves by increasing their social certainty. These findings also have direct implications for organizational leaders, providing them with actionable strategies to create more inclusive environments.
Funding: The research was supported by Northwestern University and Oklahoma State University.
Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2020.14659 .
Published by American Journals Publishing Center, USA. Website: https://www.american-journals.com/americanjournals. Black executive academic leaders are significantly underrepresented at prestigious, predominantly white institutions in the United States. Such institutions perpetuate white normativity in two ways: (1) numerical representation, and (2) the expectation that sets whiteness as the standard. Black executive academic leaders’ leadership abilities are perceived through white norms, and Black executive academic leaders navigate hierarchical leadership that favors whiteness. This qualitative study examines how stereotypes about Black people and racial bias associated with perceptions of Black executive academic leaders has impact their lived experiences. Interviews were conducted with eight Black executive academic leaders, as they described their lived experiences. The findings demonstrate that although Black executive academic leaders hold high-profile positions and have diverse backgrounds, white normativity impacted their lived experiences. This study reveals changes in white normative structures in higher education are necessary to challenge the dominance of white normativity in numerical representation and expectations.
This study aimed to identify main and promising research topics on women's leadership and refine publication policies for future studies. Using articles titled “women's leadership” from the Web of Science database, bibliometric analysis was conducted on 474 unique keywords across 189 articles. Findings revealed “leadership,” “gender,” “women,” and “gender diversity” as main research topics, with “gender diversity,” “intersectionality,” and “resilience” emerging as current themes. Scientific mapping categorized “leadership” and “women” as “Not Promising Research Topics,” “genders” as “Transition Research Topics,” and “Gender Diversity” as “Promising Research Topics.” The discussion, which outlines future research directions, holds the potential to inspire and motivate further research in the field of women's leadership studies.
Organizations play a central role in replicating societal inequalities. Despite theories of gendered and racialized organizations, evidence of unequal outcomes, and research on proposed mechanisms, we have few intersectional analyses demonstrating how the promotion process varies by race and gender across job levels in actual organizations. In this first-ever analysis of advancement in a U.S. firm by gender, race, and job, we run random effects logistic regression models on five years of novel longitudinal data from the software engineering workforce of a U.S.-based technology company. Results show intersectional performance-reward bias in patterns that help maintain the racialized gendered hierarchy so commonly observed in organizations: White men overrepresented at the top, women of color overrepresented at the bottom, and in the technology sector, men of Asian descent overrepresented in midlevel technical jobs and White women overrepresented in midlevel management positions. Findings suggest monitoring promotions by gender, race, and position to make visible biases that continue to impede workplace equity.
This study explores the concept of “women’s leadership” using bibliometric analysis and to offer suggestions for further research. The published journals under study employed the Publish or Perish (PoP) database. This study employed bibliometric methods like author, citation, and keyword emergence analysis from 2011 through 2021. Based on bibliometric analysis, trends in publication, authors who contributed, journal articles, publishing journals, and significant keywords are identified. It also demonstrates the connections between the networks that link the various investigated subtopics of women in leadership. The study’s restriction is that it only incorporates data from reputable, Scopus-indexed or Publish or Perish (PoP) sources that were chosen for their relevance to the topic of women’s leadership in management and business. This study gives practitioners knowledge of an overview, trends in publications, clusters, and a thorough understanding of women’s leadership. Therefore, it may offer tips for future review research. How talent management practices can impact the work/family conflict that women executives or employees experience. This relates to organizational and environmental factors, social and cultural factors, and family factors that might affect the choices made by women leaders. Elements like self-confidence, efficacy, and motivation also are interesting to observe in how a woman or a woman leader reacts to issues that are psychologically connected. This analysis reveals structural patterns in the literature on women in leadership from 2011 through 2021.
Gender bias is widely recognized as having negative effects on women in business, including on outcomes such as hiring, promotion, pay, and access to venture capital funding. This study identifies a strategy that women business owners can employ to boost business outcomes. Across five preregistered studies (N = 2585), including a field study, affixing the owner attribute label “woman-owned business” can engender positive business outcomes, including perceptions of business competence and service quality (studies 1 and 2). These effects are driven by an increase in perceptions of the business owner’s agency (study 3). Affixing a gender-based owner attribute label is especially effective in situations that lack other credible cues of competence (study 4) and in industries that are perceived as difficult to succeed in (study 5). The present work advances our understanding of stereotypes, discrimination, and identity in the consumer marketplace, and it offers practical implications for business owners in traditionally marginalized groups who face—and must combat—stereotypes.
Why might women who experience gender-based bias and harassment at work shy away from efforts to address gender inequality in their workplaces? Drawing on data from 52 interviews with women working in the Silicon Valley tech industry, I show that efforts to address women's marginalization in the men-dominated tech industry are complicated by the inscription of negative, gender essentialist stereotypes about women into narratives about why such initiatives are necessary. Interviewees voiced two rationales for not explicitly challenging women's marginalization. First, some women—particularly those whose race/ethnicity and age were typical of Silicon Valley tech workers—articulated a concern that such efforts may be interpreted as evidence that women are fundamentally different from, and deficient relative to, men. Second, women across race/ethnicity and age conveyed the concern that such efforts frame women as disempowered victims lacking agency. Both concerns represent a double bind: ignoring the marginalization that women face maintains a status quo rife with gender bias, but seeking to address it risks further entrenching negative stereotypes about women. These results illustrate both the durable nature of the gender status hierarchy and the unique ways that women of different intersecting identities confront it.
Women in male‐dominated organizations often must adopt more stereotypical masculine traits to advance within those hierarchies. While politics, historically male‐dominated, should induce women to blend in, increasing numbers of women in parliaments may give women the opportunity to stand out by not adopting a masculine style. This paper investigates how these contradictory incentives influence female Members of Parliament (MPs) in 24 democracies between 1987 and 2022, applying machine learning to 6.8 million parliamentary speeches to measure how feminine is their speaking style. Findings indicate a socialization effect, whereby women adopt a more masculine style the longer they stay in office, even after controlling for their speeches’ topics. The effect is strongest for women in socially progressive parties. This research highlights the role of parliaments as gendered workplaces, which still lead women to adapt to the male norm, and helps us understand the incentives that shape how women represent women in parliament.
Purpose
This study utilizes Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital and habitus to investigate the networking strategies of Asian and Black knowledge workers in the London Insurance Market. It also examines the factors contributing to the success or failure of these strategies. The trading activities of the London Insurance Market are underpinned by interdependent relations among its participants. It provides an appropriate context for examining the networking strategies adopted by Asian and Black workers to accelerate their careers.
Design/methodology/approach
This research employed a qualitative methodology, gathering data from 24 participants through semi-structured interviews. Participants were selected using purposive, convenience, and snowball sampling methods. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data and develop aggregated concepts from the identified themes and subthemes.
Findings
The London Insurance Market accords great importance to networking. Interpersonal connections significantly influenced career progression, often overshadowing educational attainments. Asian and Black workers faced systemic nepotism and limited access to influential networks in this field. Participants strategically used their interactions to overcome these challenges and advance their careers. Many believed that their careers had a better chance of progressing through informal networks than through formal channels such as Human Resources. Some participants declined to engage in the commonly accepted networking practices, choosing alternative ways to further their careers.
Practical implications
Findings underscore the need for implementing specific organizational policies to address systemic biases and nepotism, particularly in front-office recruitment. Such policies could include prioritizing merit-based hiring practices and developing targeted initiatives to reduce the underrepresentation of minority ethnic workers in front-office positions. By adopting these measures, organizations can create more equitable career advancement opportunities and leverage the full potential of their diverse workforce.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the existing literature on minority ethnic workers' careers, networking theory and workplace diversity. It provides insights into the networking strategies of Asian and Black workers within the London Insurance Market, revealing that these strategies are dependent on contextual factors. The study also highlights the pervasive practice of nepotism deeply ingrained in the habitus of the London Insurance Market and which acts as a barrier for gaining access to influential networks.
The factors that inhibit and promote professional interventions with young adults refer to social, formal-structural, and personal factors. Nevertheless, studies of these factors from social workers’ perspective, and research of the inhibitors associated with the socio-cultural context of minority young adults, are few. The aim of the present study was to examine social workers’ perceptions of the factors that inhibit and promote interventions in the socio-cultural and formal-structural context of at-risk young Arab-Palestinian women in Israel, who are at an intersection of marginal positions. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 21 social workers. The findings revealed two themes: 1) Social workers’ perceptions of the challenges in two dimensions, a) socio-cultural factors which include family centrality in the young women’s life, and b) formal-structural inhibitors. 2) Promoting factors which include professional values and the need for cooperation between organizations themselves and with recipients of the services The findings were reviewed according to the intersectional invisibility model, and were based on the concept of institutional discrimination, which showed that at-risk young Arab women experience an intersectional invisibility of their identities and, at the same time, the social workers experience a conflicting situation within the wider context of intersectional discrimination. The paper concludes with recommendations to practitioners and policymakers.
U.S. educational institutions have been exploring ways to diversify leadership. Using an intersectional approach and a dataset compiled by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), we examine factors associated with racial/ethnic diversity among women and men employed as principals in 613 multiethnic public school districts. Specifically, using the school district as unit of analysis, we evaluate the patterns of significance for coefficients across six multivariate regression models. Findings indicate that the most commonly used contextual variables associated with educational workforce composition are not consistent determinants of principal positions across the six intersectional groups. The internal factors, especially gender composition of teachers and racial/ethnic composition of teachers, assistant principals, and administrators appear to be more accurate predictors of principalships, suggesting that findings for workforce and leadership factors support the intersectional perspective. We observe that the significance of explanatory variables differs across models for women and men representing different racial/ethnic groups.
We applied the social evaluation framework to investigate the traits desired in an “ideal” follower, which were compared to the traits desired in an “ideal” leader. Across three studies and five samples, both differences and similarities in role-specific preferences mapped onto the Vertical–Horizontal dimensions of the social evaluation framework in ways that aligned with the demands of each role. Traits higher on the Horizontal-Morality facet (e.g., cooperative, dutiful) and lower on the Vertical-Assertiveness facet (e.g., confident, ambitious) differentiated ideal follower preferences from ideal leader preferences. Focusing on the traits most strongly desired in relation to each role, traits that supported social coordination and collective goal attainment (i.e., work ethic, cooperativeness) were prioritized in relation to ideal followers, whereas intelligence was prioritized for ideal leaders. Trustworthiness was equally valued across both roles. Moreover, we differentiated between necessary and luxury traits by adjusting the budget individuals could allocate toward the desired traits. Investments in necessary versus luxury traits further supported the social evaluation framework and highlighted the need to account for the facet-level distinctions within the Vertical (assertiveness, ability) and Horizontal (morality, friendliness) dimensions. Further, these findings were found to be robust across manipulations (e.g., the target’s gender and hierarchical level).
Purpose
This case study, within the context of boundaryless and protean career development frameworks, investigates linguistic profiling and how code-switching is used to mitigate its impact on Black leaders during their careers. The experiences of Black women coaches and the coaching support they offered Black women clients in code-switching, leadership and career advancement are described. The value of leadership coaching when used to navigate these career progression challenges is emphasized.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed a multiple-case study approach of two Black women leadership coaches.
Findings
The findings of this study illustrate the understanding of code-switching and the coaching techniques employed by two Black women leadership coaches. Sage focused on educational strategies, offering historical contexts and resources, while Khadijah leaned on empathy-driven methods, using storytelling to evoke reflection. Both coaches emphasized creating safe spaces for open dialog, encouraged clients to reconsider their actions and values regarding code-switching challenges and sought to prompt clients towards authenticity while navigating career spaces effectively.
Practical implications
Additional strategies for coach practitioners include cultivating trust and a safe environment; active listening; challenging biases and assumptions; contextual understanding; empowering authentic self-expression; fostering skill development; challenging stereotypes; promoting autonomy and flexibility and adopting cross-cultural sensitivity, humility and competence. These practical coaching strategies bridge the gap in career development research by demonstrating how race-conscious strategies can promote workplace inclusivity and promulgate career development.
Originality/value
The study underscores the problem of linguistic profiling, the complexity of code-switching and implications for Black women navigating their career journey within professional spaces. It highlights the significance and value of tailored leadership coaching strategies to promote career advancement. This study addresses the gap in career development research related to linguistic profiling avoidance strategies for workplace inclusivity.
We present a conceptual framework of situational moderators of gender/sex effects in negotiation, risk-taking, and leadership—three masculine-stereotypic domains associated with gender/sex gaps in pay and authority. We propose that greater situational ambiguity and higher relevance and salience of gender/sex increase the likelihood of gender/sex-linked behaviors in these domains. We argue that greater ambiguity increases the extent to which actors and audiences must search inwardly (e.g., mental schema, past experience) or outwardly (e.g., social norms) for cues on how to behave or evaluate a situation and thereby widens the door for gender/sex-linked influences. Correspondingly, we propose that gender/sex effects on behavior and evaluations in these domains will be more likely when gender/sex is more relevant and salient to the setting or task. We propose further that these two situational moderators may work jointly or interactively to influence the likelihood of gender/sex effects in negotiation, risk-taking, and leadership. We conclude by discussing applications of our conceptual framework to psychological science and its translation to practice, including directions for future research.
South Africa’s public sector has launched a variety of gender-focused schemes aimed at empowering women entrepreneurs over the years. However, emerging literature suggests that the efficacy of these programmes is constrained. Consequently, alternative approaches might be needed to address women entrepreneurs’ concerns. Previous studies have not explored the potential of higher education institutions as custodians of knowledge and innovation to promote female entrepreneurship in the country. As a result, this study employs a semi-systematic literature review to explore the influence of stakeholders’ initiatives in advancing women’s entrepreneurship in South Africa. Additionally, the Web of Science database was utilised, which initially yielded 82 articles, after applying exclusion criteria, 53 papers were obtained as the final corpus. The research findings indicate that the South African government, at various levels, has vibrant programmes and initiatives geared toward developing women’s entrepreneurship; however, these programmes’ effectiveness is perpetually undermined by several underlying bottlenecks as highlighted in this study. Moreover, the findings reveal that government initiatives are at the forefront of women’s empowerment efforts and that higher education institutions play a peripheral role. To motivate the higher education sector to embrace its role as an agent of change in society, the authors concluded the paper by proposing a university-based women’s entrepreneurship framework. The proposed framework, which prioritizes female inclusivity in the context of higher education, has the potential to cultivate an environment conducive to nurturing entrepreneurial aspirations in women.
The incorporation of intersectionality within social psychology is becoming an increasingly common practice. From the hypotheses we generate to the methods we employ, as well as the analyses we run and the theories we use, researchers are moving away from studying social identities in isolation. By studying the interactional and emergent properties of multiple identities that go beyond the sum of identities, as well as understanding the complex nature of power and privilege, social psychologists can better understand processes such as stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Yet it can be difficult for researchers to know exactly where to begin. This review serves as a primer for conducting intersectionally‐informed research within social psychology, using the intersection of race and gender within the United States as a case study. We first describe the history of intersectional research in psychology, noting its barriers to implementation. Next, we review three classes of intersectionally‐informed models — intersectional perception, experience, and treatment — and offer suggestions for future research as well as ways researchers can incorporate the model within their work.
In this paper, we examine a database containing court rulings and debates ( acórdãos ) of the Brazilian Supreme Court (“STF”) spanning from 1999 to 2018. Our objective is to analyze the relationship between gender and how judges behave when interacting with each other. Specifically, we investigate whether female judges are more likely to be interrupted by their colleagues during oral debates. Our data are built on real‐time public interactions between the judges, as recorded in the Court's transcripts. The results show that female STF judges are interrupted more often than their male counterparts. While male judges display no specific effects, all three female judges in our data display a very significant and positive probability of being interrupted, as compared to their male colleagues participating in the same deliberations. These results show that, even in institutions designed to protect rights of political minorities, including women, gender dynamics, stereotypes and hierarchies can affect the functioning of courts in visible ways, with potential impacts on the rest of the judiciary and the legal profession. They also suggest that merely increasing the number of female judges, without addressing underlying gender dynamics and procedural rules in the judicial decision‐making process, is insufficient to tackle the disadvantages women face within those institutions.
According to gendered race theory, racial stereotypes can contain a gendered component whereby certain racial and ethnic groups are viewed as being more prototypically masculine or feminine. A number of studies investigating gendered race stereotypes have found that Blacks in North American society are represented and conceived as prototypically masculine, while Asians are represented and conceived of as prototypically feminine. This study examined whether patterns consistent with gendered race prototypes appear in mass media depictions, specifically in popular magazines, such that Asian men and Black women are proportionally less likely than other groups to be depicted. The perceived race and gender of 8,672 individuals depicted within 5 issues each of 6 popular magazines were examined quantitatively to examine whether individuals from nonprototypical gendered race categories were less likely to be depicted. The results indicated that Asian women were more likely to be depicted than Asian men, while Black men were more likely to be depicted than Black women, relative to Whites. These results suggest that, consistent with theories of gendered race and intersectional invisibility, individuals deemed less prototypical of their race and gender categories are rendered invisible in societal representations.
Three studies tested basic assumptions derived from a theoretical model based on the dissociation of automatic and controlled processes involved in prejudice. Study 1 supported the model's assumption that high- and low-prejudice persons are equally knowledgeable of the cultural stereotype. The model suggests that the stereotype is automatically activated in the presence of a member (or some symbolic equivalent) of the stereotyped group and that low-prejudice responses require controlled inhibition of the automatically activated stereotype. Study 2, which examined the effects of automatic stereotype activation on the evaluation of ambiguous stereotype-relevant behaviors performed by a race-unspecified person, suggested that when subjects' ability to consciously monitor stereotype activation is precluded, both high- and low-prejudice subjects produce stereotype-congruent evaluations of ambiguous behaviors. Study 3 examined high- and low-prejudice subjects' responses in a consciously directed thought-listing task. Consistent with the model, only low-prejudice subjects inhibited the automatically activated stereotype-congruent thoughts and replaced them with thoughts reflecting equality and negations of the stereotype. The relation between stereotypes and prejudice and implications for prejudice reduction are discussed.
The relation of age to pay rates for 197 Hispanic, black, and white nonmanagerial workers of both sexes was examined in two organizations. Disparity between the pay rates of women and minority group members, relative to white men, increased with age when organizational tenure, education, and skills were controlled.
Approaches related to inference-based processing (e.g., romance-of-leadership theory) would suggest that black leaders are evaluated positively after success. In contrast, approaches related to recognition-based processing (e.g., leader categorization theory) would suggest that, because of stereotyping, black leaders are evaluated negatively regardless of their performance. To reconcile this discrepancy, we predicted that evaluators would engage in goal-based stereotyping by perceiving that black leaders-and not white leaders-fail because of negative leader-based attributes and succeed because of positive nonleader attributes (i.e., compensatory stereotypes). Multilevel analyses of archival data in the context of college football in the United States supported our predictions.
In academic research on interracial relationships, as well as popular discourses such as film and television, Black women are often characterized as angry and opposed to interracial relationships. Yet the voices of Black women have been largely neglected. Drawing from focus group interviews with Black college women and in-depth interviews with Black women who are married interracially, the author explores Black women's views on Black-white heterosexual relationships. Black women's opposition to interracial dating is not simply rooted in jealousy and anger toward white women but is based on white racism, Black internalization of racism, and what interracial relationships represent to Black women and signify about Black women's worth. The impact of racism and sexism are clear, with Black women devalued by white standards of beauty and faced with a shortage of available Black men and a lack of "substantive opportunities" to date interracially.
A great deal of recent work has found that two fundamental dimensions underlie social judgment. The most common labels used to denote these dimensions are agency versus communion, and competence versus warmth. The present work aimed to disentangle agency understood as the motivation to promote the self from competence understood as ability, and to address their distinctive role in status perception. In Studies 1 and 2, participants were presented with a high- versus low-status target and asked to rate this target on agency,
competence and warmth. In Study 3, participants were presented with an agentic, competent, and warm target and asked to rate their social status. Overall, our findings indicated that agency and competence operate as distinct dimensions in social judgment, and that agency is more related to social status than competence.
In applying social role theory to account for the content of a wide range of stereotypes, this research tests the proposition that observations of groups' roles determine stereotype content (Eagly & Wood, 2012). In a novel test of how stereotypes can develop from observations, preliminary research collected participants' beliefs about the occupational roles (e.g., lawyer, teacher, fast food worker, chief executive officer, store clerk, manager) in which members of social groups (e.g., Black women, Hispanics, White men, the rich, senior citizens, high school dropouts) are overrepresented relative to their numbers in the general population. These beliefs about groups' typical occupational roles proved to be generally accurate when evaluated in relation to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Then, correlational studies predicted participants' stereotypes of social groups from the attributes ascribed to group members' typical occupational roles (Studies 1a, 1b, and 1c), the behaviors associated with those roles (Study 2), and the occupational interest profile of the roles (Study 3). As predicted by social role theory, beliefs about the attributes of groups' typical roles were strongly related to group stereotypes on both communion and agency/competence. In addition, an experimental study (Study 4) demonstrated that when social groups were described with changes to their typical social roles in the future, their projected stereotypes were more influenced by these future roles than by their current group stereotypes, thus supporting social role theory's predictions about stereotype change. Discussion considers the implications of these findings for stereotype change and the relation of social role theory to other theories of stereotype content. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
We summarize and integrate a large body of research showing that agency and communion
constitute two fundamental dimensions of content in social cognition. Agentic content
refers to goal-achievement and task functioning (competence, assertiveness,
decisiveness), whereas communal content refers to the maintenance of relationships
and social functioning (benevolence, trustworthiness,morality).Wepresent a Dual Perspective
Model of Agency and Communion (DPM-AC) developed to show that the two dimensions
are differently linked to the basic perspectives in social interaction, that is, the actor
versus the observer/recipient perspectives. We review numerous research confirming
three general hypotheses of the DPM. First, communal content is primary among the
fundamental dimensions. Second, in the observer/recipient perspective (perception of
others), communal content receives more weight than agentic content. Third, in the actor
perspective (self-perception), agentic content receives more weight than communal content.
Wethen discuss the complex issues of relations of agency and communion to valence
as well as associations between agency and communion. Although they are logically
independent and their inferences are based on different cues, the two content dimensions
of meaning frequently function as psychological alternatives in social cognition.
Gender bias continues to be a concern in many work settings, leading researchers to identify factors that influence workplace decisions. In this study we examine several of these factors, using an organizing framework of sex distribution within jobs (including male- and female-dominated jobs as well as sex-balanced, or integrated, jobs). We conducted random effects meta-analyses including 136 independent effect sizes from experimental studies (N = 22,348) and examined the effects of decision-maker gender, amount and content of information available to the decision maker, type of evaluation, and motivation to make careful decisions on gender bias in organizational decisions. We also examined study characteristics such as type of participant, publication year, and study design. Our findings revealed that men were preferred for male-dominated jobs (i.e., gender-role congruity bias), whereas no strong preference for either gender was found for female-dominated or integrated jobs. Second, male raters exhibited greater gender-role congruity bias than did female raters for male-dominated jobs. Third, gender-role congruity bias did not consistently decrease when decision makers were provided with additional information about those they were rating, but gender-role congruity bias was reduced when information clearly indicated high competence of those being evaluated. Fourth, gender-role congruity bias did not differ between decisions that required comparisons among ratees and decisions made about individual ratees. Fifth, decision makers who were motivated to make careful decisions tended to exhibit less gender-role congruity bias for male-dominated jobs. Finally, for male-dominated jobs, experienced professionals showed smaller gender-role congruity bias than did undergraduates or working adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
Asian-Americans are a growth market. Their affluence, high education, and work ethic position them as a “model minority.” However complimentary that term may seem, it nonetheless represents a stereotype whose prevalence must be documented to examine the intersection of minority status and gender in mass media portrayals. The authors report a content analysis of more than 1300 prime time television advertisements conducted to assess the frequency and nature of Asian-American representation. They found that Asian male and female models are overrepresented in terms of proportion of the population (3.6%), appearing in 8.4% of the commercials. However, Asian models are more likely than members of other minority groups to appear in background roles, and Asian women are rarely depicted in major roles. Further, the findings indicate that portrayals of Asian-Americans put so much emphasis on the work ethic that other aspects of life seldom appear. For example, Asian models are overrepresented in business settings and relationships and underrepresented in home settings and family or social relationships. The findings suggest opportunities for advertisers who depict Asian-Americans in nonstereotypical ways.
We compared perceived cultural stereotypes of diverse groups varying by gender and ethnicity. Using a free-response procedure, we asked 627 U.S. undergraduates to generate 10 attributes for 1 of 17 groups: Asian Americans, Blacks, Latinos, Middle Eastern Americans, or Whites; men or women; or 10 gender-by-ethnic groups (e.g., Black men or Latina women). Based on intersectionality theory and social dominance theory, we developed and tested three hypotheses. First, consistent with the intersectionality hypothesis, gender-by-ethnic stereotypes contained unique elements that were not the result of adding gender stereotypes to ethnic stereotypes. Second, in support of an ethnicity hypothesis, stereotypes of ethnic groups were generally more similar to stereotypes of the men than of the women in each group. Third, a gender hypothesis postulated that stereotypes of men and women will be most similar to stereotypes of White men and White women, less similar to ethnic minority men and ethnic minority women, and least similar to Black men and Black women. This hypothesis was confirmed for target women, but results for target men were mixed. Collectively, our results contribute to research, theory, and practice by demonstrating that ethnic and gender stereotypes are complex and that the intersections of these social categories produce meaningful differences in the way groups are perceived.
While the presence of women in law school and the legal profession has improved greatly, the uncomfortable reality is that women tend to occupy positions in the legal profession that subordinate them to men. This reality is even more glaring when the position of black women is examined. Black women carry the burden of multiple consciousness which influences every aspect of their professional lives. Multiple consciousness means that black women must be mindful of their professional identity, their gender and their race in navigating the pipeline to power. This paper will explore the multiple consciousness that intersecting identities invoke and offer modest suggestions for the advancement of black women that may prove useful for all women seeking to advance in the legal profession.
Research exploring the perspectives of stigmatized people has examined general processes related to experiencing prejudice. Past work, however, has invoked the assumption that prejudices against different group memberships are experienced in a similar manner. Across three studies we directly compare experiences of racism and sexism among female minorities and show, in contrast, that people respond to different forms of prejudice in distinct ways. In Study 1 we examined the attributions invoked by Asian women to explain prejudice and discovered that participants made stronger internal attributions to explain racism than sexism. In Study 2 we investigated emotional reactions to prejudice and found that Asian women report experiencing more depression following a race-based rejection than a gender-based rejection. In Study 3 we observed that Asian women reported perceiving more racism than sexism in their environments. Implications for advancing theories of prejudice experiences are discussed.
Jezebel's sexual lasciviousness, Mammy's devotion, and Sapphire's outspoken anger-these are among the most persistent stereotypes that black women encounter in contemporary American life. Hurtful and dishonest, such representations force African American women to navigate a virtual crooked room that shames them and shapes their experiences as citizens. Many respond by assuming a mantle of strength that may convince others, and even themselves, that they do not need help. But as a result, the unique political issues of black women are often ignored and marginalized. In this groundbreaking book, Melissa V. Harris-Perry uses multiple methods of inquiry, including literary analysis, political theory, focus groups, surveys, and experimental research, to understand more deeply black women's political and emotional responses to pervasive negative race and gender images. Not a traditional political science work concerned with office-seeking, voting, or ideology, Sister Citizen instead explores how African American women understand themselves as citizens and what they expect from political organizing. Harris-Perry shows that the shared struggle to preserve an authentic self and secure recognition as a citizen links together black women in America, from the anonymous survivors of Hurricane Katrina to the current First Lady of the United States.
Part I. From There to Here - Theoretical Background: 1. From visiousness to viciousness: theories of intergroup relations 2. Social dominance theory as a new synthesis Part II. Oppression and its Psycho-Ideological Elements: 3. The psychology of group dominance: social dominance orientation 4. Let's both agree that you're really stupid: the power of consensual ideology Part III. The Circle of Oppression - The Myriad Expressions of Institutional Discrimination: 5. You stay in your part of town and I'll stay in mine: discrimination in the housing and retail markets 6. They're just too lazy to work: discrimination in the labor market 7. They're just mentally and physically unfit: discrimination in education and health care 8. The more of 'them' in prison, the better: institutional terror, social control and the dynamics of the criminal justice system Part IV. Oppression as a Cooperative Game: 9. Social hierarchy and asymmetrical group behavior: social hierarchy and group difference in behavior 10. Sex and power: the intersecting political psychologies of patriarchy and empty-set hierarchy 11. Epilogue.
We integrate stereotype fit and interdependence theories to propose a model that explains how and why decision makers discriminate in selection decisions. Our model suggests that decision makers draw on stereotypes about members of different social groups to infer the degree to which candidates possess the specific ability required for the task. Decision makers perceive candidates that have a greater ability required for the task as less (more) instrumental to their personal outcomes if they expect to compete (cooperate) with the candidate, and they discriminate in favor of candidates that are perceived as more instrumental to them. We tested our theory in the context of racial (Studies 1-3) and age (Study 4) discrimination in selection decisions with all-Male samples and found evidence consistent with our predictions. By explaining when and why decision makers discriminate in favor of, but also against, members of their own social group, this research may help to explain the mixed support for the dominant view that decision makers exhibit favoritism toward candidates that belong to the same social group. In addition, our research demonstrates the importance of considering the largely overlooked role of interdependent relationships within the organization in order to understand discrimination in organizations.
This paper examines the impact of women's proportional representation in the upper echelons of organizations on hierarchical and peer relationships among professional women at work. I propose that social identity is the principal mechanism through which the representation of women influences their relationships. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses of interview and questionnaire data are used to compare women's same-sex relationships in firms with relatively low and high proportions of senior women. Compared with women in firms with many senior women, women in firms with few senior women were less likely to experience common gender as a positive basis for identification with women, less likely to perceive senior women as role models with legitimate authority, more likely to perceive competition in relationships with women peers, and less likely to find support in these relationships. These results challenge person-centered views about the psychology of women's same-sex work relationships and suggest that social identity may link an organization's demographic composition with individuals' workplace experiences.
We assess evidence for gender differences across a range of relationships and consider whether the form and quality of these relationships affect the psychological functioning of men and women differently. Data from a national panel survey provide consistent evidence that men's and women's relationships differ. However, we find little evidence for the theoretical argument that women are more psychologically reactive than men to the quality of their relationships: Supportive relationships are associated with low levels of psychological distress, while strained relationships are associated with high levels of distress for women and for men. However, if women did not have higher levels of social involvement than men, they would exhibit even higher levels of distress relative to men than they currently do. We find little evidence for the assertion that men and women react to strained relationships in gender-specific ways--for example, with alcohol consumption versus depression.
Drawing on macro and micro domains in gender research, we meta-analytically test whether occupational, industry, and job-level factors mitigate or exacerbate differences in performance evaluations (k = 93; n = 95,882) and rewards (k = 97; n = 378,850) between men and women. Based on studies conducted across a variety of work settings and spanning nearly thirty years, we found that the sex differences in rewards (d = .56) (including salary, bonuses, and promotions) were fourteen times larger than sex differences in performance evaluations (d = .04) and that differences in performance evaluations did not explain reward differences between men and women. The percentage of men in an occupation and the complexity of jobs performed by employees enhanced the male-female gap in performance and rewards. In highly prestigious occupations women performed equally but were rewarded significantly lower than men. Only a higher representation of female executives at the industry level enabled women to reverse the gender gap in rewards and performance evaluations. Our configurational analysis also revealed that some occupational, job, and industry level attributes of the work context are jointly associated with higher differences in rewards and performance evaluations.
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.
The figure of the Mammy dominated American television in the 1940s and 1950s. As we transitioned into the twenty-first century, this imagery re-emerged as a result of the Black male in drag. Tracing the development of this figure from the 1950s to the specific case of Eddie Murphy in drag, this paper examines how Black Motherhood and the Mammy continues to be a part of the African American cinematic experience.
We contribute to a current debate that focuses on whether individuals with more than one subordinate identity (i.e., Black women) experience more negative leader perceptions than do leaders with single-subordinate identities (i.e., Black men and White women). Results confirmed that Black women leaders suffered double jeopardy, and were evaluated more negatively than Black men and White women, but only under conditions of organizational failure. Under conditions of organizational success, the three groups were evaluated comparably to each other, but each group was evaluated less favorably than White men. Further, leader typicality, the extent to which individuals possess characteristics usually associated with a leader role, mediated the indirect effect of leader race, leader gender, and organizational performance on leader effectiveness. Taken together, these results suggest that Black women leaders may carry a burden of being disproportionately sanctioned for making mistakes on the job.
Dynamic stereotypes characterize social groups that are thought to have changed from the attributes they manifested in the past and even to continue to change in the future. According to social role theory’s assumption that the role behavior of group members shapes their stereotype, groups should have dynamic stereotypes to the extent that their typical social roles are perceived to change over time. Applied to men and women, this theory makes two predictions about perceived change: (a) perceivers should think that sex differences are eroding because of increasing similarity of the roles of men and women and (b) the female stereotype should be particularly dynamic because of greater change in the roles of women than of men. This theory was tested and confirmed in five experiments that examined perceptions of the roles and the personality, cognitive, and physical attributes of men and women of the past, present, and future.
Although past research has noted the importance of both power and gender for understanding volubility—the total amount of time spent talking—in organizations, to date, identifying the unique contributions of power and gender to volubility has been somewhat elusive. Using both naturalistic data sets and experiments, the present studies indicate that while power has a strong, positive effect on volubility for men, no such effect exists for women. Study 1 uses archival data to examine the relationship between the relative power of United States senators and their talking behavior on the Senate floor. Results indicate a strong positive relationship between power and volubility for male senators, but a non-significant relationship for female senators. Study 2 replicates this effect in an experimental setting by priming the concept of power and shows that though men primed with power talk more, women show no effect of power on volubility. Mediation analyses indicate that this difference is explained by women’s concern that being highly voluble will result in negative consequences (i.e., backlash). Study 3 shows that powerful women are in fact correct in assuming that they will incur backlash as a result of talking more than others—an effect that is observed among both male and female perceivers. Implications for the literatures on volubility, power, and previous studies of backlash are discussed.
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.
In this article, the authors identify three methodological short-comings of the classic Princeton trilogy studies: (a) ambiguity of the instructions given to respondents, (b) no assessment of respondents' level of prejudice, and (c) use of an outdated list of adjectives. These shortcomings are addressed in the authors' assessment of the stereotype and personal beliefs of a sample of University of Wisconsin students. In contrast to the commonly espoused fading stereotype proposition, data suggest that there exists a consistent and negative contemporary stereotype of Blacks. Comparing the data from the Princeton trilogy studies with those of the present study, the authors conclude that the Princeton trilogy studies actually measured respondents' personal beliefs, not (as typically assumed) their knowledge of the Black stereotype. Consistent with Devine's model, high- and low-prejudiced individuals did not differ in their knowledge of the stereotype of Blacks but diverged sharply in their endorsement of the stereotype.
A two-part study contrasted the utility of free-response and checklist methodologies for ascertaining ethnic and gender stereotypes. Descriptions of data collection, organization, and cluster and entropy analyses are provided. Results indicate that important differences emerge between data resulting from free-response methodology and those obtained with traditionally employed adjective checklists. These differences include the generation of a large percentage of physical descriptors and within-ethnic-group gender differences in stereotype content. A major finding is the generation of a large number of distinct responses coupled with low-frequency use of any particular response. Study 2 specifically examined whether free-response data are more schematic than checklist data. Results indicate that free-response data have a greater dependency and may thus be indicative of schematic response. This schematic response may, in turn, indicate more automatic processing than is evident with data from checklist methodologies.
This study examines the structural validity of scores from the Bem Sex Role Inventory using a maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Six hundred and sixty-five graduate and undergraduate students participate in the study. A seven firstorder factor model almost identical to the model reported in a previous CFA study is used as the baseline comparison model. The data for testing these models are obtained from an exploratory sample randomly selected from the whole sample. A hierarchical factor structure model with seven first-order factors (compassionate, interpersonal affect, shy, dominant, decisive, athletic, and self-sufficient) and two second-order factors (masculinity and femininity) fit the data quite well. The fit indices based on the validation sample collectively indicate a very good fit. The results of this study are notably consistent with the hierarchical factor models suggested in two previous CFA studies.
The study sought to examine the degree to which Chicano and Anglo students agree on the sex roles as presented in the literature characterizing the traditional Mexican family. Results of a family, sex role questionnaire yielded significant differences for sex and ethnicity. A factor analysis identified the underlying variables of the questionnaire to be highly loaded on sex-role stereotypes. Although there was disagreement with the questionnaire for both the Chicano and Anglo participants, Chicano males agreed more with stereotypic sex roles than Chicano females, Anglo males, and Anglo females. Implications of the findings and directions for further research are discussed.
Abstract—Recent studies have documented that performance in a domain is hindered when individuals feel that a sociocultural group to which they belong is negatively stereotyped in that domain. We report that implicit activation of a social identity can facilitate as well as impede performance on a quantitative task. When a particular social identity was made salient at an implicit level, performance was altered in the direction predicted by the stereotype associated with the identity. Common cultural stereotypes hold that Asians have superior quantitative skills compared with other ethnic groups and that women have inferior quantitative skills compared with men. We found that Asian-American women performed better on a mathematics test when their ethnic identity was activated, but worse when their gender identity was activated, compared with a control group who had neither identity activated. Cross-cultural investigation indicated that it was the stereotype, and not the identity per se, that influenced performance.
Scholars have highlighted the detrimental influence of racially charged stereotypes and images on self-perception and well being. Others have suggested that identity components (e.g., ethnic identity and self-concept) serve a protective function. The purposes of this study were (a) to explore the relationship among stereotypic images, beauty standards that are consistent with “colorism,” and identity components of African American girls and (b) to determine the impact of these variables on girls' sexual attitudes. African American girls (N = 270) between the ages of 10–15 years old completed a self-report questionnaire, which included a new measure, the Modern Jezebel Scale, that was used to assess stereotypic images. A series of multiple regressions were performed using identity components, stereotypic images, and colorism as independent variables and sexual attitude variables as the outcome. In addition, interaction effects were explored to determine if identity components moderated the influence of stereotypic images and colorism on sexual attitudes. As expected, findings revealed significant positive relationships among stereotypic images, colorism, and sexual risk. In addition, significant interactions were found between identity components and stereotypes. Instead of identity serving as a buffer against the negative effects of societal messages, endorsement of stereotypes and colorism increased sexual risk in the context of identity components. Results suggest that a strong identity may not be enough to reduce sexual risk if girls cannot critically analyze the societal messages that they receive. Implications for prevention efforts are discussed.
There are multiple views in human resource management and organizational behavior concerning gender differences in measures of job performance. Some researchers suggest that males generally are evaluated higher than females across a variety of situations that include job performance measurement. At the same time, the presence of specific status cues in expectation states theory (EST; similar to the concept of individuating information) suggests that measures of job performance will be more similar than different for males and females. Previous analyses are unclear in their results for the measurement of the construct of job performance because they have included, and/or focused on, additional constructs (e.g., hiring suitability, leadership performance aggregated with leadership satisfaction) or have used student samples in lab experiments. The authors of this article conducted a meta-analysis of job performance measures from field studies. They found that females generally scored slightly higher than males (mean d = −.11, 80% credibility interval of −.33 to .12). Other analyses suggested that, although job performance ratings favored females, ratings of promotion potential were higher for males. Thus, ratings of promotability may deserve further attention as a potential source of differential promotion rates. These findings and processes are discussed within the context of EST.
One conclusion emerging from the stereotyping literature is that behavioral information can undercut stereotyping of individuals. Two studies examined whether this holds for descriptive but not prescriptive stereotypes. In Study 1, participants whose descriptive and prescriptive stereotypes had been measured chose between equally qualified male and female job applicants. Results indicated that descriptive stereotypes did not predict gender bias, but prescriptive stereotypes did. In Study 2, participants whose descriptive and prescriptive stereotypes had been measured provided evaluations of either male or female job applicants who were enacting either masculine or feminine roles. Results indicated that descriptive stereotypes did not predict gender bias, but prescriptive stereotypes fostered—among male participants—a bias against females enacting masculine roles and in favor of males enacting masculine roles. These studies suggest that prescriptive stereotyping can persevere after behavioral information has undercut descriptive stereotyping. Thus, the studies underline both the tenacity of stereotyping and the need to reconsider the generalization that information deters stereotyping.
Two processes of stereotyping, subtyping and subgrouping, are compared. Subtyping occurs when perceivers respond to members of a target group who disconfirm their stereotypes by seeing them as exceptions to the rule and placing them in a separate subcategory apart from members who confirm the stereotype. The more recently defined process of subgrouping refers to the perceiver's organization of information in terms of clusters of individuals based on their similarities and dif - ferences; subgroups can include confirmers and disconfirmers. We consider how subtypes and subgroups are defined, operationalized, and measured, their conse - quences for stereotype change, and the role of typicality. It is concluded that the clearest difference between subtyping and subgrouping is in terms of their conse - quences (subtyping leads to the preservation and subgrouping to differentiation of the stereotype). There are, however, some similarities between the processes, and at- tention is drawn to what future research is required, both to deepen our knowledge of each process and clarify their distinction.