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Reducing women’s lack of fit with leadership positions? Effects of the wording of job advertisements
Abstract
Linguistic forms which refer to individuals impact mental representations of these individuals: When masculine generics are used, women tend to be cognitively underrepresented, whereas feminine–masculine word pairs are associated with a higher cognitive inclusion of women. The present research investigates whether linguistic forms affect women’s perceived lack of fit with leadership positions, which is particularly pronounced for high-status leadership positions. In a hiring-simulation experiment (N = 363), we tested the effects of different linguistic forms used in German-language job advertisements: (1) masculine forms (e.g., Geschäftsführer, ‘CEO, masc.’); (2) masculine forms with (m/f) (e.g., Geschäftsführer (m/w), ‘CEO, masc. (m/f)’); and (3) word pairs (e.g., Geschäftsführerin/Geschäftsführer, ‘CEO, fem./CEO, masc.’). The job ads announced either a high- or low-status leadership position. Results showed that female applicants were perceived to fit less well with the high-status position than male applicants when either the masculine or the masculine form with (m/f) was used––even though they were perceived to be equally competent. However, female and male applicants were perceived as fitting the high-status leadership position similarly well when word pairs were used.
... Previous research (e.g. Born & Taris, 2010;Horvath & Sczesny, 2016) has shown that females feel more excluded, are less inspired to apply for the job and identify less with jobs when masculine language is used in job advertisements rather than gender-fair wording. Job advertisements are often linguistically formulated in ways that create the risk of discrimination, i.e. risks that can exclude certain groups of applicants, particularly concerning their gender. ...
... Several factors or explanations can cause group-based inequalities. Still, we follow a recent stream of literature (Askehave & Zethsen, 2014;Gaucher et al., 2011;Hodel, Formanowicz, Sczesny, Valdrová, & von Stockhausen, 2017;Horvath & Sczesny, 2016), which proposes that gendered wording, i.e., masculine-and feminine-themed words, is: "an unacknowledged, institutional-level mechanism of inequality maintenance" [Gaucher et al., (2011), p.109]. Gendered wording distinguishes between masculine-themed agentic (e.g., ambition, status, achievement, and independence) and feminine-themed communal (e.g., caring, connection, and sharing) words used in job advertisements. ...
... Females' representation is severely lacking, particularly in senior roles across industries. One study (Horvath & Sczesny, 2016) showed how gendered language, gender-neutral language, and gender-fair language (using both pronouns and nouns) discriminate or include females. Even in gender-neutral languages, where a noun is not gendered, it can still be assumed to be gendered to its most common use, male. ...
... Their results demonstrated that job seekers, in particular women, perceived lower degree of sexism exhibited by the interviewer, felt less ostracized, more motivated to pursue the job and more identified with the job when gender-fair and gender-neutral language forms were used than when genderexclusive he was adopted (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). Consistent with this finding, Horvath & Sczesny (2016) reported that word pair forms improved the perceived fitting of women applicants for a high-status position compared to masculine form. ...
... With regards to English, a so-called natural gender language (i.e. a language that marks gender on personal pronouns only), the generic singular pronoun he was found to favor the presence of men in people's mental representations compared to singular they and the alternative he/she (Gastil, 77 1990;Hamilton, 1988;Martyna, 1978). As for the masculine plural form of nouns, several studies have provided evidence that it likewise disfavors the presence of women in mental representations (Brauer & Landry, 2008;Braun et al., 1998;Gabriel & Mellenberger, 2004;Gygax et al., , 2012Horvath et al., 2016;Irmen, 2007;Irmen & Roßberg, 2004;Kollmayer et al., 2018;. Most of them manipulated the gender stereotype of the nountypically a role name (e.g. ...
... Other studies have compared masculine plurals with gender-fair alternatives (Brauer & Landry, 2008;Braun et al., 1998;Gabriel & Mellenberger, 2004;Horvath et al., 2016;Kollmayer et al., 2018;Sato et al., 2016;. Crucially, double-gender forms andin Germanthe innovative capital-I and nominalized forms typically yield a stronger representation of women than masculine forms. ...
The various facets of gender play an important role in shaping our cultures. People are categorized into males or females based on their biological sex; human languages differ in how gender is encoded in the language structure; and in society, different gender ideologies exist concerning what roles and positions men and women should occupy. The relationships between these facets are often intertwined. In this dissertation, I first investigate the relationship between language and people’s mental representations of gender (Chapters 2 and 3). In particular, I ask if assigning grammatical masculine or feminine gender to nouns denoting inanimate objects would make native speakers think of these objects as having “male” or “female” qualities, a language effect as postulated by the Neo-Whorfian hypothesis that linguistic categories affect people’s construal of the world entities. Extensive piloting work on this topic suggests null effects of grammatical gender on speakers’ conceptualization of objects. Unlike object nouns, the grammatical gender of person nouns is meaningful in that it has a semantic underpinning (i.e. male – masculine; female - feminine). I then examine the influences of grammatical gender on people’s perceptions of male-female distributions across various professions in two experiments, and found that different language forms induce differential male and female associations, some of which are consistent, others biased. Finally, I explore the relationship between individuals’ moral attitudes on gender equality – the extent to which gender equality is deemed to be a moral imperative – and their trust in written scientific evidence of hiring bias disfavoring women in academia (Chapter 4). Six experiments show that people of greater moral commitment to gender equality are more receptive of research revealing a hiring bias against females. Overall, the dissertation demonstrates that the encoding of gender in language has impacts on the mental representations of gender groups but likely not on those of inanimate objects, and that individuals’ gender attitudes influence their reactions to research on gender bias.
... Lawler (1996), Grün (2004) Hossain and Kusakabe (2005) and Anand (2013) examine employment statements in Thailand, Singapore, Africa and India to come up with similar inferences. Similarly, the genderdifferentiated wording of job advertisements is considered both present and significant in some European countries such as England (Stidder, 2005;Regmi, 2009), Denmark (Askehave & Zethsen, 2014) and Germany (Horvath & Sczesny, 2015). In a similar fashion, in the United States of America and Canada gendered wording is used in job recruitment materials (Gaucher et al., 2011). ...
... A consequence of this is the vertical segregation of women in the lower managerial positions, while men occupy the decision centres. One of the reasons this happens, which is related to the wording of job advertisements, is the fact that masculine wording of advertisements for middle and top management positions can make women think they are less fit for the job posted (Bosak & Sczesny, 2008;Horvath & Sczesny, 2015). This phenomenon is already apparent in some sectors of Iraq. ...
... But we rarely can find job advertisements for the government sector. This practice, as (Bosak & Sczesny, 2008;Zieleńska, 2012;Horvath & Sczesny, 2015) explain, is due to the misbelief that men are more fit for leadership positions; despite lack of scientific evidence supporting this claim. Table 2 show that only administrative job advertisements seek female applicants, while every other segment commits discrimination against them. ...
This research studies the nature and the scope of gender discrimination in job advertisements across Iraq’s various business sectors, segments, and hierarchical levels. It also attempts to understand the correlation between the language of the vacancy announcements and the level of the gender discriminatory content in them. This study is conducted with the hope of contributing to gender equality at the workplace in Iraq and the wider region. The current study adopts a content coding and analysis method that depends on the analysis of job advertisements (n=1015) by organizations operating in Iraq published in the leading recruitment websites and social media pages for a period of about four consecutive months from June to October 2017. The analysis is conducted using descriptive statistics and tested using simple cross tabulation method. Although the topic has been studied in various countries and contexts, it lacks academic attention in the Middle East, which can be seen as a unique area for research. Also, this research is the first attempt, as far as we are aware of, to comprehend the correlation between the choice of language (English, Arabic or Kurdish) and gender-biased wording of vacancy announcements. Understanding the relationship between language and gender discrimination in job advertisements might as well unveil a new area of study and aid in the quest for gender equality in the Iraqi workplace. This paper provides scientific evidence that more than 41% of all job advertisements in Iraq commit gender discrimination. The majority of them indirectly favor male candidates. Additionally, the nature of the vacancies for which women are preferred is different from the ones that target men. The adverts generally try to segregate women into non-managerial and administrative jobs. The study also infers a statistically significant correlation between the language of the advertisement and gender discrimination rate
... Lawler (1996), Grün (2004) Hossain and Kusakabe (2005) and Anand (2013) examine employment statements in Thailand, Singapore, Africa and India to come up with similar inferences. Similarly, the genderdifferentiated wording of job advertisements is considered both present and significant in some European countries such as England (Stidder, 2005;Regmi, 2009), Denmark (Askehave & Zethsen, 2014) and Germany (Horvath & Sczesny, 2015). In a similar fashion, in the United States of America and Canada gendered wording is used in job recruitment materials (Gaucher et al., 2011). ...
... A consequence of this is the vertical segregation of women in the lower managerial positions, while men occupy the decision centres. One of the reasons this happens, which is related to the wording of job advertisements, is the fact that masculine wording of advertisements for middle and top management positions can make women think they are less fit for the job posted (Bosak & Sczesny, 2008;Horvath & Sczesny, 2015). This phenomenon is already apparent in some sectors of Iraq. ...
... But we rarely can find job advertisements for the government sector. This practice, as (Bosak & Sczesny, 2008;Zieleńska, 2012;Horvath & Sczesny, 2015) explain, is due to the misbelief that men are more fit for leadership positions; despite lack of scientific evidence supporting this claim. Table 2 show that only administrative job advertisements seek female applicants, while every other segment commits discrimination against them. ...
This research studies the nature and the scope of gender discrimination in job advertisements across Iraq’s various business sectors, segments, and hierarchical levels. It also attempts to understand the correlation between the language of the vacancy announcements and the level of the gender discriminatory content in them. This study is conducted with the hope of contributing to gender equality at the workplace in Iraq and the wider region. The current study adopts a content coding and analysis method that depends on the analysis of job advertisements (n=1015) by organizations operating in Iraq published in the leading recruitment websites and social media pages for a period of about four consecutive months from June to October 2017. The analysis is conducted using descriptive statistics and tested using simple cross tabulation method. Although the topic has been studied in various countries and contexts, it lacks academic attention in the Middle East, which can be seen as a unique area for research. Also, this research is the first attempt, as far as we are aware of, to comprehend the correlation between the choice of language (English, Arabic or Kurdish) and gender-biased wording of vacancy announcements. Understanding the relationship between language and gender discrimination in job advertisements might as well unveil a new area of study and aid in the quest for gender equality in the Iraqi workplace. This paper provides scientific evidence that more than 41% of all job advertisements in Iraq commit gender discrimination. The majority of them indirectly favor male candidates. Additionally, the nature of the vacancies for which women are preferred is different from the ones that target men. The adverts generally try to segregate women into non-managerial and administrative jobs. The study also infers a statistically significant correlation between the language of the advertisement and gender discrimination rate.
... La consecuencia ineludible, según muestra la investigación (Carreiras et al. 1996, Crawford & English 1984, Planelles Iváñez 1996, Stout & Dasgupta 2011, Vervecken et al. 2013, entre muchos otros), es la invisibilización o, al menos, el ocultamiento de los referentes femeninos en ese genérico. Y esa invisibilización u ocultamiento tiene impacto, por caso, en el tipo de selección profesional que se realiza a la hora de cubrir un cargo laboral (Chatard et al., 2005;Gaucher et al., 2011;Horvath & Sczesny, 2015;Vervecken & Hannover, 2015; entre otros). Sumado a este fenómeno lingüístico, debe considerarse que, en los últimos tiempos, no es solo el colectivo femenino el que busca visibilizarse en pos de la equidad laboral, económica, política, sanitaria. ...
... Jakobson & Insko (1985) probaron que el completamiento de espacios en blanco con pronombres masculinos tiende a ser más frecuente cuando se presentan profesiones en masculino genérico (esto es, se piensa más en profesionales varones). En diversos trabajos (Bem & Bem, 1973;Chatard et al., 2005;Gaucher et al., 2011;Horvath & Sczesny, 2015;Vervecken & Hannover, 2015), se demostró que los listados y los avisos clasificados de empleo expresados en masculino genérico predisponen la presentación de hombres y la selección de hombres para los puestos laborales (una forma, en suma, del techo de cristal que pesa sobre las mujeres). Stout & Dasgupta (2011), también en referencia a los avisos de empleo, pero en posiciones de alta jerarquía, expusieron que el masculino genérico alienta evaluaciones más positivas para los hombres. ...
Resumen En español, como en muchas otras lenguas del mundo, los términos que aluden a personas (sean estos sustantivos, adjetivos, pronombres o participios, por ejemplo) suelen ser usados en masculino cuando refieren a seres de distinto género. Ello provoca que el masculino conlleve en muchos casos una ambigüedad inherente: la de su sentido primario (como marca de masculino) y la de su sentido secundario (como genérico). Ahora bien, desde hace ya 50 años, lingüistas primero y hablantes después, han advertido que las formas del masculino genérico tienden a orientar la interpretación primaria. La consecuencia ineludible, según muestra la investigación (Carreiras et al. 1996, Crawford & English 1984, Planelles Iváñez 1996, Stout & Dasgupta 2011, Vervecken et al. 2013, entre muchos otros), es la invisibilización o, al menos, el ocultamiento de los referentes femeninos en ese genérico. Y esa invisibilización u ocultamiento tiene impacto, por caso, en el tipo de selección profesional que se realiza a la hora de cubrir un cargo laboral (Chatard et al., 2005; Gaucher et al., 2011; Horvath & Sczesny, 2015; Vervecken & Hannover, 2015; entre otros). Sumado a este fenómeno lingüístico, debe considerarse que, en los últimos tiempos, no es solo el colectivo femenino el que busca visibilizarse en pos de la equidad laboral, económica, política, sanitaria. En efecto, otros colectivos, conformados por sujetos que no se autoperciben binarios, buscan espacio de reconocimiento en el discurso. La conversación contemporánea, por todo ello, está comenzando a prestarle atención a este problema. Este capítulo se ocupa de cuáles son las soluciones que se ponen en práctica.
... There have been some attempts to avoid gender bias in job advertisements [8,15,17,21]. Most of them have been based on wordbased language checking [17]. ...
... They found that female workers received fewer reviews than others [20]. This has been shown in other disciplines to seriously impact interest in professions starting from high-school course choices, women's choice of their major in college, choice of entry level roles to increased gender pay gaps and ultimately dissuading women from taking on leadership roles [5,17,21]. ...
... The cited social psychological studies were conducted predominantly in English, thus the corresponding findings, particularly the word lists, need to be transferred to German. The words associated with agentic and communal traits were typically translated directly [56,57], with appropriate adaptation for word stems and fragments. For the LIWC, a partial German-language version was created in 2003; its quality and validity were tested by Wolf et al. [58], showing a good equivalence of the German version with the English original for the majority of the LIWC categories. ...
... If an organization advertises a position covering both masculine and feminine terms for job titles, both women and men rate the position and organization as more attractive and are more likely to apply [60]. At the same time, there is less preference for men by recruiters and women are more likely to be hired for management positions with a similar probability as men [57] Yet, the usage of both forms is rather rare and many employers add the notion 'm/w/d' to the generic masculine job title in order to (formally) include other genders. One of the main reasons behind this notion is the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG), according to which employers may not discriminate against applicants on the basis of gender or sexual identity; the third option 'd' stands for 'diverse' and refers to intersex or non-binary gender identities. ...
Job advertisements are often worded in ways that might pose discrimination risks leading to the exclusion of certain groups of applicants, particularly in relation to their gender. Especially in male-dominated professions or leadership roles, the specific linguistic formulation of job postings acquires relevance if more women are to be attracted to apply. Various technologies have emerged that offer automated text screening, some of them even suggesting alternative formulations to increase gender inclusivity. In this study we analyze four software providers on the German market using a corpus of ∼160, 000 job ads from three different platforms. We identify the relevant social psychological research on gender and language that is at the scientific core of these technologies. We show that, despite sharing a common foundation, the four tools assess the potential for exclusion in job postings in a considerably divergent way on multiple levels of comparison. We discuss the levers in the software pipeline of all four technologies, as well as the potential effect of certain implementation decisions, such as string-based vs. semantic approaches to computational processing of natural language. We argue that the ‘technological translation’ of research is extremely involved and further studies of its use in practice are needed to assess the potential for more gender equality.
... Gli effetti dell'impatto della forma linguistica sulla percezione di genere non si esauriscono qui: alcuni studi mirati a esaminare la percezione del successo professionale delle donne dimostrano che i partecipanti tendono ad attribuire maggiore successo professionale ai maschi nei casi in cui i nomi di professione sono presentati al maschile generico mentre le forme sdoppiate aumentano la percezione di successo professionale delle donne nei ruoli professionali tradizionalmente maschili (Vervecken et al., 2013;2015). Inoltre, alcuni studi suggeriscono che la forma linguistica possa influenzare la percezione dell'adeguatezza delle donne a svolgere professioni prestigiose tradizionalmente associate agli uomini (Horvath, Sczesny, 2015;Stout, Dasgupta, 2011). Ci limitiamo ad accennare ai risultati di uno studio empirico nel quale i partecipanti, dopo essere stati esposti a una serie di annunci simulati di lavoro, hanno attribuito maggiore livello di adeguatezza alle donne nei casi in cui le professioni erano declinate sia al maschile sia al femminile (ad es. ...
... 'si cerca un direttore/una direttrice'), e maggiore livello di adeguatezza agli uomini quando i nomi delle professioni erano declinati solo al maschile (ad es. 'si cerca un direttore') (Horvath, Sczesny, 2015). ...
In questo studio si analizza la posizione assegnata al genere maschile nella rappresentazione della sfera professionale in quattro libri di testo di italiano come lingua straniera impiegati nel particolare contesto di insegnamento e apprendimento dell’italiano LS all’Università di Banja Luka, in Bosnia Erzegovina. L’uso del genere maschile per indicare le professioni viene interpretato come un’ideologia linguistica che riflette e perpetua il sessismo e i valori culturali patriarcali che sono in opposizione ai principi di democrazia e di uguaglianza di genere promossi dall’Unione Europea. In linea con gli sviluppi degli studi (socio)linguistici secondo i quali il linguaggio riflette ma anche modella la nostra visione del mondo, si sottolinea l’importanza dei materiali educativi nel processo di trasformazione o riproduzione dei rapporti di potere esistenti. Per decostruire le premesse ideologiche delle politiche linguistiche presenti nei materiali educativi, utilizziamo la CDA (analisi critica del discorso), che è l’approccio teorico e metodologico più adatto per l’analisi delle ideologie nascoste mascherate da norme universali e di senso comune. I risultati indicano che, contrariamente alle raccomandazioni di un uso non sessista della lingua, il genere maschile è regolarmente usato per indicare le professioni femminili, specialmente quelle che connotano il prestigio sociale. Si evidenzia così come i materiali educativi servano da strumenti ideologici che perpetuano relazioni di potere ineguali e legittimano la visione androcentrica del mondo. Grammatically or ideologically correct? The use of the masculine generic in Italian textbooks for foreigners In this study we analyze the position assigned to the masculine generics in the depiction of professional sphere in four textbooks of Italian as a foreign language employed in the particular context of teaching and learning Italian FL at the University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. We interpret masculine generics as a language ideology that reflects and perpetuates sexism and patriarchal cultural values that are in opposition to the principles of democracy and gender equality promoted by the European Union. In line with the developments in (socio)linguistic studies according to which language reflects but also shapes our vision of the world, we emphasize the importance of the educational materials in the process of transforming or reproducing the existing power relations. In order to deconstruct the ideological premises of language policies incorporated in the educational materials we employ CDA (critical discourse analysis) which is the most suitable theoretical and methodological approach for the analysis of hidden ideologies masked as universal norms and common sense. The results indicate that, contrary to the recommendations of non-sexist language use, masculine generics are regularly used to indicate female professions, especially those that connote social prestige. In line with this we conclude that educational materials serve as ideological instruments that perpetuate unequal power relations and legitimize androcentric vision of the world.
... The use of gender-unfair language, especially those in favour of men, restricts the visibility of women, which may be disadvantageous for them (Horvath and Sczesny, 2015). Also, gender unfair language makes women find jobs advertised in the masculine manner less appealing (Gaucher et al., 2011). ...
... Consequently, women reported a lower sense of belonging when gender-exclusive language was used compared to genderinclusive or gender-neutral forms, in fact, women reported feeling ostracized when gender-exclusive language was used (Stout and Dasgupta, 2011). Similarly, Horvath and Sczesny (2015) observed that when a masculine job title is used in job advertisements, it's an indication that men are perceived as fitting a high-status leadership position better than women but when the job is advertised with a gender neutral language, women and men are seen as equally qualified. The concept of gender neutral language (GNL) was introduced to create a healthy working environment and improve both verbal and written communications in the workplace. ...
Despite the wide spread awareness regarding the need to reduce gender bias in communication styles, it still exists in organizations and its negative effects on women’s behaviour and perceptions in the workplace remain a great concern. Consequently, the importance of gender neutral language (GNL) use in reducing gender stereotypes and discrimination cannot be overemphasized. Gender differences between gender and non-gender policy organizations has not been given much attention among university lecturers in the investigation of GNL use in Nigeria. This study examines the main and interaction effects of gender and institution type on GNL among public and private university lecturers. Using a two-way factorial design, 161 lecturers were randomly selected from four faculties and twelve departments while convenient sampling method was used to select the target respondents. A questionnaire focusing on socio-demographic profile and a GNL test was administered to the participants. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test analysis and analysis of variance at 0.05 level of significance. Three hypotheses were tested. The results revealed that gender differences and institution type interacted to influence GNL use among the participants of the study. Gender and institution type are important in developing interventions for GNL use in academia.
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... Not only do women withdraw themselves, but others' perceptions of women can be influenced by gender-exclusive language, too. For instance, Horvath and Sczesny [28] found that when masculine forms of words were used in job advertisements, women applicants were perceived as less fit than men for a CEO position. ...
In a 2011 study, Stout and Dasgupta exposed men and women to what they termed gender-inclusive language, which used both male and female referents, or to what they termed gender-exclusive language, which used male referents only. They found that, in comparison to gender-inclusive language, a job description that used gender-exclusive language negatively impacted women; they reported higher anticipated job-based ostracism and perceived sexism and lower job-based motivation and identification. This work reports a high-powered, preregistered study with women that fully replicated Stout and Dasgupta’s findings. Moreover, in an exploratory analysis, we found that, for women, gender-exclusive language is perceived as sexist, which in turn predicted feelings of greater anticipated ostracism, which in turn predicted lower job-based motivation and identification. Therefore, our findings support past research that subtle linguistic cues can be interpreted as exclusionary, that this interpretation can trigger negative outcomes, and that people can experience group-level ostracism based on their social identity.
... Yet, Horvath and Sczesny (2016) suggest that using the masculine generic and adding 'w/m' or 'm/w' does not necessarily counteract the male bias in the way that GIL (specifically, word pairs) does (in their case when assessing the perceived fit of women in leadership positions). Are then the advertisements really genderinclusive or are they merely ensuring that the official criteria are met. ...
Everyday observations seem to indicate an increase in gender-inclusive language (GIL) in Germany; however, previous research on the prevalence of GIL suggests that it is a marginal phenomenon. Moreover, from a theoretical side, an increase in GIL seems unlikely because of the cognitive challenge language change holds, the existence of multiple GIL variants, and the antagonistic environment that Germany poses for language change. This study empirically measures the use of GIL in five media sources in Germany. Over four million articles from 2000 to 2021 are analysed using the IDS Deutscher Referenzkorpus (DeReKo), supplemented by an in-depth analysis of 500 newspaper articles scraped in 2021. A fine-grained analysis along the dimensions of political orientation of the outlet, type of GIL, and author’s gender is conducted. In addition to observing an unexpectedly rapid increase in GIL, two different trends are identified: whilst non-binary inclusive forms of GIL are increasingly used in the left-leaning newspaper, GIL that adheres to a binary notion of gender is favoured in the mainstream and right-leaning media. This sheds light on how difficult behavioural change can occur.
... Muchos trabajos se han ocupado de mostrar que la publicación de avisos clasificados en masculino genérico alienta la presentación y la contratación de trabajadores o profesionales varones y desalienta la presentación y la contratación de trabajadoras y profesionales mujeres (Bem & Bem, 1973;Chatard, Guimond & Martinot, 2005;Gaucher, Frieser & Kay, 2011;Horvath & Sczesny, 2015;Vervecken & Hannover, 2015). Incluso, se ha demostrado que la expresión en masculino genérico de la oferta laboral, en particular para puestos de alta jerarquía, induce evaluaciones más positivas para los varones (Formanowicz, Bedynska, Cislak, Braun & Sczesny, 2013;Stout & Dasgupta, 2011). ...
En los últimos años, tanto en español como en otras lenguas, se ha generado un debate sobre el sexismo en el lenguaje, en particular cuando el masculino morfológico en su valor no marcado alude a seres sexuados. Sin embargo, no es esa la única manifestación del sexismo en el lenguaje. Tras realizar una revisión bibliográfica, en este trabajo se analizan críticamente seis ejemplos distintos de sexismo sutil en el lenguaje español: el empleo de supuestos neutros, sintagmas que reproducen estereotipos, algunas definiciones de diccionario, el uso en masculino del cargo de las mujeres, la contravención de normas discursivas protocolares y el tratamiento asimétrico de hombres y mujeres. Con todo, se advierte que la eliminación de esos usos (o su inexistencia en algunas lenguas) no entraña, per se, la igualdad de los derechos de género en la sociedad.
... Ao se analisar a literatura sobre gênero e liderança, identifi ca-se a manutenção das alusões às teorias de traço e da análise de papéis "femininos" versus "masculinos" -enquanto as mulheres são comumente descritas por meio de traços coletivistas e intrapessoais (solícita, gentil, amável, empática, colaborativa), aos homens são associados atributos individualistas (assertivo, ambicioso, dominante, competitivo, narcisista), sendo estes os mais frequentemente atribuídos a um líder de sucesso (Bongiorno et al., 2021;Horvath & Sczesny, 2016). ...
Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, the study of how leaders act in times of crisis is essential to understand their impacts on society, as well as on ways of leading, which brings to light examples of how leaders manage the pandemic situation and how much leaders’ gender infl uence this. The purpose of this article is to carry out a theoretical-conceptual discussion about leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic from a gender perspective, analyzing how the consequences of the pandemic can help question prevailing models of leadership. This study analyzes the performance of leaders during the coronavirus crisis and the phenomena that involve the exercise of leadership, discussing how the search for gender equity in positions of power contributes to the post-pandemic world. It is urgent that we re-signify the concept of leadership and its surrounding culture, which requires studies that analyze exclusion phenomena and that consider the scarcity of women and minority groups in leadership positions .Keywords: Leadership, COVID-19, crisis, gender, women.
... etc.) -eine große Rolle. Die Job-Bezeichnungen (Senior-Manager) oder Anforderungen (Kommunikationsfähigkeit) haben einen Einfluss darauf, welche Personen sich von der Stellenausschreibung angesprochen fühlen und sich grundsätzlich bewerben(Horvath & Sczesny 2016). Bei Ausschreibungen, welche vor allem männliche Eigenschaften fordern, bewerben sich weniger Frauen, während sich Männer bei beiden Ausschreibungstypen gleichermaßen bewerben. ...
... This omission of an entire group from language has a direct representational harm for the social group as well as an allocative harm, e.g. disadvantages in hiring contexts (Horvath and Sczesny, 2016). Furthermore, misgendering can lead to emotional pain and feelings of identity invalidation (Zimman, 2019). ...
Recent years have seen an increased visibility of non-binary people in public discourse. Accordingly, gender-fair language strategies that go beyond a binary conception of gender have been proposed. Such strategies pose a challenge for both translators and machine translation (MT), and gender-fair (machine) translation represents a relatively novel research field. With this survey and discussion, we hope to provide a starting point for this field and contribute a detailed overview of (machine) translation strategies to counteract the misrepresentation of an individual's gender. The results show that gender-fair translation studies (TS) approaches largely focus on media translation, such as subtitles or news articles, and the MT results show that the need to include non-binary debiasing methods is increasingly acknowledged, however, hardly ever implemented. Ideas on a closer mutually beneficial interaction between MT and translation studies are presented to advance multilingual gender-fair language use.
... When job postings contain words or phrases that are socially interpreted as masculine, such as "coding ninja," or job postings that use exclusively masculine words and pronouns to describe the desired candidate, women are less likely to apply for these positions and are less likely to be offered employment (Kuhn et al., 2020). When job postings use gender-neutral language or masculine/ feminine pairs (such as "the Candidate" or "he or she"), women are more likely to both apply for a position and be hired than postings without such language (Horvath and Sczesny, 2013). ...
... Thus, employees operating under a female leader tend to experience cognitive dissonance due to the incongruity between the stereotypical attributes desired of women and the requirements of a leadership role. This dissonance affects both women's self-perception and their perception by others (Heilman, 2001(Heilman, , 2012Horvath and Sczesny, 2016). ...
In the present study, we complement role congruity theory with insights from the Social Identity Model of Leadership. We propose that especially female leaders benefit from team prototypicality, i.e., being representative of the group they are leading. We assume that team prototypicality shifts the comparative frame away from higher-order categories like gender and leader roles to more concrete team-related properties and thereby reduces disadvantages for female leader that stem from the incongruity between the leader role and the female gender role stereotypes. Further, this effect should affect both (female) leaders themselves and their perception by their followers. Building on previous research, we predict, first, lower authentic leadership behavior for female than male leaders. Second, that team prototypicality positively relates to authentic leadership and trust in leader. Third, that team prototypicality has stronger relations to authentic leadership and trust in leader for female compared to male leaders. We tested assumptions in a randomized online experiment (Study 1, N = 315) and a cross-sectional survey study (Study 2, N = 300). We did not find consistent support for the assumed gender differences in authentic leadership. But our results (both in manifest and in latent analyses) show that team prototypicality-both self-perceived (Study 1) and as perceived by employees (Study 2)-is related to more authentic leadership and more trust in leader (Study 2) and that these relations are stronger for female than for male leaders. Furthermore, we tested in Study 2 an extended model including follower's job satisfaction as the final follower outcome affected via team prototypicality, leader gender, authentic leadership, and trust in leader. Thereby, we found that team prototypicality has direct and indirect effects on job satisfaction as carried through authentic leadership and trust in leader, respectively. Together, the results of both studies support our assumptions and show that female leaders can reduce role incongruity barriers through high team prototypicality. Implications for future research and practical implications of these results for gender equality are discussed.
... Gaucher et al. (2011) showed that the presence of words, such as leader, in job adverts could be linked to gender inequality in male-dominated job roles. Also, the presence of masculine words in job adverts made selectors believe that females were not suitable for these job roles (Horvath and Sczesny 2016). It could be argued that the positive results could be linked to that fact that only two job roles, i.e. construction manager and social worker, were compared. ...
The poor performance of construction projects remains a topical issue in the academic field of construction management. Across the globe, statistical data indicates that the construction sector is male dominated. The observed inequality is linked to conflicts, which is one of the main reasons for the poor performance of construction projects. The current study aims to explore the differences between job adverts for male [construction manager] and female [social worker] dominated sectors of the economy by comparing word usage. Text mining was used to unearth the differences in the content of the job advertisements for these two roles. The findings indicate that masculine words [such as leader] are the most commonly used words in the job adverts for construction manager roles. The findings suggest that the content of job adverts seem to promote gender stereotypes associated with employment in the construction sector. Such gender cues may contribute to the gender differences in the construction workforce. Taken together, these findings suggest that there is a need to embed gender-neutral words in job adverts placed by construction sector.
... von Menschen verwendeter Sprache auswirkt. Entsprechende Forschung begann in den 1970er Jahren [8] und diverse Studien, die die Verwendung des sogenannten "generischen Maskulinums" untersucht haben, legen nahe, dass diese Form nicht als "generisch" wahrgenommen wird, sondern einen klaren (männliche Assoziationen verstärkenden) Einfuss auf die hervorgerufenen mentalen Repräsentationen hat [4,24,36]. Dies hat sich im übrigen auch in üblichen Ausdrücken innerhalb der Mensch-Computer-Interaktion in der englischen Sprache bestätigt [12]. Entsprechend empfehlen die jeweiligen Forschens 8 sowie Autorens explizit geschlechterinklusive Sprache. ...
... von Menschen verwendeter Sprache auswirkt. Entsprechende Forschung begann in den 1970er Jahren [8] und diverse Studien, die die Verwendung des sogenannten "generischen Maskulinums" untersucht haben, legen nahe, dass diese Form nicht als "generisch" wahrgenommen wird, sondern einen klaren (männliche Assoziationen verstärkenden) Einfluss auf die hervorgerufenen mentalen Repräsentationen hat [4,24,36]. Dies hat sich im übrigen auch in üblichen Ausdrücken innerhalb der Mensch-Computer-Interaktion in der englischen Sprache bestätigt [12]. Entsprechend empfehlen die jeweiligen Forschens 8 sowie Autorens explizit geschlechterinklusive Sprache. ...
With the increasing attention non-binary people receive in Western societies, strategies of gender-fair language have started to move away from binary (only female/male) concepts of gender. Nevertheless, hardly any approaches to take these identities into account into machine translation models exist so far. A lack of understanding of the socio-technical implications of such technologies risks further reproducing linguistic mechanisms of oppression and mislabelling. In this paper, we describe the methods and results of a workshop on gender-fair language and language technologies, which was led and organised by ten researchers from TU Wien, St. P\"olten UAS, FH Campus Wien and the University of Vienna and took place in Vienna in autumn 2021. A wide range of interest groups and their representatives were invited to ensure that the topic could be dealt with holistically. Accordingly, we aimed to include translators, machine translation experts and non-binary individuals (as "community experts") on an equal footing. Our analysis shows that gender in machine translation requires a high degree of context sensitivity, that developers of such technologies need to position themselves cautiously in a process still under social negotiation, and that flexible approaches seem most adequate at present. We then illustrate steps that follow from our results for the field of gender-fair language technologies so that technological developments can adequately line up with social advancements. -- [German abstract to be added manually by arXiv admins]
... Further along the track research deals with targeted recruitment and perception of job advertisement (Clow et al., 2015;Webster et al., 2020). Particularly in the context of job postings, regarding gender the language used has already been examined in numerous studies (Fernandez & Friedrich, 2011;Gaucher et al., 2011;Hodel et al., 2017;Horvath & Sczesny, 2016). Finally, also at the stage of job interviews, gender and language differences were investigated for a long time (Juodvalkis et al., 2003;Wiley & Eskilson, 1985). ...
Based on previous research about gender differences we investigated whether varying language utilization across gender can be found in standardized text documents such as job applications. To this end, 581 cover letters, CVs and complete application documents were analyzed using linguistic inquiry and word count. Some language differences between men and women could be shown, even if as expected, there were smaller effects than in comparative studies in less formalized contexts. These differences were specific for cover letters and CVs. A differentiated examination showed that gender differences in the cover letters were largely determined by function words. In contrast, differences in the CVs were mainly due to differences in content words. The findings add the context of recruiting to lend support to the framework of gender differences in language across different contexts. Implications for candidates, recruiters and companies are discussed.
... Overall, gender-inclusive language has a significant impact on the equality of all genders in our thinking and perception, and ultimately on our actions (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011;Horvath & Sczesny, 2015). Therefore, the promotion of gender-inclusive communication is an important tool to foster gender equality. ...
This Toolbox for gender-neutral, diversity-oriented institutional communication (D. 5.4) is submitted by RUB as part of Work Package 5 – Ensure a sustainable and cultural change by establishing a gender and diversity-friendly environment of the RESET project. This toolbox is the output of Task 5.4 – Promoting a unique standard of gender neutral, non-discriminatory, positive forms of communication. The toolbox builds on the insights and achievements that are reflected in the Guidelines for gender-sensitive communication in research and academia (2021) of the project SUPERA - Supporting the Promotion of Equality in Research and Academia. Additionally, this toolbox enriches the focus on gender-sensitive communication with the notion of gender-inclusive forms of communication as well as an intersectional perspective on further dimensions of diversity. For this, the Toolbox contains with a conceptual framework, that has a purpose to provide valuable information and knowledge around the necessity of gender-neutral, gender-sensitive as well as diversity-oriented forms of communication. Here, RESET’s intersectional perspective, and its understanding of diversity in the context of HEIs are explained. Information on social psychological and socio-linguistic aspects of communication are interpreted in relation to gender and diversity. Against these backgrounds the opportunities and challenges of visual aspects of communication are reflected. Part B contains the tools that have been developed in the context of the toolbox-creation, aligned with the conceptual framework, and based on institutional queries, interviews, and discussions within RESET consortium. They are meant to provide a starting point for making communication at our universities more inclusive, both in terms of gender diversity and other diversity factors. The Toolbox is a work-in-progress and closely interwoven with the ongoing work of RESET project. It will be enriched as the project evolves. At this stage, the toolbox has a strong focus on the
aspect of gender-inclusive communication. In the future, it is going to entail more tools that emphasize the diversity aspect to a greater extent and that are going to be co-designed with our communities at our universities, to create safe and diversity friendly environments.
... One important step to change stereotypes or at least to reduce their impact in the first instance is the mitigation of their activation. As indicated by the identified literature framing and wording activates and thereby strengthens the effect of stereotypes (e.g., Horvath and Sczesny 2016). ...
Discrimination constitutes a sticky phenomenon in corporations despite decades of anti-discrimination initiatives. We argue that this stickiness is related to the complex relations between various factors on the micro level in organizations, which determine and stabilize each other. Based on a systematic literature review comprising empirical studies on discrimination due to age, gender, race, and ethnicity/nationality, we find eight general mechanisms which can be further clustered into an economic, a behavioral, and a socio-structural domain. While mechanisms in the behavioral domain form the roots of discrimination, the economic and the socio-structural mechanisms stabilize each other as well as the behavioral ones. Thus, the analysis shows that the various building blocks on the micro level are entangled with each other and suggests a structured way by identifying a problem hierarchy to manage this complexity.
... During the last two decades, psycholinguistic studies have investigated the effect of the default use of the masculine grammatical form on mental representations of gender. These studies, conducted in different languages, have shown that this default use results in a male bias in mental representations of gender (French: Brauer and Landry, 2008;Gygax et al., 2008Gygax et al., , 2012German: Braun et al., 2005;Hansen et al., 2016;Horvath and Sczesny, 2016;Steiger-Loerbroks and von Stockhausen, 2014;Norwegian: Gabriel, 2008). ...
The present paper reports findings from a controlled large-scale ( N = 1018) experimental study investigating how four different gender-fair forms influenced native French speakers’ estimated percentage of women compared to the masculine form (interpretable as generic) in 22 non-stereotyped French role nouns. The findings show that the masculine form generated lower perceived percentages of women compared to all other tested forms. In addition, gender-neutral and double forms were found equally efficient in resolving the male bias induced by the masculine form. Since the role nouns were non-stereotyped in terms of gender, these results suggest that the actual form of a role noun has indeed a strong influence on how the gender ratio of that role noun will be perceived. Moreover, the direction of the questionnaire’s response scale had a significant effect on the results, which entails methodological implications for future research. Finally, the provided ratios can be used for future studies investigating French role nouns in different gender-fair forms. In sum, our study suggests that gender-fair forms in French are an efficient tool for increasing the visibility of women, at least in nouns representing non-stereotypical activities.
... Similarly, some authors have shown that women were perceived as less suitable (i.e., not belonging) for high status occupations when they were presented in the masculine form compared to when they were presented in the pair form (e.g. female or male director; Horvath & Sczesny, 2015). ...
In this chapter, we argue that although gendered vocational interests may arise from various sources, language plays an important role, even if it has received little attention so far. Previous studies (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011; Vervecken et al., 2013; Vervecken et al., 2015), although scarce, have demonstrated that language (meaning and structure) can influence how children and adolescents perceive professions. We also argue that gender stereotypes interact with language in intricate ways, and that in all, both may well interfere in shaping personal interests, as well as academic and professional choices.
... Unlike masculine-only forms, gender-fair language has several desirable effects: Stereotypical thinking is decreased (Kollmayer et al., 2018); women are perceived as more suitable for typically male occupations and are considered more likely to succeed in these jobs (Horvath & Sczesny, 2015;Vervecken et al., 2015;Vervecken et al., 2013); women show more interest, commitment, and self-efficacy for typically male occupations (e.g., Bem & Bem, 1973;Metaxa-Kakavouli et al., 2018;Stout & Dasgupta, 2011;Vervecken & Hannover, 2015). Both theoretically oriented work and empirical studies thus show that there are good reasons for using gender-fair language. ...
Gender-fair language makes women and other genders, their interests, and their achievements more visible and is particularly relevant to grammatical gender languages such as German, in which most nouns and personal pronouns are assigned to a specific gender. The present study tested the often repeated critical claims that gender-fair language impairs the comprehensibility and aesthetic appeal of videos. In an experiment with N = 105 students, participants watched a video on self-determination theory, either with masculine-only forms or using the glottal stop, a form of spoken gender-fair language that inserts an abrupt and sustained closure of the vocal cords in the larynx between the masculine form or the stem and the feminine ending of words (e.g. in German “Leserʔinnen”, ∼feʔmale readers). Subsequently, participants completed a questionnaire regarding the video's comprehensibility. The results show no statistically significant impairment regarding the general subjective comprehensibility (partial η ² < .01), the ease of ascribing meaning to the words (partial η ² < .01), the ease of decoding the syntax of the sentences (partial η ² = .03), or the aesthetic appeal of the videos (partial η ² = .02). The critics’ claims are therefore questioned.
... By exploring how social judgments may be influenced by masculine generics (e.g. 'he' , 'man'), Horvath and Sczesny (2016), on the other hand, found that when masculine forms were used rather than paired forms, woman job applicants were viewed as less qualified for a high-status position. In another study grounded on the assumption that gendered language can reinforce traditional conceptions of gender roles, Mavisakalyan (2015), who analyzed a country-level data set of 108 countries in 2000, found that in places where the majority language is gender-intensive (i.e. ...
Although the literature has recognized the successes and challenges resulting from the implementation of gender-fair language (GFL) policies in the school domain and beyond, students and teachers still struggle in engaging with topics concerning gender identity and expression, and in integrating the micro-aspects of gender-nonconforming vocabulary and topics related to gender and sexuality. In the Philippine English language teaching (ELT) context, research on how English language teachers navigate the difficult and ideologically laden terrains of GFL in the classroom has remained underexplored. Through a qualitative survey among 31 Filipino college teachers of English and follow-up email interviews, this paper analyzes the teacher-participants’ insights about GFL and its place in ELT, and ways of integrating GFL into the classroom. Findings indicated that GFL ensures inclusivity and promotes visibility of genders, and challenges deep-seated norms of gender asymmetry. The teachers likewise reported that incorporating GFL in ELT helps develop students’ social skills and fosters an inclusive learning space. Regarding ways in integrating GFL into ELT, they used GFL- and gender-themed instructional materials, and facilitated class interactions and activities that promote GFL and gender inclusivity.
... Replacing masculine generic terms with paired forms that include both a masculine and a feminine word is a common strategy to increase inclusion of women in the workplace, for instance replacing the generic pronoun 'he' with the paired form 'he/she' in job advertisements (Sczesny et al., 2016). Using paired pronouns can increase the motivation of women to apply for a job position, as well as decrease the influence of gender bias in recruiter evaluations (Horvath & Sczesny, 2015;Sczesny et al., 2016). Paired pronouns as well as non-binary pronouns (neo-pronouns or gender-neutral pronouns) have been shown to have the potential to linguistically represent both women and men (Lindqvist et al., 2018). ...
This Conference has been designed to bring together talent from academia and the broader public and private sectors (both for-profit and not-for-profit) to participate in respectful, professional, and rigorous debate about gender and sexuality at work.
We aim to learn from each other and to find better ways to work together in building the knowledge base required to address gender and sexuality at work in meaningful and productive ways.
... Unexpectedly, the gender-neutral child condition was more effective in reducing stereotyping than even the daughter condition, which included multiple mentions of the female gender. Although this result was not anticipated, it converges with a growing body of literature demonstrating that gender-fair language (e.g., replacing "policeman" with "police officer") can increase the visibility of women in male-typed roles (Horvath & Sczesny, 2016;Stahlberg et al., 2007). ...
“A father and his son are in a car accident. The father dies. The son is rushed to the ER. The attending surgeon looks at the boy and says, ‘I can't operate on this boy. He's my son!’ How can this be?” Fifty years after the riddle first received public attention, one likely answer proves elusive: the surgeon is the boy's mother. Seven studies (N = 6,987) were conducted to explore the vicissitudes of the surgeon = male stereotype. In Study 1, over 70% of participants failed to reach the mother solution. However, a reduction in bias was also observed: the percentage of mother inferences more than doubled when “son” was replaced with a gender-neutral kinship term (“child”), suggesting that even incidental exposure to gender-neutral language can loosen the grip of stereotypes. In fact, gender-neutral language was more effective in reducing bias than a condition (“daughter”) with multiple mentions of the female gender. In Study 2, we replicated this finding in a nationally representative sample of the United States, and demonstrated that 82% of Americans failed to provide the mother inference in response to the classic riddle. Additionally, within this nationally representative sample, the demographic and psychological correlates of the surgeon = male stereotype were explored. In Studies 3–5, we interrogated the mechanisms of stereotype reduction in the child condition (Study 3), the degree to which this stereotype simply reflects base rates (Study 4), and eliminated an alternative explanation (Study 5). Finally, in Studies 6–7, the generalizability of the surgeon = male stereotype was tested and confirmed in a non-WEIRD country that supplies medical expertise to the world (India; Study 6), and the result was extended to an inverse gender–occupation stereotype (nurse = female; Study 7). Taken together, these data demonstrate the surprising strength of a gender occupational stereotype and its boundary conditions.
... A megjelenő hirdetési attribútumok milyensége meghatározza a jelentkezés valószínűségét, de a teljes felvételi folyamatra is kihat (Ducoffe, 1995;Ducoffe, 1996). A hirdetési tartalmaknak, a közvetített jeleknek és üzeneteknek a márkaimázs befolyásolásával hosszabb távú hatásuk van, különösen női munkavállalók esetében (Feldman et al., 2006;Horvath & Sczesny, 2016). ...
Az álláshirdetéseknél megjelenő információs aszimmetria különleges figyelemfelkeltést és bizalmat idéz elő a hirdető cég és az álláshirdetésre jelentkezők között. A menedzsmentirodalomban a jelzési elmélet alkalmazása kiemelt szerepet kap a stratégiai menedzsment és a HR-menedzsment területén. A vállalkozások számára az álláshirdetések attribútumainak megtervezése és kidolgozása különösen jelentős a legjobb képességű munkavállalók megtalálásában. Emellett a fiatal munkavállalók jellegzetességeinek és munkakeresési szokásainak ismerete is szükséges az álláshirdetési folyamat sikerességéhez. A tanulmány célja alapot adni az álláshirdetésekben megjelenő értékajánlat kidolgozásához, ahhoz, hogy az álláshirdetők azonosítani tudják a fejlesztendő pontokat és ezek ismeretével a munkakeresők igények beépítésével az álláshirdetéseket vonzóbbá tegyék. A kvalitatív megkérdezés alapján elért kutatási eredmények azt mutatják, hogy a hirdetésekkel szemben a vonzó megjelenés és munkáltatói márka fontossága kiemelkedő a megkérdezett fiatal munkavállalók számára. A szerzők a hirdetések értékelésénél az értékelemzés módszerét vették alapul ahhoz, hogy a leghatékonyabban kidolgozható hirdetésfunkciókat és értékhordozó funkciókat azonosítani tudják, mely funkciókat már az értéktervezés módszerével ábrázolták.
... Furthermore, some studies provide evidence of negative consequences that this male bias of masculine generics may have. For example, in a German hiring simulation study, Horvath and Sczesny (2016) found that female applicants for high-status positions were perceived as a worse fit for the job when the job title was in its masculine noun form, compared to a masculine-feminine pair. A study by Vervecken et al. (2013) with German-and Dutch-speaking children found that when a stereotypically masculine profession was introduced using only the masculine form, women were perceived as less successful in that profession. ...
In Polish, it is obligatory to mark feminine or masculine grammatical gender on second-person singular past tense verbs (e.g., Dostałaś list ‘You received-F a letter’). When the addressee’s gender is unknown or unspecified, masculine but never feminine gender marking may be used. The present self-paced reading experiment aims to determine whether this practice creates a processing disadvantage for female addressees in such contexts. We further investigated how men process being addressed with feminine-marked verbs, which constitutes a pragmatic violation. To this end, we presented Polish native speakers with short narratives. Each narrative contained either a second-person singular past tense verb with masculine or feminine gender marking, or a gerund verb with no gender marking as a baseline. We hypothesised that both men and women would read the verbs with gender marking mismatching their own gender more slowly than the gender-unmarked gerund verbs. The results revealed that the gender-mismatching verbs were read equally fast as the gerund verbs, and that the verbs with gender marking matching participant gender were read faster. While the relatively high reading time of the gender-unmarked baseline was unexpected, the pattern of results nevertheless shows that verbs with masculine marking were more difficult to process for women compared to men, and vice versa. In conclusion, even though masculine gender marking in the second person is commonly used with a gender-unspecific intention, it created similar processing difficulties for women as the ones that men experienced when addressed through feminine gender marking. This study is the first one, as far as we are aware, to provide evidence for the male bias of second-person masculine generics during language processing.
... Women leadership has been a topic of immense interest among researchers bringing out constraints like glass ceiling (Bell et al., 2015;Sakshi Sharma & Kaur, 2019), tokenism (Flores, 2011;Watkins et al., 2019), backlash effect (Phelan & Rudman, 2010), lack of fit perception (Heilman & Martell, 1986;Horvath & Sczesny, 2016) and gender stereotyping or orthodoxy (Asgari & Dasgupta, 2004;Senior et al., 2014). Women are considered less competent and ambitious, more sentimental (Billing & Alvesson, 2000) than men, and are generally neglected while considering leadership positions (Phelan & Rudman, 2010). ...
This article describes lived experiences of successful women leaders in government administration organizations in India. The analysis of women’s experiences revealed the enablers and deterrents faced by these women in their leadership trajectories. These factors are categorized as an individual: family background and childhood experiences, self-aspiration and leadership development and work-life balance and familial support or organizational viz. workplace and sociocultural challenges and success mantras. A combination of them has influenced the progression of these women. The results present the need for a massive social change initiated by human service organizations to shift the so-called patriarchal social system. The paper has identified various dimensions like prioritizing promoting diversity, mentoring, and redesign of human resource policies which need to be focused. Also, the organizations and government can use these findings to design development programs for realistically promoting more women to higher positions.
... Androcentrism manifests in the evaluations of categories that are primarily associated with men (Bem, 1993). For instance, when job advertisements and titles contain more androcentric information, women are less likely to apply to Stout and Dasgupta (2011) and are perceived as less qualified for Hovarth and Sczesny (2016) the positions. ...
Because men are overrepresented within positions of power, men are perceived as the default in academia (androcentrism). Androcentric bias emerges whereby research by men and/or dominated by men is perceived as higher quality and gains more attention. We examined if these androcentric biases materialize within fields that study bias (psychology). How do individuals in close contact with psychology view psychology research outlets (i.e., journals) with titles including the words women, gender, sex, or feminism (sex/gender-related) or contain the words men or masculinity (men-related; Study 1) versus psychology journals that publish other-specialized research, and do these perceptions differ in the general public? While the men-related journal was less meritorious than its other-specialty journal, evidence emerged supporting androcentric bias such that the men-related journal was more favorable than the other sex/gender-related journals (Study 1). Further, undergraduate men taking psychology classes rated sex/gender-related versus other-specialty journals as less favorable, were less likely to recommend subscription (Studies 1–2), and rated the journals as lower quality (Study 2 only). Low endorsement of feminist ideology was associated with less support for sex/gender-related journals versus matched other-specialty journals (Studies 1–2). Decreased subscription recommendations for sex/gender-related journals (and the men-related journal) were mediated by decreased favorability and quality beliefs, especially for men (for the sex/gender-related journals) and those low in feminist ideology (Studies 1–2). However, we found possible androcentric-interest within the public sphere. The public reach of articles (as determined by Altmetrics) published in sex/gender-related was greater than other-specialty journals (Study 3). The consequences of these differential perceptions for students versus the public and the impact on women’s advancement in social science and psychological science are discussed.
... This asymmetry has received attention from both social psychological and psycholinguistic research, which showed that masculine forms -even if meant as generic -may still lead to a gender-specific interpretation and thus bias recipients' perception and behavior. Following earlier findings by Bern and Bern (1973) that stereotypically phrased job advertisements prevented applicants from considering jobs with an opposite-sex bias despite their qualifications, later studies revealed that masculine wordings in job advertisements not only reduced female students' identification with those jobs and their motivation to pursue them as careers (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011), but also caused others to perceive those jobs as less suitable for women than formen (Horvath & Sczesny, 2016). Furthermore, senshivity to such gender biases surfaces as early as primary school, so that occupations presented in masculine forms (e.g. ...
This chapter presents empirical evidence from social psychological and psycholinguistic studies to provide an insight on mechanisms underlying gender inequality represented and maintained through language. The reviewed phenomena cover linguistic manifestations of gender and gender stereotypes that range from relatively superficial word semantics to gender asymmetries ingrained deeply in grammatical language systems, such as the category of verbs and the case system. The existing studies on biases in language suggest that even linguistic phenomena seemingly unrelated to gender (e.g. negations or thematic structure) may function as mechanisms supporting gender stereotypical beliefs. Such biases present a special challenge when it comes to identifying them; however, revealing their mechanisms has important implications for initiatives aiming at neutralizing their negative social consequences.
... Jak wykazano (np. Bem i Bem 1973;Stout i Dasgupta 2011;Horvath i Sczesny 2016), ogłoszenia zredagowane w rodzaju męskim mają zniechęcający wpływ na potencjalne kandydatki, które często rezygnują z ubiegania się o pracę, ponieważ uznają, że nie mają szans na jej otrzymanie. Użycie języka inkluzywnego przekłada się natomiast na większe zainteresowanie kobiet takimi ogłoszeniami. ...
Artykuł stanowi polemikę z tezami Ignacego Nasalskiego zawartymi w tekście pt. „Funkcje i dysfunkcje języka inkluzywnego, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem asymetrii rodzajowej w języku polskim” (Socjolingwistyka 2020), w którym Autor twierdzi, że system rodzajowy języków, rozumiany jako (a)symetrie między nazwami męskimi i żeńskimi, ma znikomy wpływ na sytuację społeczną kobiet, czego dowodzi różna struktura rodzajowa języków arabskiego, perskiego i polskiego, nieprzekładająca się na równouprawnienie kobiet w krajach, gdzie są one używane. W związku z tym faktem Autor kwestionuje zasadność tworzenia i stosowania nowych feminatywów w polszczyźnie. W niniejszym artykule wskazano liczne uproszczenia w argumentacji Nasalskiego, a także pomijanie przez niego wielu prac przedstawiających i dokumentujących odmienny punkt widzenia. Dotyczą one nierówności płci w języku arabskim oraz badań nad wpływem języka na nasze myślenie i zachowania, a także negatywnych konsekwencji stosowania języka wykluczającego oraz korzyści z używania form o charakterze równościowym.
... Indeed, there are already a number of experiments that examine respective relationships and provide further insight into the mechanisms involved. If, for example, stereotypically male occupations were presented in masculineonly forms, women were considered to have lower chances of success and to be less suitable for the job than when the occupations were presented in gender-fair language (Vervecken et al., 2013Horvath and Sczesny, 2015). Gabriel and Gygax (2016) derive the following conclusions from self-categorization theory: if masculine-only forms are used to refer to all genders, it is uncertain whether women and members of other genders are included or not. ...
Recently, the gender asterisk (“Gendersternchen”) has become more widespread in grammatical gender languages in order to represent all genders. Such gender-fair language is intended to help better address women and other genders and make their interests and achievements more visible. Critics often argue this would make the language less comprehensible and less aesthetically appealing. Two experiments examined the effects of the gender asterisk on text comprehensibility, aesthetic perception, and interest. N = 159 and N = 127 participants were randomly provided with a text in either masculine-only form or alternatively in gender-fair language with the gender asterisk. The results of the first experiment showed no impairment of comprehensibility and aesthetic evaluation of the texts by the gender asterisk and no effect on interest in the game, while the second experiment showed significant impairments of comprehensibility, aesthetic evaluation, and interest in the game by the gender asterisk. The proportion of singular forms is discussed as a possible explanation for the different results. Experiment 1 predominantly used plural forms like die Spieler*innen (∼“the fe*male players”) and did not include forms such as der*die Spieler*in (∼“the*the fe*male player”), whereas Experiment 2 included many such more complex singular forms. We argue that this issue might be crucial, and that it deserves full attention in future studies.
... Una manera d'exposar el gènere serien les formes marcades com a femenines. Lisa Kristina Horvath i Sczesny (2015) van comparar els efectes de les formes masculines amb sufixos femenins (ProfessorIn), usades en alemany, amb els de l'ús de la forma femenina junt a la masculina. Les primeres pal·liaven els biaixos de percepció de competència de les dones, però no els d'inadequació per a llocs de treball de direcció, mentre que les segones (primer la forma femenina i després la masculina) permetien contrarestar eficaçment el biaix de gènere present a la societat. ...
Gender-inclusive language has become prominent in modern societies as a political measure for acknowledging gender-based diversity. The changes required to speak in non-sexist ways have aroused awareness but also resistance. A position that has achieved special traction in institutional contexts for some languages (including Catalan) is that masculine forms are actually the neutral form of gendered languages. Based on the absence of a morphological mark, grammar scholars use unmarked to refer to masculine forms that match the lexical root of words. This conventional meaning has been altered in using the term to intrinsically justify a semantic, communicative, sociocultural, and even symbolic neutrality of masculine forms. The argument denies or, at best, ignores the relationship between language, cognition, and society. This article reviews the knowledge accrued on that relationship on the basis of empirical studies challenging the alleged neutrality of masculine forms and assessing specific linguistic means that may counter the gender bias that looms large on our societies and how it is constructed as natural.
The use of masculine forms in job titles (e.g., fireman, salesman) can deter women from applying or being selected for certain positions. The current research investigated the degree to which masculine linguistic forms are effective as generics. An experiment (N = 273) assessed to what extent four linguistic forms of job titles in German—masculine, abbreviated form with slashes, gender neutral, or masculine with brackets (m/f/d)—are implicitly associated with women and men using an Implicit Association Test. Masculine job titles were more strongly associated with men relative to women. In contrast, job titles using the slash form and gender-neutral form eliminated this male bias in implicit associations. The masculine form with brackets (m/f/d) produced similar effects to the conventional masculine form, and as such, was also ineffective in reducing a male bias. The present work contributes to the growing literature on the role of gender-inclusive language in recruitment and selection.
In German academia, there is still no gender equality. The number of females in academic positions decreases as career paths proceed. This study focuses on a partial aspect of possible reasons for this imbalance: the influence on potential applicants through job advertisements published by universities to recruit suitable academics. For this purpose, documentary research on job advertisements are conducted with respect to a variety of characteristics. By recording the status quo, recommendations for actions are given in order to address women and men equally with job advertisements.
Was muss beim Recruiting beachtet werden, um Bewerber:innen nicht unbewusst auszuschließen? Mehr noch: Wie kann der Recruitingprozess so gestaltet werden, dass er durchlässiger für vielfältige Bewerbungsprofile wird? Anhand der „4P“ Prozesse, Policies, Praktiken und Persönliche Haltung gibt dieses Kapitel einen umfassenden Überblick für den Recruiting-Alltag in Organisationen. Bei den Prozessen geht es um den gesamten Ablauf – von der Festlegung und Einhaltung verbindlicher Zielvorgaben bis hin zur inklusiven Stellenanzeige. Bei den Policies werden die bestehenden Regelungen des Recruitings kritisch hinterfragt – sei es die Einbindung externer Personalberatungen oder die eigene Durchführung von Interviews mittels standardisierter Verfahren. Anwendbare Umsetzungsmöglichkeiten (z. B. Screening von Bewerbungen) werden unter Praktiken vorgestellt. Schließlich steht und fällt der Auswahlprozess mit den Menschen, die daran beteiligt sind. Ob es gelingt, mehr Vielfalt für die Organisation zu gewinnen, hängt maßgeblich mit dem eigenen Reflexionsvermögen zusammen – die Persönliche Haltung gegenüber unbewussten Wahrnehmungsverzerrungen und Beurteilungsfehlern wird daher u. a. am Beispiel einer Recruitingschulung geschärft. Hinweise für das Change Management in diesem Abschnitt des Employee Lifecycles runden das Kapitel ab.
Heated societal debates in various countries concern the use of gender-fair language, meant to replace the generic use of grammatically masculine forms. Advocates and opponents of gender-fair language disagree on – among other things – the question of whether masculine forms leave women underrepresented in people's minds. We investigated the influence of linguistic form on the mental representations of gender in French. Participants read a short text about a professional gathering and estimated the percentages of men and women present at the gathering. Results showed higher estimates of the percentage of women in response to two gender-fair forms relative to the masculine form. Comparisons with normed data on people's perception of real-world gender ratios additionally showed that the gender-fair forms removed or reduced a male bias for neutral- and female-stereotyped professions, respectively, yet induced a female bias for male-stereotyped professions. Thus, gender-fair language increases the prominence of women in the mind, but has varying effects on consistency, i.e., the match with default perceptions of real-world gender ratios.
Im folgenden Beitrag stehen Fragen des Erwerbs und der Vermittlung geschlechterinklusiver Sprache im Fokus. Dazu beziehen wir uns auf die Institutionen Schule und Hochschule. Diese sprachdidaktische Perspektive wird an einzelnen Stellen um eine schul- und hochschulpolitische Perspektive ergänzt.
Despite progress towards gender equality in the labor market over the past few decades, gender segregation in labor force composition and labor market outcomes persists. Evidence has shown that job advertisements may express gender preferences, which may selectively attract potential job candidates to apply for a given post and thus reinforce gendered labor force composition and outcomes. Removing gender-explicit words from job advertisements does not fully solve the problem as certain implicit traits are more closely associated with men, such as ambitiousness, while others are more closely associated with women, such as considerateness. However, it is not always possible to find neutral alternatives for these traits, making it hard to search for candidates with desired characteristics without entailing gender discrimination. Existing algorithms mainly focus on the detection of the presence of gender biases in job advertisements without providing a solution to how the text should be (re)worded. To address this problem, we propose an algorithm that evaluates gender bias in the input text and provides guidance on how the text should be debiased by offering alternative wording that is closely related to the original input. Our proposed method promises broad application in the human resources process, ranging from the development of job advertisements to algorithm-assisted screening of job applications.
English
There is much controversy regarding the use and the effects of politically correct (PC) language and language reforms. This article is focussed on gender-related PC language, that is, non-sexist language. After a short account of the debate on the issue, it is shown that, with regard to gender, language reforms can be based on two main strategies: inclusion and visibility. The preference for one or the other strategy depends not only on the characteristics of the specific language but also on the aim considered as a priority in the context. After an overview of language changes introduced in different (mainly European) countries, studies on the effects of sexist language and language reforms are reviewed. Finally the practical implications of the scientific findings on the issue are discussed.
French
L'emploi et les effets du langage politiquement correct (PC), ainsi que les réformes de la langue, sont actuellement très controversés. Cet article se concentre sur le langage PC à l'égard du genre, à savoir le langage non-sexiste. Après un bref résumé du débat, l'auteure montre que, par rapport au genre, les réformes de la langue peuvent être fondées sur deux stratégies principales: l'inclusion et la visibilité. La préférence pour l'une ou l'autre de ces stratégies ne dépend pas seulement des particularités de la langue en question, mais aussi du but qui est considéré prioritaire dans un contexte donné. Après un compte rendu des changements de la langue introduits dans différents pays (surtout en Europe), une revue des études sur les effets du langage sexiste et des réformes de la langue est présentée. Enfin, les implications pratiques des résultats scientifiques sur le thème sont discutées.
The issue of the “glass ceiling” effect on gender differences in upper level management was addressed. Three different explanations of the gender difference in participating at upper level management were tested, and designated as the Stereotype theory, the Experience theory, and the Personality theory. The first claims the “glass ceiling” effect to be a genuine phenomenon, while the two latter ones disclaim the concept in favour of alternative interpretations. 553 surveys (405 males and 148 females) at different managerial levels responded to a questionnaire measuring adaptor vs. innovator orientations in problem solving. Results show a significant interaction between gender and managerial level on innovation-oriented problem solving, where females at the executive level exhibit a strikingly higher innovator score than their male colleagues. The results are taken as support for the Stereotype theory. Finally, some limitations of the present study are pointed out, and suggestions for further studies are made.
This article presents a series of experiments which were conducted among native speakers of German to determine the influence of different types of German generics on the cognitive inclusion of women. Results indicate that the inclusion of women is higher with 'non-sexist' alternatives than with masculine generics, a tendency which was consistent across different studies. The different alternatives, however, showed different effects which also varied depending on the context. These results are discussed with regard to their practical consequences in situations such as nominating women and men for awards or political offices.
Bogus resumes were evaluated by 212 business professionals to discover what mediates sex discrimination in hiring decisions. We hypothesized that discrimination against women and men who applied for stereotypically "masculine" and "feminine" jobs, respectively, could be reduced by providing individuating information suggesting that the applicant was an exception to his or her gender stereotype and possessed traits usually associated with the opposite gender. We also hypothesized that individuating information consistent with stereotypes about an applicant's gender would decrease the probability that an applicant would be evaluated favorably for a job usually considered appropriate for the other gender. We found that individuating information eliminated sex-typed personality inferences about male and female applicants and affected applicants' perceived job suitability; however, sex discrimination was not eliminated. We suggest that sex discrimination is mediated by occupation stereotypes that specify both the personality traits and the gender appropriate for each occupation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In an experiment, job description and applicants' attributes were examined as moderators of the backlash effect, the negative evaluation of agentic women for violating prescriptions of feminine niceness (Rudman, 1998). Rutgers University students made hiring decisions for a masculine or “feminized” managerial job. Applicants were presented as either agentic or androgynous. Replicating Rudman and Glick (1999), a feminized job description promoted hiring discrimination against an agentic female because she was perceived as insufficiently nice. Unique to the present research, this perception was related to participants' possession of an implicit (but not explicit) agency-communality stereotype. By contrast, androgynous female applicants were not discriminated against. The findings suggest that the prescription for female niceness is an implicit belief that penalizes women unless they temper their agency with niceness.
Drawing on theories of stereotype content and role congruity, this research investigated the role of stereotypes for employment discrimination against older candidates. Study 1 investigated the content of stereotypes about older workers, focusing on warmth and competence as the two core dimensions in social judgement. As predicted, older workers were perceived as less competent but warmer than younger workers. Studies 2 and 3 investigated how these stereotypes interact with job requirements to predict age bias in an experimental setting. Further, they tested if warmth- and competence-related stereotypical inferences mediate the relation between candidate age and selection bias. Results showed that age bias was robust. Older candidates were discriminated against, even if the job primarily required warmth-related qualities, and independently of evaluators' own age or professional experience in human resources. Moreover, age bias was mediated by competence-related stereotypical inferences. Age bias was also mediated by inferences related to warmth but those inferences were opposite to the high-warmth older worker stereotype identified in Study 1. Implications of the findings for theoretical approaches to age discrimination and for organizational practice designed to combat age discrimination are discussed.
In the early 1970s Schein identified managerial sex typing as a major psychological barrier to the advancement of women in the United States. The globalization of management brings to the forefront the need to examine the relationship between sex role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics in the international arena. A review of the replications of the Schein research in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, China, and Japan provides the basis for a global look at the “think manager–think male” phenomenon. Implications of the outcomes, especially among males, for women's progress in management worldwide are discussed.
This experiment investigated the propensity of the generic he to evoke images of males relative to he/she and the plural they. Undergraduates read sentences aloud and verbally described the images that came to mind. The results provide strong support for the hypothesis that the generic he evokes a disproportionate number of male images. Results also suggest that while the plural they functions as a generic pronoun for both males and females, males may comprehend he/she in a manner similar to he. Theoretical implications for a critique of sexist language and prescribing generic pronoun usage are considered.
Considerable evidence suggests that, although generic terms (he, his, man, men) may be intended to refer to both women and men, they are often interpreted literally and thus function to exclude women. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that readers' sensitivity to and literal interpretation of gender references in prose can affect performance in a memory task. Collegestudent subjects read essays that were identical except for the use of generic terms versus those that specifically include women (he/she, his/her, people). In Experiment I, the Generic essay form led to better recall of the essay's factual content by male subjects, while the Specific form produced better recall by females. A similar pattern was found for female subjects in Experiment 2. In both experiments, effects were stronger for good learners. Results suggest that Generic and Specific styles are more relevant to men and women, respectively, and that the observed differences in recall may be mediated by differences in interpretation and interest based on perceived relevance.
Women are assumed to show a self-ascribed lack-of-fit to leadership positions compared to men (Heilman Research in Organizational
Behavior 5:269–298, 1983). The present study examined whether this gender difference would diminish when agency is accounted
for and whether a stimulus person’s gender would alter women’s self-ascribed fit. German management students (91 women, 95
men) received a fictitious recruitment advertisement for a leadership position that portrayed a man, a woman, or both a man
and a woman. Participants indicated their perceptions of agency and suitability to the advertised position. As predicted,
women judged themselves as less suitable for the leadership position than men and participants’ self-reported agency mediated
this effect. Furthermore, all participants felt most suitable if a male and a female stimulus person were portrayed.
This study meta-analytically tested hypotheses concerning factors that affect sex discrimination in simulated employment contexts. These hypotheses, derived from the social psychological literature on stereotyping, predicted that salience of applicant sex, job sex-type, sex of rater, and amount of job-relevant information would affect discrimination against female and male applicants. Generally, the hypotheses concerning job sex-type and job-relevant information were supported. Female and male applicants received lower ratings when being considered for an opposite-sex-type job, and the difference between ratings of males and females decreased as more job-relevant information was provided. However, ratings of males and females did not differ as hypothesized in regard to salience of sex and rater sex. The research and practice implications of these results are discussed.
Three studies assessed whether a common cultural practice, namely, the use of gender-exclusive language (e.g., using he to indicate he or she), is experienced as ostracism at the group level by women. Women responded to the use of gender-exclusive language (he) during a mock job interview with a lower sense of belonging, less motivation, and less expected identification with the job compared to others exposed to gender-inclusive (he or she) or gender-neutral ( one) language (Studies 1 and 2). Moreover, the more emotionally disengaged women became over the course of a job interview upon hearing gender-exclusive language, the less motivation and job identification they subsequently reported (Study 3). Together, these studies show that subtle linguistic cues that may seem trivial at face value can signal group-based ostracism and lead members of the ostracized group to self-select out of important professional environments.
Social dominance theory (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999) contends that institutional-level mechanisms exist that reinforce and perpetuate existing group-based inequalities, but very few such mechanisms have been empirically demonstrated. We propose that gendered wording (i.e., masculine- and feminine-themed words, such as those associated with gender stereotypes) may be a heretofore unacknowledged, institutional-level mechanism of inequality maintenance. Employing both archival and experimental analyses, the present research demonstrates that gendered wording commonly employed in job recruitment materials can maintain gender inequality in traditionally male-dominated occupations. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated the existence of subtle but systematic wording differences within a randomly sampled set of job advertisements. Results indicated that job advertisements for male-dominated areas employed greater masculine wording (i.e., words associated with male stereotypes, such as leader, competitive, dominant) than advertisements within female-dominated areas. No difference in the presence of feminine wording (i.e., words associated with female stereotypes, such as support, understand, interpersonal) emerged across male- and female-dominated areas. Next, the consequences of highly masculine wording were tested across 3 experimental studies. When job advertisements were constructed to include more masculine than feminine wording, participants perceived more men within these occupations (Study 3), and importantly, women found these jobs less appealing (Studies 4 and 5). Results confirmed that perceptions of belongingness (but not perceived skills) mediated the effect of gendered wording on job appeal (Study 5). The function of gendered wording in maintaining traditional gender divisions, implications for gender parity, and theoretical models of inequality are discussed.
One possible reason for the continued neglect of statistical power analysis in research in the behavioral sciences is the inaccessibility of or difficulty with the standard material. A convenient, although not comprehensive, presentation of required sample sizes is provided. Effect-size indexes and conventional values for these are given for operationally defined small, medium, and large effects. The sample sizes necessary for .80 power to detect effects at these levels are tabled for 8 standard statistical tests: (1) the difference between independent means, (2) the significance of a product-moment correlation, (3) the difference between independent rs, (4) the sign test, (5) the difference between independent proportions, (6) chi-square tests for goodness of fit and contingency tables, (7) 1-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and (8) the significance of a multiple or multiple partial correlation.
A role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders proposes that perceived incongruity between the female gender role and leadership roles leads to 2 forms of prejudice: (a) perceiving women less favorably than men as potential occupants of leadership roles and (b) evaluating behavior that fulfills the prescriptions of a leader role less favorably when it is enacted by a woman. One consequence is that attitudes are less positive toward female than male leaders and potential leaders. Other consequences are that it is more difficult for women to become leaders and to achieve success in leadership roles. Evidence from varied research paradigms substantiates that these consequences occur, especially in situations that heighten perceptions of incongruity between the female gender role and leadership roles.
Stereotype research emphasizes systematic processes over seemingly arbitrary contents, but content also may prove systematic. On the basis of stereotypes' intergroup functions, the stereotype content model hypothesizes that (a) 2 primary dimensions are competence and warmth, (b) frequent mixed clusters combine high warmth with low competence (paternalistic) or high competence with low warmth (envious), and (c) distinct emotions (pity, envy, admiration, contempt) differentiate the 4 competence-warmth combinations. Stereotypically, (d) status predicts high competence, and competition predicts low warmth. Nine varied samples rated gender, ethnicity, race, class, age, and disability out-groups. Contrary to antipathy models, 2 dimensions mattered, and many stereotypes were mixed, either pitying (low competence, high warmth subordinates) or envying (high competence, low warmth competitors). Stereotypically, status predicted competence, and competition predicted low warmth.
This review demonstrates that the physical attractiveness stereotype established by studies of person perception is not as strong or general as suggested by the often-used summary phrase what is beautiful is good. Although subjects in these studies ascribed more favorable personality traits and more successful life outcomes to attractive than unattractive targets, the average magnitude of this beauty-is-good effect was moderate, and the strength of the effect varied considerably from study to study. Consistent with our implicit personality theory framework, a substantial portion of this variation was explained by the specific content of the inferences that subjects were asked to make: The differences in subjects' perception of attractive and unattractive targets were largest for indexes of social competence; intermediate for potency, adjustment, and intellectual competence; and near zero for integrity and concern for others. The strength of the physical attractiveness stereotype also varied as a function of other attributes of the studies, including the presence of individuating information.
G*Power (Erdfelder, Faul, & Buchner, 1996) was designed as a general stand-alone power analysis program for statistical tests commonly used in social and behavioral research. G*Power 3 is a major extension of, and improvement over, the previous versions. It runs on widely used computer platforms (i.e., Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Mac OS X 10.4) and covers many different statistical tests of the t, F, and chi2 test families. In addition, it includes power analyses for z tests and some exact tests. G*Power 3 provides improved effect size calculators and graphic options, supports both distribution-based and design-based input modes, and offers all types of power analyses in which users might be interested. Like its predecessors, G*Power 3 is free.
This paper focuses on the workplace consequences of both descriptive gender stereotypes (designating what women and men are like) and prescriptive gender stereotypes (designating what women and men should be like), and their implications for women's career progress. Its central argument is that gender stereotypes give rise to biased judgments and decisions, impeding women's advancement. The paper discusses how descriptive gender stereotypes promote gender bias because of the negative performance expectations that result from the perception that there is a poor fit between what women are like and the attributes believed necessary for successful performance in male gender-typed positions and roles. It also discusses how prescriptive gender stereotypes promote gender bias by creating normative standards for behavior that induce disapproval and social penalties when they are directly violated or when violation is inferred because a woman is successful. Research is presented that tests these ideas, considers specific career consequences likely to result from stereotype-based bias, and identifies conditions that exaggerate or minimize the likelihood of their occurrence.
This contribution focuses on women in leadership positions. We propose that two convictions are relevant to the effects of having women in high places. On the one hand, women as a group are expected to employ different leadership styles than men, in this way adding diversity to management teams. On the other hand, individual women are expected to ascend to leadership positions by showing their ability to display the competitiveness and toughness typically required from those at the top. We posit that both convictions stem from gendered leadership beliefs, and that these interact with women's self-views to determine the effectiveness of female leaders. We develop an integrative model that explains the interplay between organizational beliefs and individual-self definitions and its implications for female leadership. We then present initial evidence in support of this model from two recent programs of research. The model allows us to connect “glass cliff” effects to “queen bee” effects showing that both relate to the perceived salience of gender in the organization, as well as individual gender identities. Each of these phenomena may harm future career opportunities of women, be it as individuals or as a group. We outline how future research may build on our proposed model and examine its further implications. We also indicate how the model may offer a concrete starting point for developing strategies to enhance the effectiveness of women in leadership positions.
Children's occupational interests and their perceptions of the divergent occupational successes of women and men reflect cultural gender norms. Since language is a vehicle for transporting gender cues and gender norms, we tested the premise that children's perceptions of stereotypically male jobs can be influenced by the linguistic form used to present an occupational title. Three experiments with 809 primary school students suggest that occupations presented in pair form (e.g., Ingenieurinnen und Ingenieure, female and male engineers), compared to descriptions using the generic masculine form (e.g., Ingenieure), generally increase the mental accessibility of female jobholders, promote more gender-balanced perceptions of the success of males and females, and strengthen girls' interest in stereotypically male occupations.
When interested in examining psychological hypotheses preceding data gathering especially in designs with more than two groups the standard ANOVA approach does not represent a very satisfying testing strategy. In these cases the statistical hypotheses actually tested are linked only loosely to the psychological hypothesis under scrutiny. In order to link both kinds of hypotheses more closely, the statistical hypotheses should be derived from the psychological one. These derived statistical hypotheses refer to contrasts a priori, which are constructed in order to conform with the predictions. Accordingly, the method of planned contrasts as a versatile alternative avoiding the shortcomings of the common ANOVA approach is chosen, and its advantages for testing a priori hypotheses are demonstrated. Examples are provided to show how to examine psychological hypotheses by means of the proposed testing strategy where these hypotheses refer to two independent (e.g. age and an experimental variable) and one (or more) dependent variable(s) and enabling predictions within and across age groups.
Three experiments investigated how grammatical gender and gender stereotypicality influence the way person information is mentally represented. Participants read sentences about social groups denoted by nouns with different grammatical gender and stereotypicality. A following sentence contained a reference to the social group that qualified the group members as female, male, or neither one. Experiment 1 tested grammatically masculine nouns; Experiment 2 tested gender-balanced forms, composed of the masculine and the feminine or neither one; and Experiment 3 tested nouns without gender inflection. Stereotypicality varied within studies. Second sentence reading times differed depending on the fit between grammatical gender and stereotypicality of the first sentence’s subject and the subsequent information’s gender-relatedness. Both grammatical gender and stereotypicality contribute biological gender information to mentally represented person information. Strong grammatical input may override stereotypicality’s influence. The feminine’s influence seems to be weaker than the masculine’s. Results are discussed in the framework of the scenario mapping and focus approach.
Zusammenfassung: Die vorliegende Untersuchung pruft, ob sogenannte “generisch” (d.h. in geschlechtsneutralem Sinne verwendete) maskuline Sprachformen dazu fuhren, dass Personen geschlechtsausgewogen mental reprasentiert werden. Unter dem Vorwand einer Untersuchung zur Kreativitat wurden 150 studentischen Versuchspersonen schriftlich Satze vorgegeben, die eine Personenbezeichnung im Plural in verschiedenen Sprachformen (generisches Maskulinum, Binnen-I, Schragstrich-Schreibweise) als Satzsubjekt enthielten. Die Versuchspersonen sollten kurze Geschichten uber die bezeichneten Personen schreiben und diese Personen dabei auch namentlich benennen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass generisch maskuline Formen zu mehr Reprasentationen mannlicher Personen fuhrten als die sprachlichen Alternativen. Eine Gleichverteilung mannlicher und weiblicher Reprasentationen trat ausschlieslich bei der Verwendung der Schragstrich-Schreibweise auf, wohingegen das generische Maskulinum zu einem hoheren Anteil reprasentierter Manner, di...
Contrasts are statistical procedures for asking focused questions of data. Researchers, teachers of research methods and graduate students will be familiar with the principles and procedures of contrast analysis included here. But they, for the first time, will also be presented with a series of newly developed concepts, measures, and indices that permit a wider and more useful application of contrast analysis. This volume takes on this new approach by introducing a family of correlational effect size estimates. By returning to these correlations throughout the book, the authors demonstrate special adaptations in a variety of contexts from two group comparison to one way analysis of variance contexts, to factorial designs, to repeated measures designs and to the case of multiple contrasts.
This study examines the role of gender stereotypes in justifying the social system by maintaining the division of labor between the sexes. The distribution of the sexes in 80 occupations was predicted from participants’ beliefs that six dimensions of gender-stereotypic attributes contribute to occupational success: masculine physical, feminine physical, masculine personality, feminine personality, masculine cognitive, and feminine cognitive. Findings showed that, to the extent that occupations were female dominated, feminine personality or physical attributes were thought more essential for success; to the extent that occupations were male dominated, masculine personality or physical attributes were thought more essential. Demonstrating the role of gender stereotypes in justifying gender hierarchy, occupations had higher prestige in that participants believed that they required masculine personality or cognitive attributes for success, and they had higher earnings to the extent that they were thought to require masculine personality attributes.
Summary : Occupational self-efficacy as a function of grammatical gender in French
The participants of this study, two hundred fifty French pupils aged fourteen and fifteen years, had to estimate their degree of self-efficacy toward various occupations. According to the experimental condition, occupations were presented only with the male grammatical gender [e.g., enseignant] or with the feminine grammatical gender [e.g., enseignant(e)]. Results obtained in this study indicate that, on average, pupils reported significantly more self-efficacy when occupations were presented with the feminine grammatical gender. Implications of this result are discussed with regard to the lack of the feminine grammatical gender in French for the most prestigious occupations.
Keys words : Androcentric bias, grammatical gender, self-efficacy.
This chapter focuses on the implications of both the descriptive and prescriptive aspects of gender stereotypes for women in the workplace. Using the Lack of Fit model, we review how performance expectations deriving from descriptive gender stereotypes (i.e., what women are like) can impede women's career progress. We then identify organizational conditions that may weaken the influence of these expectations. In addition, we discuss how prescriptive gender stereotypes (i.e., what women should be like) promote sex bias by creating norms that, when not followed, induce disapproval and social penalties for women. We then review recent research exploring the conditions under which women experience penalties for direct, or inferred, prescriptive norm violations.
Many studies have demonstrated that interpersonally oriented leadership abilities such as being empathetic, supporting work relationships, or explicitly stating an interest in helping others are particularly relevant in crisis contexts. Since these leadership abilities coincide with stereotypically feminine roles and traits, it has been proposed that a “think crisis–think female” association may exist (Ryan, Haslam, Hersby, & Bongiorno, 2011). In a field study (N = 301 workers and managers) we examined this association and identified two relevant factors that may hinder the acceptance of female leaders and stereotypically feminine characteristics in crisis management: instrumental (male) leadership role models and sexist attitudes. In doing so, we provide new insights into the “think crisis–think female” relationship and illustrate the potential implications of this occurrence for gender studies and for research into work and organizational psychology.
Demonstrates that the physical attractiveness stereotype established by studies of person perception is not as strong or general as suggested by the often-used summary phrase
what is beautiful is good. Although Ss in these studies ascribed more favorable personality traits and more successful life outcomes to attractive than unattractive targets, the average magnitude of this beauty-is-good effect was moderate, and the strength of the effect varied considerably from study to study. Consistent with the authors' implicit personality theory framework, a substantial portion of this variation was explained by the specific content of the inferences that Ss were asked to make: The differences in Ss' perception of attractive and unattractive targets were largest for indexes of social competence; intermediate for potency, adjustment, and intellectual competence; and near zero for integrity and concern for others. The strength of the physical attractiveness stereotype also varied as a function of other attributes of the studies, including the presence of individuating information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Argues that occupational sex bias is not inevitable nor invariable and presents a "lack of fit" model to describe the dynamics of sex bias and the conditions that prompt and support its occurrence in organizational settings. The model uses a single principle to explain how both self-directed sex bias (self-limiting behavior) and other-directed sex bias (discrimination) operate before and after a woman's entry into an organization. Areas considered include selection, evaluation, and causal explanations of success. A review of the literature demonstrates the integrative capacity of the model, and consideration of the model's implications illustrates its practical utility in furthering organizational change to reduce sex bias in the workplace. (71 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
113 working men and women were presented with the work history of an assistant vice president (AVP) of a midsized corporation who was either an attractive or unattractive male or female. Additionally, the AVP's rise to the senior ranks was depicted as either unusually rapid or normative in pace. Ss read the material and answered an attributional questionnaire. Results indicate that, as predicted, attractiveness had different effects on the degree to which the AVP's success was attributed to ability depending on whether the AVP was male or female: Males' ability attributions were enhanced and females' ability attributions were detrimentally affected by their good looks. Also as expected, capability judgments followed a similar pattern. Appearance was additionally shown to have different consequences for males and females when likeability and interpersonal integrity were rated. However, contrary to predictions, the rapidity of corporate ascent did not interact with appearance or sex in affecting attributions about or impressions of the stimulus AVPs. Conceptual and practical implications are discussed. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Three studies examined how a woman's reaction to a man's benevolently sexist offer of help affected observers' perceptions. Results suggest a dilemma for women: A woman who accepted benevolently sexist help was perceived as warm but incompetent and less suited for a competence-related job (management consultant), whereas a woman who declined help and asserted her independence as a woman was perceived as competent but cold and less suited for a warmth-related job (day care worker). By contrast, observers viewed the male help-offerer especially favorably (warmer, more competent, and more qualified as a management consultant) when the female target accepted (versus confronted) his patronizing offer. But only perceivers who endorsed benevolent sexism showed these effects. Implications for challenging benevolent sexism are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Gender stereotypes regarding task competence may lead perceivers to set different standards for diagnosing competence in women versus men. Specifically, stereotypes may prompt lower minimum standards (or initial screening criteria) but higher confirmatory standards for women than men (Biernat & Kobrynowicz, 1997). In two studies simulating hiring decisions, predictions were that women would be (1) more likely than men to make a short list for a job but (2) less likely than men to be hired for the same job. Results were generally consistent with predictions only among female participants (Studies 1 and 2), among those exposed to a female experimenter (Study 1), and among those held accountable for their decisions (Study 2). The role of motivational factors in the setting of standards is discussed.
The function and potential importance of statistical tests in examining and evaluating substantive and psychological hypotheses is discussed. Psychological hypotheses are sharply distinguished from statistical hypotheses. Decisions on statistical hypotheses must be separated from decisions on psychological hypotheses. Some differences between both kinds of hypotheses are addressed, and the question is attacked whether they are complementary or not. The answer to this question is negative. The use of the modus tollens in theory corroboration is discussed and it is argued that evaluations of substantive hypotheses always is accompanied by some inductive aspects. A further reason for the discontent with statistical tests is identified: Most of these tests are rather insensitive the differential patterns of predictions and of data, whereas differential patterns of data can be derived from nearly every psychological hypothesis or theory. To test for these differential patterns statistical tests should be applied thoughtfully, not routinely. Keywords: Examination of psychological hypotheses, statistical tests as a decision rule, discontent with statistical tests, modus tollens 1 I thank E. Heise, A. Iseler and H. Westmeyer for their many helpful comments, and Shirley McCarthy for improving my English. The remaining mistakes are mine.
Two studies are reported which indicate that both sex-biased wording in job advertisements and the placement of help-wanted ads in sex-segregated newspaper columns discourage men and women from applying for “opposite-sex” jobs for which they might well be qualified. Both studies were originally conducted and presented as part of legal testimony in actual sex discrimination cases.
Working moms risk being reduced to one of two subtypes: homemakers—viewed as warm but incompetent, or female professionals—characterized as competent but cold. The current study ( N= 122 college students) presents four important findings. First, when working women become mothers, they trade perceived competence for perceived warmth. Second, working men don't make this trade; when they become fathers, they gain perceived warmth and maintain perceived competence. Third, people report less interest in hiring, promoting, and educating working moms relative to working dads and childless employees. Finally, competence ratings predict interest in hiring, promoting, and educating workers. Thus, working moms' gain in perceived warmth does not help them, but their loss in perceived competence does hurt them.
Previous research has shown that experimenter-presented masculine generics can create male bias in the gender content of subjects' imagery. The present study tests experimentally whether subjects' own use of masculine generics has a similar effect on their imagery. College student subjects were induced to complete sentence fragments using masculine or unbiased generics, then asked to describe their imagery for each sentence and to give a first name to fit the person they visualized for each sentence. These dependent measures were coded for gender, and as predicted, analysis of variance showed that male bias was higher in the masculine generic condition than in the unbiased condition. Also as predicted, male subjects were more male-biased overall than were female subjects. The findings are discussed in terms of linguistic relativity (the proposition that language can shape thought), prototypicality (the most typical he is probably a man), and activation of multiple meanings (he has male-specific and gender-neutral denotations, and both may be activated even when the gender-neutral meaning is intended).
Existent research, mostly carried out among North American college students has shown that male words (man, he, his) intended to refer grammatically to both sexes (i.e., generically) are in fact androcentric in various ways. Using a “proactive inhibition” procedure, we tested for androcentrism in the memory code of man and his by language users who were sampled randomly from a New Zealand school population between 11 and 17 years of age (n = 408). It was found that the words man and his were coded in memory primarily as members of the masculine linguistic category, and that they were quite alien to the feminine linguistic category. The results provide a linguistic-cognitive link for understanding androcentrism in these words.
This study reports a meta-analysis of experimental investigations of the effects of applicant gender (1842 subjects across 19 studies) and qualifications (1767 subjects across 20 studies) on hiring recommendations. It was found that (1) males were preferred over females, thou