Article

Combatting gender discrimination: A lack of fit framework

August 2018
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 21(5):725-744

Authors:

New York University

Gender inequalities in the workplace persist, and scholars point to gender discrimination as a significant contributor. As organizations attempt to address this problem, we argue that theory can help shed light on potential solutions. This paper discusses how the lack of fit model can be used by organizations as a framework to understand the process that facilitates gender discrimination in employment decisions and to identify intervention strategies to combat it. We describe two sets of strategies. The first is aimed at reducing the perception that women are not suited for male-typed positions. The second is aimed at preventing the negative performance expectations that derive from this perception of unsuitability from influencing evaluative judgments. Also included is a discussion of several unintentional consequences that may follow from enacting these strategies. We conclude by arguing for the importance of the interplay between theory and practice in targeting gender discrimination in the workplace.

Exploring the relationship between tokenism and gender quotas through the concept of embedded gender images Women in the German Automotive Industry On Career Paths toward Top Positions Acknowledgments and Appreciations

Thesis

Full-text available

Jun 2020

Mona Dr. Haug

This study aims to explain the continued relative absence of female managers in top positions, within the context of the current legally binding gender-quota debate in Germany. This study uses the concept of embedded gender images, rooted in a historical, cultural, and societal context, to explore the relationship between tokenism and gender quotas. To support this investigation, insights from research on stereotypes, barriers, and bias are incorporated into a discussion of the relationship between tokenism and gender quotas through the concept of embedded gender images.

Modeling of career entry barriers for women in male dominated occupations: A case of Indian railways

Article

Aug 2022

Purpose This study aims to identify, prioritize and establish the relationship among the set of career entry barriers of women employed in the male dominated occupations. It addresses the following research questions: What are the key barriers that restrict the career entry of women in male dominated occupations? Which are the most significant barriers and how these barriers are related to each-other? Methodology A literature review method was used to identify the career entry barriers that was further validated through semi-structured interviews of women employed in the Indian railways. The interpretive structural modeling (ISM) method was used to establish a hierarchical relationship among the set of identified barriers. The Matrice d'Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée á un Classement (MICMAC) analysis was administered to classify the barriers based on their driving and dependence power. Findings A set of eleven career entry barriers are found crucial for restricting women's career entry in the male dominated occupations. Three barriers namely ‘social norms’, ‘organizational policies and procedures’ and ‘job description’ emerged as the most influential barriers. Therefore, any action performed on these barriers can have a multiplier effect on the remaining barriers identified in this study. The ISM model helped in asserting the inter-linkage among the career entry barriers that dampen the participation and attractiveness among women to enter such occupations. Practical implications The proposed ISM model for interaction and ranking of barriers can provide the academicians, practitioners, and policymakers a more realistic representation of the reasons for the negligible ratio of women in the male dominated occupations. Gender and discrimination theories can validate the findings of this study using case study method. The findings will be beneficial as it promotes more studies of similar nature in other divisions of Indian Railways as well as in the developing countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and other South Asian countries to find the commonality and differences. Practitioners can use ISM model and MICMAC analysis to better understand women's career entry barriers and explore as where to channelize their efforts and resources towards change in the organizational structure, system, and processes to facilitate women's ratio in the male dominated occupations. Originality A key contribution of this study is the development of a contextual relationship among identified set of career entry barriers. As per the researchers' knowledge, this study is one of the first attempts to provide a hierarchical relationship among the career entry barriers from the world's fourth-largest railway network context (Ministry of Railways, 2021).

A large‐scale field experiment on occupational gender segregation and hiring discrimination

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2022

We analyze the relationship between occupational gender composition and gender discrimination in recruitment and investigate whether there is hiring discrimination against men in female‐dominated occupations. We do this with a large‐scale field experiment where we submitted more than 12,000 job applications for 12 occupations in Australia, varying the gender of the applicants. Men received around 50% more callbacks than women in male‐dominated occupations, while they received over 40% fewer callbacks in female‐dominated occupations.

Exploring the use of gender-fair language by influencers

Article

Jul 2023

Purpose Explore the use of Gender-Fair Language (GFL) by influencers on Instagram. Design/methodology/approach The clustering methodology. A digital Bag-of-Words (BoW) Method called GFL Clustering BoW Methodology to identify whether an inclusive marketing (IM) strategy can be used. Thus, this research has a methodological and practical contribution to increasing the number of marketing technology tools. Findings This study is original as it proposes an inclusive digital marketing strategy and contributes with methods associated with digital transfers in order to improve marketing strategies, tactics and operations for inclusive content with a data integrity approach. Research limitations/implications Due to the limitations of the application programming interface (API) of the social network Instagram, a limited number of text data were used, which allowed for retrieving the last 12 publications of each studied profile. In addition, it should be considered that this study only includes the Spanish language and is applied to a sample of influencers from Chile. Practical implications The practical contribution of this study will lead to a key finding for the definition of communication strategies in both public and private organizations. Originality/value The originality of this work lies in its attractive implications for nonprofit and for-profit organizations, government bodies and private enterprises in the measurement of the success of campaigns with an IM communicational strategy and to incorporate inclusive and non-sexist content for their consumers so as to contribute to society.

Gendered Mental Labor: A Systematic Literature Review on the Cognitive Dimension of Unpaid Work Within the Household and Childcare

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2023
SEX ROLES

With this literature review, we provide a systematic overview on and working definition of mental labor in the context of unpaid work—an inherent cognitive component of daily routines primarily related to domestic or childcare tasks. Our methodology followed PRISMA guidelines, and 31 full-text articles were included. Articles were peer-reviewed and published in social science, sociological, and psychological journals. The studies applied quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches including, interviews, online surveys, observations of family routines, time estimates, and experiments. The samples covered a wide age range, consisting mostly of U.S. American or European middle-class women and men (married or in a relationship). Predominantly, the articles show that women perform the larger proportion of mental labor, especially when it comes to childcare and parenting decisions. Further, women experience more related negative consequences, such as stress, lower life and relationship satisfaction, and negative impact on their careers. We offer an integrative theoretical perspective to explain the gendered distribution of mental labor and cognitive load. We consider theoretical and practical implications of these findings for reducing gender inequality in mental labor in the context of unpaid work within the household and childcare.

Language and gender: Computerized text analyses predict gender ratios from organizational descriptions

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2023

Previous research has shown that language in job adverts implicitly communicates gender stereotypes, which, in turn, influence employees’ perceived fit with the job. In this way, language both reflects and maintains a gender segregated job market. The aim of this study was to test whether, and how, language in organizational descriptions reflects gender segregation in the organizations by the use of computational text analyses. We analyzed large Swedish companies’ organizational descriptions from LinkedIn (N = 409), testing whether the language in the organizational descriptions is associated with the organizations’ employee gender ratio, and how organizational descriptions for organizations with a majority of women and men employees differ. The statistical analyses showed that language in the organizational descriptions predicted the employee gender ratio in organizations well. Word clouds depicting words that differentiate between organizations with a majority of women and men employees showed that the language of organizations with a higher percentage of women employees was characterized by a local focus and emphasis on within-organizations relations, whereas the language of organizations with a higher percentage of men employees was characterized by an international focus and emphasis on sales and customer relations. These results imply that the language in organizational descriptions reflects gender segregation and stereotypes that women are associated with local and men with global workplaces. As language communicates subtle signals in regards to what potential candidate is most sought after in recruitment situations, differences in organizational descriptions can hinder underrepresented gender groups to apply to these jobs. As a consequence, such practices may contribute to gender segregation on the job market.

Percepción de habilidades en la figura del directivo y disposición a ocupar el cargo por parte de los trabajadores. Análisis de diferencias por género

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2022

Abstract This study tracks the skills and aptitudes that workers believe their managers possess, as well as their aspirations to be promoted to these positions, paying attention to detecting the differences that may exist between genders. The methodology employed uses the survey and multiple correspondence analysis as tools, in order to reveal the characteristics of the managers and the proposals made by the respondents in areas such as selection and remuneration. The study concludes that the majority recognize in their managers qualities such as leadership, influence, emotional intelligence and ease of communication. Likewise, the workers are willing to occupy managerial positions, although with differences depending on gender, both in terms of remuneration and performance. Resumen Este estudio rastrea las capacidades y aptitudes que los trabajadores estiman que ostentan sus directivos, así como las aspiraciones a promocionar a estos cargos, prestando atención a detectar las diferencias que puedan existir entre géneros. La metodología empleada utiliza como herramientas la encuesta y el análisis de correspondencias múltiples para determinar las características que presentan los directivos y las propuestas que plantean los encuestados en materias como la selección y la remuneración. Se concluye que de forma mayoritaria se reconocen en los directivos cualidades como liderazgo, influencia, inteligencia emocional y facilidad de comunicación. Igualmente, de forma mayoritaria, los trabajadores están dispuestos a ocupar cargos directivos, aunque con diferencias en función del género, tanto a nivel remunerativo como de desempeño.

Signaling Diversity Debt: Startup Gender Composition and the Gender Gap in Joiners’ Interest

Article

Nov 2022

The impact of culture on small tourism businesses’ access to finance: the moderating role of gender inequality

Article

Oct 2022

Access to finance to stay competitive is a salient challenge for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Few studies examine how cultures (i.e. social norms and customs) in different countries influence various channels for SMEs’ external financing (i.e. formal and informal). In particular, gender inequality, such as in terms of gender disparities in health, empowerment, and the labor market in each country, can bias lenders’ perspectives of female SME owners. By incorporating pecking order, information cost, and lack-of-fit theories, this study uses the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor dataset and other secondary datasets to investigate the impact of culture and gender inequality on tourism and hospitality SME owners’ access to formal and informal financing. The results show that cultures that are more masculine than feminine encourage both formal and informal financing; however, cultures with high power distance boost informal financing and hinder formal financing. In addition, gender inequality moderates these cultural influences on access to finance. This study contributes to the SME literature and provides insights for governments and policymakers.

The gender pay gap is smaller in occupations with a higher ratio of men: Evidence from a national panel study

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2022
PLOS ONE

Gender differences in career success are still an issue in society and research, and men typically earn higher incomes than women do. Building on previous theorizing and findings with the Theory of Gendered Organizations and the Theory of Tokenism, we used a large sample of the adult starting cohort in the German National Educational Panel Study and a multilevel approach to test how the interaction between gender and the gender ratio in occupations was associated with income. We wanted to know whether the male advantage in terms of income would be equal in magnitude across occupations (as suggested by the Theory of Gendered Organizations) or if it would vary with the gender ratio in occupations (as suggested by the Theory of Tokenism and reasoning regarding person-job fit), such that people benefit either (a) from resembling the majority of employees in a field by working in a gender-typical occupation or (b) from standing out by working in a gender-atypical occupation. Analyses supported the hypothesis that employees' incomes may benefit if they belong to the gender minority in an occupation, but this finding applied only to women. By contrast, men did not benefit from working in a gender-atypical occupation. Thus, women earned less than men earned overall, but the gender pay gap was smaller in occupations with a higher ratio of male employees. The findings can advance the understanding of gender-related career decisions for both employers and employees.

Managing Sport and Leisure ISSN: (Print) ( When a woman replaces a man: evaluating coach dismissal in professional tennis

Article

Jul 2023

Purpose: Previous research indicates gender discrimination in leadership positions. However, performance and not gender should be the key indicator when evaluating a leader. We examine the performance effect of changing from a female to a male coach and vice versa. Methodology: We analyze 1,093 Billie Jean King Cup singles matches from 2006 to 2016, with the match result as the dependent variable. First, we examine the very short-term effects arising from the change of a coach with a regression discontinuity design. Second, we evaluate the short-, medium-, and long-term performances. Findings: The results show that the gender of the new coach has no significant effect on performance. However, when a female coach succeeds another female coach, performance improves. This provides an argument in favor of female leadership. Practical Implications: Team managers should primarily focus on the quality of the coach instead of gender. The results also suggest that a continuum of female leadership is likely advantageous. Research Contribution: This paper contributes to the debate regarding the misrepresentation of women as head coaches and offers an avenue for further research. ARTICLE HISTORY

Virus for Women Employees: Exploring the Stereotypical Beliefs of the Leaders about their Female Followers

Article

Full-text available

May 2023

The never-ending gender discrimination in societies needs multidimensional exploration to understand its causes. Gender stereotyping has remained one of the foremost causes of gender discrimination in the workplace. This study strived to explore the stereotypical thinking and beliefs about women employees in the minds of their office leaders and discusses how these stereotypes play role in management of talent and performance of female employees. With the qualitative approach, this study has used hermeneutic phenomenology as the method of exploration. The data was collected with purposive sampling from managerial leaders, working in private companies whose followers include women employees. Nineteen in-depth interviews were conducted with a question designed from theory, expert and construct validity. The data were analyzed with multi-level coding and thematic analysis. The results revealed that managerial leaders have work-related, family-related and personal stereotypes about their female followers. They generalize that women employees are less ambitious, less professional, over occupied an emotional. They believe that they feel need to micromanage the females as they require more guidance. Those organizations that believe to maintain the diversity in employees should regularly organize training sessions to neutralize the stereotypes in the minds of their managers so that they could not hamper the progression of their female followers. Keywords: Stereotypical Beliefs; Female Followers; Leadership; Organizational Behavior

Organization barriers and social justice analysis of professional women in the workplace

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2023

The gender gap still poses a setback for women to advance their careers (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2015). Gender equality for working women and the issue of organization governance have continuously been debated as a social reality in the workplace. However, the discourse of equality and equity in the study of women and organizations often focuses on fairness in the sub-Saharan regions. The inability to adequately theorise women’s opportunities within the organization setting and from social justice perspective is problematic. Thus, discrimination based on gender in the workplace is deeply organizational and social if studied from the perspective of fairness and justice. Therefore, this paper problematizes the importance of gender equality from an organizational governance perspective and argues that the lack of mentoring and discrimination based on gender affects women working in a corporate organization in South Africa.

How do male nursing students' voluntary activities affect their image in society?

Article

Feb 2023
INT NURS REV

Aim: To determine the effect of male nursing students' voluntary activities on their image in society. Background: The role of voluntary nursing services in enhancing the visibility of nursing in society can also contribute to enhancing the image of male nurses in society. Methods: This study employed a one-group, quasi-experimental pre-post analysis design. It was carried out between September 2020 and June 2021 in the pedestrian zone, which is one of the main streets of Bartın in Turkey. Using a convenience sampling approach, tradesmen aged 18 and over operating in commercial enterprises (n = 81) were asked to participate in the study. Information form and Nursing Image Scale were used to collect the research data. Results from the paired sample t test were utilized to analyse the study's data using the intervention of 'men nursing students' voluntary activities'. Results: The total Nursing Image Scale score of the participants was statistically considerably greater after the intervention than the pre-intervention score. Based on the paired sample t test results, it was observed that the participants obtained higher scores after the intervention than before in the gender sub-dimension as well as all other sub-dimensions of the Nursing Image Scale, and these results were statistically significant. Conclusion: According to the findings of the study, volunteering by male nursing students improved both the profession of nursing and the perception of men in nursing in society. Implications for nursing/health policy: This study suggested that male nursing students' voluntary activities could be one of the strategies to overcome the nursing shortage due to its enhancing effect on the profession of nursing and the perception of men in nursing in society.

Female representation at the national level and women sport volunteering in European countries

Article

Jan 2023

This study examines the moderating effects of national female labor force participation, women in sport leadership positions, and female medalists in recent Olympic Games on women's probability to volunteer in sport. Based on social role theory and the similarity attraction paradigm, we predict that all three factors result in a higher probability of women to volunteer in sport, but with differences among age groups. Linear probability models before and after applying coarsened exact matching were estimated using data from the 2017 Eurobarometer (n = 18,529). The results show that women have a significantly lower probability to volunteer in sport in countries with high female labor force participation and a high share of women in leadership positions in sport organizations. The likelihood of women volunteering in sport is significantly higher in countries with a high share of female Olympic medalists. The age group‐specific analysis asking whether volunteering should be considered an investment in human capital by younger women and/or an acquisition of social capital by older women, reveals that a high presence of women among leaders in sport organizations and Olympic medalists is significantly positively correlated with the probability for young women to volunteer in sport. Managers and leaders of nonprofit sport organizations learn from our study that volunteering should be perceived as an investment in human capital by younger women rather than an attempt to acquire social capital by older women.

Citizen Participation in Realizing Gender Equality in Education And Development

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2022

This study aims to examine how the concept of citizen participation in realizing gender equality. The method used in this research was a literature study. The results of the study show that citizen participation in realizing gender equality is very important, participating in the education sector by seeking to create educational institutions that produce future leaders who do not discriminate against gender nor have a gender justice perspective. Citizens can participate in encouraging social inclusion in the classroom when learning process takes place, designing inclusive and gender sensitive-curricula as well as providing equal opportunities for men and women. Citizen participation in the field of development to realize gender equality can be carried out by planning and making development policies and implementing policies that provide equal opportunities without any gender discrimination. This research concludes that realizing the gender equality as a form of citizen rights requires participation of all citizens in various forms both in the fields of education and development.

Gender in Organizations

Chapter

Nov 2022

In the U.S., women represent an abysmally small number of Fortune 500 chief executive officers (CEOs) positions, and are generally absent from some of the highest status occupations and the highest echelons of leadership in almost every aspect of society. Scientific research has been brought to bear on this social problem, with the goal of building understanding, awareness, and change. In particular, psychological theory and evidence provide compelling documentation of the challenges that women encounter upon entering and navigating the workplace. The primary theoretical rationales used to explain gender disparities and challenges include social learning theory, social role theory, role congruity theory, lack of fit model, ambivalent sexism theory, and the stereotype content model. These theories emphasize the perceived misalignment between expectations of ideal workers or leaders and those of ideal women as a driver of workplace gender inequities that include women’s disadvantages in educational experiences, access to jobs and pay, leadership positions, sociobiological patterns, and caregiving demands. Workplace gender inequities in these areas can be remedied by implementing strategies for positive change such as empowering women, valuing feminine characteristics, creating equal opportunities, and changing workplace and societal cultures.

Towards Gender and Disability Inclusive Tourism Development in Zimbabwe: Insights Through Sustainable Development Goals

Chapter

Nov 2022

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal reference point to benchmark inclusive tourism development. However, there is scant scholarly attention on the intersectionality of gender parity and disability in the context of inclusive tourism development in developing countries in Africa. Using interpretive research methods, this chapter examines the progress that Zimbabwean tourism has made towards the achievement of gender equality and disability inclusion in tourism development through the broad precinct lens of Agenda 2030. Data were collected through document analysis and key informant interview techniques involving tourism stakeholders selected through purposive and snowball sampling. Findings show that significant progress has been made towards attaining gender equality through increased women’s representation on corporate boards and executive management levels in the tourism industry. However, the same cannot be said regarding the inclusivity of people with disabilities as they were found to be marginalised. Therefore, the application of the intersectionality perspective regarding the approach to gender and disability in tourism development in Zimbabwe is rather limited and is required. This chapter concludes that there is a mismatch between policy and practice, which continues to undermine and eclipse progress around the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and inclusive tourism development.KeywordsGenderDisabilityInclusive tourism developmentSustainable Development GoalsIntersectionalityZimbabwe

Gendered Impact of Caregiving Responsibilities on Tenure Track Faculty Parents’ Professional Lives

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2022
SEX ROLES

Navigating a career while raising a family can be challenging, especially for women in academia. In this study, we examine the ways in which professional life interruptions due to child caregiving (e.g., opportunities not offered, professional travel curtailed) affect pre- and post-tenure faculty members’ career satisfaction and retention. We also examine whether sharing caregiving responsibilities with a partner affected faculty members’ (particularly women’s) career outcomes. In a sample of 753 tenure track faculty parents employed at a large research-intensive university, results showed that as the number of professional life interruptions due to caregiving increased, faculty members experienced less career satisfaction and greater desire to leave their job. Pre-tenure women’s, but not pre-tenure men’s, career satisfaction and intention to stay were negatively affected when they experienced at least one professional life interference. Pre-tenure men’s desire to stay in their job and career satisfaction remained high, regardless of the number of professional life interferences they experienced. Sharing parenting responsibilities with a partner did not buffer the demands of caregiving on pre-tenure women’s career outcomes. Our work highlights the need to consider the varied ways in which caregiving affects faculty members’ careers, beyond markers such as publications, and how institutions can support early career stage women with family-friendly practices.

Gender discrimination of veterinary students and its impact on career aspiration: A mixed methods approach

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2022

Introduction: As the veterinary profession has become feminised, gender discrimination and its effects have been documented in practicing veterinary surgeons. However, research on gender discrimination experienced by veterinary students and its effects on recruitment and retention remains limited. This study aimed to increase understanding of veterinary students' experiences of gender discrimination and its impact on their career aspirations. Methods: A questionnaire including statements with Likert-style response options and free-text questions was distributed to students studying veterinary medicine and science at a UK veterinary school in September 2020 (28% response rate). Two focus groups were carried out following the questionnaire to gain a deeper insight into student experiences. Results: Gender discrimination in a veterinary setting had been experienced by 34% of respondents, the majority (77%) on animal husbandry placements. Female students were more likely to report that their experiences of gender discrimination affected their career aspirations. Seven themes were identified from both the questionnaire and focus group data: stereotyping of certain fields, gender inequality on placements, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex, plus (LGBTQI+) community, encouraging reporting behaviours, barriers to reporting, education and the placement allocation. Conclusions: This study highlighted that gender discrimination was prevalent during animal husbandry placements, although reporting was infrequent and perceived negatively by students. Recommendations on how veterinary schools and the wider veterinary profession can support veterinary students are made as an outcome of this work.

Unconscious bias in organizations: Discriminatory forces at work

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021

This special issue revolves around the topic of unconscious bias in organizations. The six articles included draw on diverse disciplinary, theoretical, and methodological approaches to show how unconscious bias play out in organizational settings and how they lead to various forms of discrimination. The articles contribute to the current bias literature by (1) elevating the idea of bias from individualist perspectives toward more contextual considerations, (2) drawing on multiple perspectives from different research fi elds and thereby creating a more interdisciplinary understanding, (3) considering unconscious and discriminatory gender bias in intersection with other markers of social inequality, and (4) by reframing current understandings of bias in organizations toward a more actionable and change-oriented perspective. To conclude, the special issue illustrates novel approaches to and discussions on the matter of investigating bias at the root of discrimination in organizations.

The Impact of Gender Discrimination on Workplace Environment and Job Satisfaction

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021

Gender discrimination is a concept that is ever explained by law in detail in the workplace. It describes unequal advantages or disadvantages to a group in consideration of another group in the workplace. Gender discrimination affects the employees rapidly discrimination factor reducing increased satisfaction, motivational level, commitment to the organization, and stress level, increasing the working capability of employees in the organization. Gender discrimination factor which is in public and private organizations. 155 female employees of EEFU Humaya Takaful, University of Agriculture, Orient group of Company, Haier Group Company, and Ali Gohar are selected with the help of convenience sampling. Current research proposes the three hypotheses for direct relation and on for the mediational effect. All the hypotheses are accepted and the organizational environment plays a partial mediator between gender discrimination and job satisfaction.

I am one of you! Team prototypicality as a facilitator for female leaders

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2022

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.

Gender Realities in Indian Railways

Chapter

Oct 2022

Leena Sachdeva

The issue of women’s under-representation in male-dominated occupations has been a topic of research for the last few decades. The extant literature has identified gender differences and social and structural discrimination based on a theoretical lens and sensitising concepts around which career barriers were experienced by women within a developed nation’s context (Eaton et al., 2020; French & Strachan, 2009; Hernandez & Ritchie, 2015; Miner et al., 2018). While there has been research on women in transport in developed countries, there has been little research on women employees’ career experiences within Indian Railways. To address this gap, this chapter explores the career barriers of women employed in male-dominated occupations within Indian Railways, in relation to gendered cultural norms. In-depth semi-structured interviews have been undertaken to understand the lived experiences of women employees. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis. The findings highlight the interplay of barriers such as gender roles, limited empowerment and occupational segregation, working conditions, lack of role models and mentors, backlash by men, queen-bee behaviour, beta career priorities and restricted informal networks that collectively restrict women in achieving senior level positions in such occupations.

Do Women Perceive a Payoff from Working without Pay? A Gender Comparison of Perceived Career Outcomes of Sport Volunteering

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2022

Gender equality among volunteers and in the labor market are essential for social sustainability. This study examines whether women value benefits of sport volunteering for their job market situation significantly differently than men. Based on signaling and social role theory, we hypothesize that women are more likely to value sport volunteering as a job market signal and as useful for career options than men. According to human capital and ecological systems theory, we hypothesize that this link depends on women’s age and national gender equality. An online survey targeting volunteers in European football clubs (in seven countries; n = 16,989) was conducted. Logistic regressions are estimated to analyze the factors affecting respondents’ agreement that sport volunteering ‘looks good on their CV’ or ‘allows to explore new career options’. The findings show that women are significantly more likely to value sport volunteering as a job market signal but are significantly less likely to explore new career options than men. While older women are significantly less likely to agree, women living in more gender equal countries are more likely to agree. Our findings indicate a link between the male dominance in sport volunteering and the job market, which is determined by social sustainability.

Interpersonal Influences on Interpretation of Workplace Sexual Harassment

Thesis

Full-text available

Jul 2020

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how women interpret and respond to incidents of sexual harassment at work, in the context of both their romantic relationships and workplace cultures. Incorporating Ambivalent Sexism Theory (Fiske & Glick, 1995) to measure sexist attitudes, I presumed that their own, their partners’ and their presumed workplace’s sexism scores for both subsets would be linked to the women’s perceptions and behavioral intentions in response to being sexually harassed at work. Participants were 145 heterosexual adult women, employed full-time and in self-defined committed heterosexual relationships. Each completed a survey that included the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI) (Fiske & Glick, 1995), the Sexual Harassment Reporting Attitudes Scale (SHRAS) (Cesario, Parks-Stamm, & Turgut, 2018), likelihood of reporting scenarios of sexual harassment (SH), and number of special peers in the workplace. There was additional demographic data about the participants and their workplaces, most of which was incorporated as covariates. Results supported several of the asserted relationships. Although the predicted relationships between participants’ and their perceived partners’ and workplace sexist attitudes with reporting SH did not emerge, there were many significant findings regarding these variables and their associations with intolerance for SH. The majority of this study’s findings emerged as significant, even when testing alongside covariates of education, organization size, organization type, and number of special peers in the workplace with the exception of perceived partner HS and intolerance for SH that were non-significant. Future research should explore disclosures exchanged regarding such incidents at work in the context of both romantic relationships and other social relationships in and out of work.

The Economics of Gender in China: Women, Work and the Glass Ceiling

Book

Full-text available

Aug 2022

Sisi Sung

China's rapid socio-economic development has achieved remarkable equalizing conditions between men and women in the aspects of health, education and labor force participation, but the glass ceiling phenomenon has become more prominent. The book develops a cross-disciplinary paradigm, with economics at its core, to better understand gender in China and women in management in the Chinese business context.

Intersectionalities of gender, ethnicity, and leadership in the narratives of Meranao women in the Philippines

Article

Aug 2022

Lynrose Jane Dumandan Genon

The study explores the intersections of gender and ethnicity as a point of inquiry in the emerging roles of Meranao women who work in the field of leadership. Drawing on qualitative interviews with seven Meranao women leaders in Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur, in The Philippines, this paper examines the multilayered issues and challenges these women face in their roles as leaders, as they leap into higher decision-making positions. I articulate the ideologies that shape their leadership experiences and their performative repertoires, and examine the ways in which they are able to perform their leadership roles given their opportunities and constraints. Finally, the study describes the agentic pathways the women traverse to effect leadership in Meranao politics and socio political development. Results show that intersectional approaches to investigating leadership, taking into account interconnected and overlapping factors of gender and ethnicity, can not only reveal the issues and challenges women leaders face, but also the individual agencies and strategies they use to overcome such constraints. The intersectionality approach challenges essentialist framings of leadership, and emphasizes an individual’s social location, as reflected in the intersecting identities of these Meranao women. This intersectionality, as I reveal, allows for the emergence of a negotiated form of leadership among women, which requires a delicate balance between meeting social expectations as women and fulfilling roles as leaders.

Masculinity contest culture and turnover intentions: The roles of work stress and coping styles

Article

Dec 2022
PERS INDIV DIFFER

Masculinity contest culture (MCC) is a dysfunctional organizational climate in which stereotypically masculine characteristics are honored and rewarded. Previous research found that MCC was positively related to turnover intentions, but potential individual differences in this association are unknown. We filled this gap by conducting a cross-sectional study among a convenience sample of Chinese working women and men (n = 687). The results showed that MCC was significantly associated with greater work stress. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses further revealed that work stress and emotion-focused coping (EFC) positively predicted turnover intentions, whereas problem-focused coping (PFC) negatively predicted it. Furthermore, PFC moderated the association between MCC and intention to leave. That is, for employees with stronger PFC, the positive link between MCC and turnover intentions weakened. Moreover, when work stress, coping strategy, age, and gender were included, MCC was no longer linked to turnover intentions; work stress and coping styles explained the largest amount of variance in turnover intentions. In summary, our study indicated that PFC is more adaptive to MCC than EFC. Thus, we suggest that organizations take measures to promote a healthy working climate, and provide training for managers and employees in optimal coping strategies.

When, Why, and For Whom is Receiving Help Actually Helpful? Differential Effects of Receiving Empowering and Non-Empowering Help Based on Recipient Gender

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2022
J APPL PSYCHOL

Helping is a foundational aspect of organizational life and the prototypical organizational citizenship behavior, with most research implicitly assuming that helping benefits its recipients. Despite this, when scholars focus on help recipients, the experience is depicted as somewhat aversive that may actually reduce recipient perceptions of competence. The result is a literature at odds as to whether receiving help is beneficial. Our thesis is that this is the wrong question on which to focus. Instead, we submit that more valuable insight can be gained by asking: “when is receiving help beneficial vs. not beneficial, and for whom?” Regarding when, we differentiate between receiving help that is empowering (i.e., offers tools to empower recipients to become more self-reliant) or non-empowering (i.e., offers only immediate, short-term solutions). Regarding for whom, we draw from theory and research on stereotype threat and benevolent sexism to explain why the help recipient’s gender is a critical moderator of the link between receiving non-empowering help specifically and competence perceptions. We present a multi-study “full-cycle” approach to test our hypotheses and understand the consequences of receiving empowering vs. non-empowering help in more depth. Combined, our results help shift the conversation as noted above, and identify important practical implications that speak to a larger discussion on systematic disadvantages for women at work.

Perceived misalignment of professional prototypes reduces subordinates' endorsement of sexist supervisors

Article

Jul 2022

Despite decades of efforts, many organizations still have sexist supervisors-those in supervisory positions who define their profession by primarily stereotypically masculine features. As a result of their "masculine" professional prototypes, sexist supervisors see their work as a "man's job" in which women cannot succeed. Research suggests that one problem posed by sexist supervisors is that they may pass their biased views on to subordinates who endorse them as leaders. To make this less likely, we test in two experiments (N = 1,879) a strategy to reduce subordinates' endorsement of sexist supervisors. We do this by encouraging subordinates to see themselves as low in perceived professional prototype alignment (PPPA)-the extent to which a subordinate perceives their supervisor to share their beliefs about what it means to be a member of their profession-with sexist supervisors. Specifically, encouraging subordinates' to hold less masculine, more "balanced" professional prototypes, in which they see stereotypically feminine attributes as equally important to the job as stereotypically masculine ones, reduces PPPA with sexist supervisors. Lowering PPPA, in turn, reduces supervisor endorsement, even after accounting for the effects of other established mechanisms of supervisor endorsement. This research sheds new light on the psychology of followership and offers a new way to curb gender bias from the bottom up. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

I will help you survive but not thrive: Helping decisions in situations that empower women

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2022

This research examines gender-based helping behavior from a social dominance perspective. We focused on the interplay between the gender of a prospective donor and the gender of the recipient in shaping donation decisions in contexts that either empower recipients or not. In two studies (N = 866), male (but not female) donors chose to donate less often (Study 2) and to give lower amounts (Studies 1–2) to women in need than to men when donations were made in a potentially empowering context – a business context (e.g., donating to a person whose shop burned down), than in a nonempowering context – a domestic context (e.g., donating to a person whose house burned down). Lack of empathy for the female recipient among men partially mediated this gender–donation bias effect (Study 2). These findings suggest that men are less likely to help women in situations that empower women and challenge the existing gender hierarchy.

The odd Woman out: An (in)congruity Analysis of Gender Stereotyping in Gender‐Dominant Public Sector Professions

Article

Jul 2023

Public sector professions are highly gender-dominant (e.g., police officers, teachers) and determined not only by professional but also by gender roles. According to the role congruity theory, these social roles result in perceived (in)congruities between the jobholders’ gender and gender-dominant professions. This research investigates this intersection for several professions. Throughout three large-scale surveys (conducted in Austria), we first document the gender-dominance of various public sector professions, and further analyze the effects from (in)congruities in gender-dominant professions. The findings are two-fold: First, for police officers, firefighters, politicians, nurses, and teachers, (in)congruities of job-holders gender with gender-dominance of the profession result in positive (negative) ascriptions of job-related traits. However, (in)congruity effects are not confirmed for other gender-dominant professions outside the public sector. Second, no (in)congruity effects are found for perceived professionalism. Findings are important for policymakers, as well as recruiters and employers who aim to reduce gender-related disadvantages within public sector employment.

Discrimination in a Rank Order Contest: Evidence from the NFL Draft

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2023

This paper examines discrimination in the NFL draft. The NFL is a favorable empirical setting to examine the role of skin color because franchise selectors are required to make rank-order judgements of players based on noisy signals of future productivity. Since wages are tightly related to the rank-order of the draft for the first four years of a player’s career, even if discrimination plays only a marginal role in selection, there could be a large discriminatory impact. We observe racial differences in drafting. However, much of the variation is explained by Black and White players selecting into different playing positions. Conditional upon a large set of control variables, including athletic performance at a marque selection event (the NFL combine), we do not find robust evidence of racial discrimination in NFL drafting between 2000 and 2018. However, we do find some evidence that Black players are disadvantaged relative to White players in later rounds of the draft.

COVID-19 job loss and re-employment among partnered parents: Gender and educational variations

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2023
J MARRIAGE FAM

Objective This study examines the re‐employment prospects and short‐term career consequences for mothers and fathers who lost their jobs during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Background The pandemic recession has been dubbed a “shecession,” but few studies have explored whether mothers paid a higher or lower price upon labor market re‐entry than fathers. Method This study draws on March 2020–December 2022 Current Population Survey data and focuses on partnered parents with children under age 13 in the household. Exploiting four‐month panels, we use multi‐level discrete‐time event history models to predict re‐employment and linear regression models to predict job‐level wage upon re‐employment, while controlling for a wide array of factors. Results Partnered fathers were more likely than partnered mothers to find re‐employment during the pandemic. The gender gap in re‐employment was concentrated only among parents without a bachelor's degree and persisted when all controls were held constant. Moreover, upon re‐employment, fathers had higher job‐level wages than mothers, which was consistent across educational levels. Even with the same job‐level wage before labor market exit, mothers were penalized on re‐entry relative to fathers and this penalty was rooted in gendered job segregation. Conclusion This study extends previous research by analyzing re‐employment and a critical material outcome for parents (i.e., job‐level wage upon re‐employment) during the entire pandemic, including the “new normal” (late 2022). The results reveal the intersectional inequalities in family and work: Compared to fathers, mothers, particularly less‐educated mothers, paid a higher price for their time out of work during the pandemic.

The role of women as change agents in a male-dominated context: Empirical findings from the transport and mobility industry

Article

Jun 2023
Work

Background: A variety of scholars deal with change agents' role within change processes and highlight their relevance as role models in an organisation, but there are shortcomings. Objective: This study aims to enhance our knowledge on the role of women as change agents in analysing their perceived self-efficacy during change and their job satisfaction as job-related dimension of wellbeing. Methods: We applied a mixed-method design, conducting two studies based on data from 71 specialists - change agents - working in the transport or mobility departments of seven local authorities participating in the H2020 CIVITAS SUITS project, from six different countries, Greece, Spain, Italy, Romania, United Kingdom, and Lithuania. Results: The first quantitative survey shows that female change agents may have to perceive higher levels of self-efficacy during organisational change to perceive similar levels of job satisfaction as men. The second qualitative study (focus groups) provides more in-depth explanations of these results. This allows us to derive managerial implications to prevent decreases in women's well-being and strengthen their resilience and health during change. Conclusion: This mixed-method study highlights the role of women as change agents, driving organisational change within male-dominated transport departments of local authorities. Our results show that female change agents need extra support in managing change processes within male-dominated contexts as the transport and mobility field to avoid a decrease in their perceived job satisfaction, their well-being and herewith, their physical and mental health.

Managerial influences on the inclusion of transgender and gender-diverse employees: A critical multi-method study

Article

Jun 2023

Robin C Ladwig

This article examined the work experiences of transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals concerning the organisational environment and managerial influence on their workplace inclusion. The qualitative multi-method study design included semi-structured online interviews with TGD workers ( n = 22); followed by an open-ended, photo-elicit questionnaire with organisational leaders and management personnel, including human resource management and career development practitioners ( n = 42), to evaluate their awareness and approach regarding the inclusion of TGD individuals. A critical grounded theory approach was applied to identify numerous enablers and barriers for TGD employees. Further analysis identified three impact areas of managers: building an inclusive organisational infrastructure, fostering a safe psychological environment and supporting diverse impression-fit management. The three managerial areas provide practical recommendations concerning language use, leadership style, work practices and arrangements that should be considered for increasing TGD workplace inclusion. JEL Classification M12, M14

Bildungs-und Berufswahlprozesse junger Frauen: MINT the Gap!

Research

Full-text available

Mar 2023

Studien und internationale Vergleiche verweisen auf die anhaltend hohe horizontale Geschlechtersegregation des österreichischen Arbeitsmarktes, also eine zahlenmäßige Dominanz von Frauen bzw. Männern in bestimmten Berufen und Berufsgruppen. Vor diesem Hintergrund wurden einerseits Faktoren identifiziert, die eine Ausbildungs- bzw. Berufswahl von jungen Frauen im MINT-Feld erschweren, andererseits (gestaltbare) Faktoren ermittelt, welche junge Frauen unterstützen (können), um einen MINT-verwandten Ausbildungsweg einzuschlagen. Dazu wurden rund 200 Studien und Erhebungen entlang inhaltlicher Kategorien einer systematischen Literaturanalyse unterzogen. Ziel war es, sowohl strukturelle Faktoren als auch die Akteur*innen- und individuelle Ebene zu erfassen, um ein umfassendes Bild von hinderlichen aber auch förderlichen Einflüssen auszuarbeiten. Ergänzend wurden neun qualitative Fokusgruppen unter Schülerinnen, Studentinnen und Lehrlingen im MINT-Bereich durchgeführt. Neben der allgemeinen Thematisierung von individuellen Beweggründen und Hindernissen bei der Berufs- bzw. Ausbildungswahl, wurde die Rolle Sozialer Medien fokussiert. Wie und mit welchen Effekten werden diese genutzt? Verstärken sie bereits vorhandene Berufswünsche oder dienen sie dem Einholen von sachlichen Informationen? Die Verschränkung der Literaturauswertung mit den Erkenntnissen aus den Fokusgruppen soll einen Einblick in die Ausbildungs- und Berufswahl von jungen Frauen im MINT-Bereich liefern, aber auch Impulse für Gestaltungsansätze bereitstellen, so dass sich Frauen und Männer im MINT-Feld gleichermaßen zugehörig fühlen.

The Role of Sex Segregation in the Gender Wage Gap Among University Graduates in Germany

Article

Feb 2023

In this paper we examine the gender wage gap among university graduates in Germany from 1997 to 2013 based on the DZHW (the German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies) Absolventenpanel. We focus in particular on the effect of female presence in a subject or occupation on wage inequality. Earlier research has shown not only that female-dominated university subjects or occupations pay less, but also that men face a higher wage penalty than women when they graduated in a female-dominated subject and experience a lower penalty for working in a female-dominated occupation. For the five waves considered, we confirm the very strong negative association between female presence in a subject or occupation and wages. However, no consistent pattern emerges with regard to whether men’s or women’s wages suffer larger penalties. There is also no time trend observable with regard to the wage penalty that is associated with female-dominated fields. We further show that significant gender wage gaps exist within fields of studies, especially in male-dominated fields like engineering and natural science.

Theoretical and Empirical Research on Gender and Leadership

Article

Jan 2019

René Lauck

The decade long story of gender equality and female empowerment: a case study of corporate disclosures in Saudi Arabia

Article

Jan 2023

Wafa Al-Nasrallah

Purpose This study deviates from the predominantly feminist/critical school of thought associated with existing gender studies to apply an interpretivist approach to investigate gender-reporting practices in Saudi Arabia, an Islamic country in the Gulf region and one of the fast-moving emerging economies both in the Middle East and globally. The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent of reporting on gender and the drivers behind this practice using the content analysis method. Design/methodology/approach This study contributes to the literature by adopting a rarely used three-lens conceptual framework to expand our understanding of reporting on gender in Saudi Arabia. Eleven companies were chosen based on their voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures in Saudi Arabia. The CSR and annual reports of selected companies were analysed using NVIVO Pro 11. Findings The results indicate that gender disclosures in the Saudi context are driven by legislation, location and international reporting frameworks. Although the number of disclosures increased over time, they were not adopted consistently and systematically because of their voluntary nature. Research limitations/implications The first limitation is the disadvantage associated with interpretivism related to the subjective nature of the investigation and room for bias, and hence, the results cannot be generalised. The second limitation is the sample size; future investigations may increase the sample size by including other service and manufacturing sector firms to have more comprehensive insights. Practical implications This study contributes to the literature by providing evidence suggesting that in Saudi Arabia, state legislation is the driving force behind reporting on gender issues. Although workplace disclosures dominate, companies are opening dialogues with other stakeholders (especially the community) by disclosing performance data, and thus emphasising their commitment to this social change. Social implications This empirical contribution to the CSR literature will provide rich historical and interpretive data on the emergence of gender transformation in society, and how that is reflected in corporate reports, thus, contributing to the understanding of the purpose of voluntary disclosures. Originality/value Employee-related disclosures in corporate reports are very common. However, issues such as diversity and equal opportunities tend to be overlooked. This study explores gender equality and female empowerment disclosures and practices in the emerging market of Saudi Arabia while focusing on whether the social, political and legal changes in Saudi Arabian society have affected these disclosures in corporate reports. There is a lack of qualitative analysis of gender disclosers globally and in emerging economies particularly.

Examining the effects of male candidates' gender nonconformity on employment decisions

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2022
ASIA PAC J HUM RESOU

Our research aimed to explore how interviewers perceive male candidates' gender nonconformity during job interviews and how job type may play a role in the process. Based on role congruity theory, we propose that male candidates' gender nonconformity negatively affects employment decisions through cognitive and affective processes (i.e. perceived expectancy violation and likability). Further, based on the literature on occupational gender stereotypes, we examined the moderating effect of job type on the above indirect process. We believe that the negative indirect effects of male candidates' gender nonconformity on employment decisions through perceived expectancy violation and likability will be weakened when interviewing for female‐dominated jobs compared with male‐dominated jobs. We found robust evidence consistent with our theoretical assertion using three independent between‐subjects experiments.

Doing gender equality and undoing gender inequality—A practice theory perspective

Article

Nov 2022

Anna Grzelec

Many of the efforts made by organizations to deal with gender inequalities fail to have the desired impact. This is not only because these efforts are undermined by individuals who disagree with them, nor because individuals do not perceive gender inequalities to be a problem. Rather, the issue is that gender equality practices may be embedded in an organizational context where other practices counteract gender equality. By means of a 17‐month‐long ethnographic study conducted at a technical university in Sweden, the interaction between gender equality practices and gender inequality practices has been identified. It is shown that gender equality practices are themselves based on either questionable assumptions (e.g., that increasing the number of women in senior roles will make a difference), or in an attempt to avoid blaming the victim, on reducing the salience of gendered categorization from which gendered inequalities can be adequately challenged. By focusing on the nexus of practices that move beyond equality work, two practices that undermine gender equality work have been identified, that is, a data‐driven approach to change work and a preference for simple solutions. The conclusion drawn alerts us to the fact that even practices that do not seem related to gender equality work can have an impact on the success or failure of the gender equality work of the organization. This in turn may imply that the institutionalized underpinnings of the organization need to be changed, for example, the belief that more data will help us to find more solutions, or that there are practices out there that can be implemented to wash away gender inequality.

An Alternative Procedure for Subgroup Analyses in the Think Manager–Think Male Paradigm

Article

Nov 2022

Matthew Lauritsen

Studies in the think manager–think male paradigm ( Schein, 1973 ) routinely observe gender–leader similarity variation across participant subgroups (e.g., men and women). The traditional use of intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) to measure similarity hinders researchers’ ability to fully understand the nature of these relationships. This article advocates for a regression framework ( Edwards, 1995 ), which avoids problems associated with ICCs. A think manager–think male study based on rating content from Fischbach et al. (2015) was conducted to demonstrate the advantages of this procedure. The results were then compared against the traditional ICC analysis. Overall, it is argued that a regression framework is more useful in testing hypotheses about the relationship between participant characteristics and gender–leader similarity than ICCs.

Barriers to Women’s Participation in Tourism Consumption in Anglophone Cameroon: An Intersectionality Perspective

Chapter

Nov 2022

Ndi Loveline

Tourism development in the English-speaking region of Cameroon has been negatively affected by the sociopolitical aspect and the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced a system where tourism services have been highly gendered due to their selective differential treatment of men, women, boys, and girls. These gendered differences are experienced in terms of accessibility and consumption of tourism and are based on cultural, economic, and social factors. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the challenges of inclusive tourism development in an English-speaking region of Cameroon, using a social disability perspective. A qualitative methodology that followed an analytic methodology was used to collect data through face-to-face interviews, participant observations, and document analysis. Challenges to developing inclusive tourism accessibility and consumption in Cameroon are found in the social structures and the sociopolitical context. Further analysis showed that women are faced with structural social and psychological barriers in tourism development and how they consume tourism services. These challenges are attributed to limited access to tourism resources and information, economic hardship, low level of education, self and societal stigmatisation, underestimation, ignorance, and low social network.KeywordsInclusive tourismGender challengesDisability perspectiveCameroon

Perceptions of candidate strength in job recruitment: Does candidate race moderate the attractiveness bias in White women?

Article

Oct 2022

The attractiveness bias suggests that people who are more attractive will be positively favored across life outcomes. This study sought to test whether candidate attractiveness, sex, and race, affect perceptions of candidate strength in a job recruitment task. In total, 338 White women ( M age = 20.94 ± 5.65) were asked to make judgements of a potential candidate for an administrative job (resume with candidate photograph). The vignettes differed in terms of candidate ability (strong/weak), sex (male/female), race (Black/White), and attractiveness (attractive/less attractive). Participants rated perceived candidate strength and likelihood to invite for interview. Results showed no significant main effects for attractiveness. However, there was a significant interaction for target attractiveness and race, such that attractive/White candidates were more likely to be invited for interview than less attractive/White candidates. There was also a significant main effect for race such that Black candidates were rated as stronger and more likely to be interviewed. Sensitivity analyses (with nonheterosexual women removed from the sample) also showed a main effect for target sex such that female candidates were favored over male candidates. Overall, these findings provide evidence that attractiveness, sex, and race have important, albeit complex, effects on hiring decisions in the workplace.

Satisfaction With the Social Competencies of Female and Male Supervisors Across Workplaces: A Study on the Moderating Role of the Inclusive Climate

Chapter

Jun 2022

Scholars have widely documented the challenges women face in being evaluated as competent leaders. The authors contribute to this field by addressing whether and when female supervisors might have a favorable position by examining evaluations of social competencies in supervision and by examining different organizational workplace features. To test the hypotheses, the authors used a representative Dutch sample on 1,251 employed respondents. The results indicated that male-led and female-led employees were equally satisfied with their supervisor's appreciation and understanding of employees' care tasks at home – but women with a female supervisor were slightly more satisfied with their supervisor's social skills than women with a male supervisor. Moreover, it was demonstrated that the share of female co-workers and the policy climate in the workplace shaped differentiated evaluations of male-female supervisors. These findings highlight the relevance of including (structural) workplace features in future studies on perceptions of women in leadership.

Why Peer Support Matters: Entrepreneurial Stressors, Emotional Exhaustion, and Growth Intentions of Women Entrepreneurs

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2022

Brownhilder Neneh

This article builds on the stressor-strain-outcome framework to explain how entrepreneurial stressors (stressor) and emotional exhaustion (strain) hinder the growth intentions of women entrepreneurs (outcome). A stress-buffering hypothesis is also used to explain how peer support can buffer the entrepreneurial stressor – emotional exhaustion – growth intention relationship. Using a sample of 300 South African women entrepreneurs, our evidence demonstrates that in addition to a significant direct effect on growth intentions, entrepreneurial stressors also contribute to an increase in emotional exhaustion. This, in turn, hinders the growth intentions of women entrepreneurs. We argue that peer support plays a vital buffering role by significantly reducing the effect of entrepreneurial stressors on emotional exhaustion, shielding women entrepreneurs from the adverse effects of entrepreneurial stressors upon venture growth intentions. Finally, implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Is Gender Discrimination Still Alive In the 21 st Century

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2022

Rather Aqib

Gender equality is a requirement of human rights. Reducing gender disparities and giving women greater agency have been part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) since their inception in 2000. Millions of women and girls around the world are still subjected to discrimination because of their gender. Women faced social and economic discrimination that prevented them from enjoying the same freedoms as males. In today's world, where women hold positions of power in every industry, it's hard to imagine this happening. Throughout the male-dominated worlds of business and wrestling, influential women have made a difference. Despite this improvement, the majority of Indian families continue to discriminate against women and girls. Creating a sustainable, prosperous, and peaceful world requires a commitment to gender equality and human rights. Equal rights will have a positive impact on society, sustainable economies, mankind, and the world if they are guaranteed. Several initiatives have been launched by the Indian government in support of gender equality. In order to bring women's educational, health, and economic status up to par with men's, a number of programmes, initiatives, and policies have been implemented. The standing of women is elevated by international organisations in order to achieve gender equality. As long as views toward women haven't progressed at the same rate as legislative reform, they will continue to confront discrimination in the workplace, at home, and in politics. Issues of gender are ideological in nature. Stereotypes must be dismantled in order to end gender discrimination. Gender equality can only be achieved through changing men's and women's attitudes and mindsets. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether or not certain aspects of prejudice based on gender are still prevalent in the 21st century.

Why fit in, when you were born to stand out?

Article

Nov 2022
J CLIN ANESTH

The Times They Are a-Changing ... or Are They Not? A Comparison of Gender Stereotypes, 1983-2014

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2016

During the past 30 years, women’s participation in the workforce, in athletics, and in professional education has increased, while men’s activities have been more stable. Have gender stereotypes changed over this time period to reflect the new realities? And, to what extent does gender stereotyping exist today? We address these questions by comparing data collected in the early 1980s to new data collected in 2014. In each study, participants rated the likelihood that a typical man or woman has a set of gendered characteristics (traits, role behaviors, occupations, and physical characteristics). Results indicate that people perceive strong differences between men and women on stereotype components today, as they did in the past. Comparisons between the two time periods show stability of gender stereotypes across all components except female gender roles, which showed a significant increase in gender stereotyping. These results attest to the durability of basic stereotypes about how men and women are perceived to differ, despite changes in the participation and acceptance of women and men in nontraditional domains. Because gender stereotypes are apparently so deeply embedded in our society, those in a position to evaluate women and men, as well as women and men themselves, need to be constantly vigilant to the possible influence of stereotypes on their judgments, choices, and actions.

Can Gender-Fair Language Reduce Gender Stereotyping and Discrimination?

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2016

Gender-fair language (GFL) aims at reducing gender stereotyping and discrimination. Two principle strategies have been employed to make languages gender-fair and to treat women and men symmetrically: neutralization and feminization. Neutralization is achieved, for example, by replacing male-masculine forms (policeman) with gender-unmarked forms (policeofficer), whereas feminization relies on the use of feminine forms to make female referents visible (i.e., the applicant... he or she instead of the applicant... he). By integrating research on (1) language structures, (2) language policies, and (3) individual language behavior, we provide a critical review of how GFL contributes to the reduction of gender stereotyping and discrimination. Our review provides a basis for future research and for scientificallybased policy-making.

Belief in the unstructured interview: The persistence of an illusion

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2013
JUDGM DECIS MAK

Unstructured interviews are a ubiquitous tool for making screening decisions despite a vast literature suggesting that they have little validity. We sought to establish reasons why people might persist in the illusion that unstructured interviews are valid and what features about them actually lead to poor predictive accuracy. In three studies, we investigated the propensity for "sensemaking" - the ability for interviewers to make sense of virtually anything the interviewee says- and "dilution"-the tendency for available but non-diagnostic information to weaken the predictive value of quality information. In Study 1, participants predicted two fellow students' semester GPAs from valid background information like prior GPA and, for one of them, an unstructured interview. In one condition, the interview was essentially nonsense in that the interviewee was actually answering questions using a random response system. Consistent with sensemaking, participants formed interview impressions just as confidently after getting random responses as they did after real responses. Consistent with dilution, interviews actually led participants to make worse predictions. Study 2 showed that watching a random interview, rather than personally conducting it, did little to mitigate sensemaking. Study 3 showed that participants believe unstructured interviews will help accuracy, so much so that they would rather have random interviews than no interview. People form confident impressions even interviews are defined to be invalid, like our random interview, and these impressions can interfere with the use of valid information. Our simple recommendation for those making screening decisions is not to use them. © 2013. The authors license this article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Common Goals and Golden Opportunities: Evaluations of Diversity Education in Academic and Organizational Settings

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2008

Diversity education in academic and business settings has common goals of helping students or employees to learn diversity knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Unfortunately, researchers are missing opportunities to capitalize on the unique characteristics of each setting to answer research questions of general interest. We review the research from 1970 to the present reporting evaluations of diversity education initiatives targeting adult learners. We identify a series of unanswered research questions and suggest ways that these questions can be addressed in academic or business contexts.

Insidious Procedures: Diversity Awards Legitimize Unfair Organizational Practices

Article

Full-text available

May 2015

Does the presence (versus absence) of an organizational diversity award increase the perceived fairness of biased personnel procedures? Participants examined fair or unfair personnel procedures at a company that had received a diversity award or an award unrelated to diversity. When the company had received a diversity award (versus a control award), participants perceived the unfair personnel procedure as fairer for minorities, and White participants were more supportive of enacting the biased procedure. These findings suggest that organizations perceived as successfully supporting diversity might be afforded particular legitimacy to enact policies and procedures that disadvantage the very groups they are perceived as valuing.

On the Gender-Science Stereotypes held by Scientists: Explicit accord with Gender-Ratios, Implicit accord with Scientific Identity

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2015

Women’s representation in science has changed substantially, but unevenly, over the past 40 years. In health and biological sciences, for example, women’s representation among U.S. scientists is now on par with or greater than men’s, while in physical sciences and engineering they remain a clear minority. We investigated whether variation in proportions of women in scientific disciplines is related to differing levels of male-favoring explicit or implicit stereotypes held by students and scientists in each discipline. We hypothesized that science-is-male stereotypes would be weaker in disciplines where women are better represented. This prediction was tested with a sample of 176,935 college-educated participants (70% female), including thousands of engineers, physicians, and scientists. The prediction was supported for the explicit stereotype, but not for the implicit stereotype. Implicit stereotype strength did not correspond with disciplines’ gender ratios, but, rather, correlated with two indicators of disciplines’ scientific intensity, positively for men and negatively for women. From age 18 on, women who majored or worked in disciplines perceived as more scientific had substantially weaker science-is-male stereotypes than did men in the same disciplines, with gender differences larger than 0.8 standard deviations in the most scientifically-perceived disciplines. Further, particularly for women, differences in the strength of implicit stereotypes across scientific disciplines corresponded with the strength of scientific values held by women in the disciplines. These results are discussed in the context of dual process theory of mental operation and balanced identity theory. The findings point to the need for longitudinal study of the factors’ affecting development of adults’ and, especially, children’s implicit gender stereotypes and scientific identity.

Not So Subtle: A Meta-Analytic Investigation of the Correlates of Subtle and Overt Discrimination

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2015

Extant research suggests subtle, interpersonal forms of discrimination, though often normalized and overlooked, may be just as detrimental to targets as compared to more traditional, overt forms of discrimination. To further examine this question, we meta-analyzed the current literature to estimate the relationship between discrimination and a host of psychological, physical health, and work-related correlates as a function of its form (subtle or overt). Analysis of 90 effect sizes suggested that subtle and overt forms of discrimination hold relationships of comparable magnitude with a host of adverse correlates. By demonstrating that these two forms of discrimination are not differentially related to relevant outcomes, our findings call into serious question the pervasive belief that subtle discrimination is less consequential for targets as compared to overt discrimination (Landy, 2008; McWhorter, 2008). Taken together, our results suggest that subtle discrimination is at least as important to consider and address as its overt counterpart. Implications for organizational scholars and practitioners are discussed.

Using implicit bias training to improve attitudes toward women in STEM

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2014

Implicit biases can foster negative attitudes and lead to damaging stereotypical behaviors. Stereotypes can negatively affect the education, hiring, promotion, and retention of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This study evaluated the impact of diversity training on university faculty ( $N = 234$ ) by assessing changes in implicit associations and explicit attitudes toward women in STEM. Personal implicit associations about women in STEM improved for men, but not for women who already tended toward more positive implicit associations at pre-test. Men were more likely than women to explicitly endorse stereotypes about women in STEM at both pre- and post-test, and these attitudes did not change as a result of the diversity training. These findings suggest that participation in a brief diversity training can improve implicit associations about women in STEM.

The Effect of an Intervention to Break the Gender Bias Habit for Faculty at One Institution: A Cluster Randomized, Controlled Trial

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2014

Purpose: Despite sincere commitment to egalitarian, meritocratic principles, subtle gender bias persists, constraining women's opportunities for academic advancement. The authors implemented a pair-matched, single-blind, cluster randomized, controlled study of a gender-bias-habit-changing intervention at a large public university. Method: Participants were faculty in 92 departments or divisions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Between September 2010 and March 2012, experimental departments were offered a gender-bias-habit-changing intervention as a 2.5-hour workshop. Surveys measured gender bias awareness; motivation, self-efficacy, and outcome expectations to reduce bias; and gender equity action. A timed word categorization task measured implicit gender/leadership bias. Faculty completed a work-life survey before and after all experimental departments received the intervention. Control departments were offered workshops after data were collected. Results: Linear mixed-effects models showed significantly greater changes post intervention for faculty in experimental versus control departments on several outcome measures, including self-efficacy to engage in gender-equity-promoting behaviors (P = .013). When ≥ 25% of a department's faculty attended the workshop (26 of 46 departments), significant increases in self-reported action to promote gender equity occurred at three months (P = .007). Post intervention, faculty in experimental departments expressed greater perceptions of fit (P = .024), valuing of their research (P = .019), and comfort in raising personal and professional conflicts (P = .025). Conclusions: An intervention that facilitates intentional behavioral change can help faculty break the gender bias habit and change department climate in ways that should support the career advancement of women in academic medicine, science, and engineering.

A Meta-Analysis of Gender Stereotypes and Bias in Experimental Simulations of Employment Decision Making

Article

Full-text available

May 2014
J APPL PSYCHOL

Gender bias continues to be a concern in many work settings, leading researchers to identify factors that influence workplace decisions. In this study we examine several of these factors, using an organizing framework of sex distribution within jobs (including male- and female-dominated jobs as well as sex-balanced, or integrated, jobs). We conducted random effects meta-analyses including 136 independent effect sizes from experimental studies (N = 22,348) and examined the effects of decision-maker gender, amount and content of information available to the decision maker, type of evaluation, and motivation to make careful decisions on gender bias in organizational decisions. We also examined study characteristics such as type of participant, publication year, and study design. Our findings revealed that men were preferred for male-dominated jobs (i.e., gender-role congruity bias), whereas no strong preference for either gender was found for female-dominated or integrated jobs. Second, male raters exhibited greater gender-role congruity bias than did female raters for male-dominated jobs. Third, gender-role congruity bias did not consistently decrease when decision makers were provided with additional information about those they were rating, but gender-role congruity bias was reduced when information clearly indicated high competence of those being evaluated. Fourth, gender-role congruity bias did not differ between decisions that required comparisons among ratees and decisions made about individual ratees. Fifth, decision makers who were motivated to make careful decisions tended to exhibit less gender-role congruity bias for male-dominated jobs. Finally, for male-dominated jobs, experienced professionals showed smaller gender-role congruity bias than did undergraduates or working adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding Tokenism: Antecedents and Consequences of a Psychological Climate of Gender Inequity

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2010

Extending tokenism theory, the authors investigate psychological climate of gender inequity as a way to understand how token women experience their work environments. In the first study, responses from a sample of 155 women across varied occupations confirm the expectation that token women tend to perceive their organizational climates to be inequitable for women. The results of a second survey of 196 female managers suggest that the subjective processes of tokenism give rise to inequitable climate perceptions. Finally, the responses of 312 women in the construction industry indicate that the climate of gender inequity is related to job attitudes and behaviors.

Best Practices or Best Guesses? Assessing the Efficacy of Corporate Affirmative Action and Diversity Policies

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2006

Employers have experimented with three broad approaches to promoting diversity. Some programs are designed to establish organizational responsibility for diversity, others to moderate managerial bias through training and feedback, and still others to reduce the social isolation of women and minority workers. These approaches find support in academic theories of how organizations achieve goals, how stereotyping shapes hiring and promotion, and how networks influence careers. This is the first systematic analysis of their efficacy. The analyses rely on federal data describing the workforces of 708 private sector establishments from 1971 to 2002, coupled with survey data on their employment practices. Efforts to moderate managerial bias through diversity training and diversity evaluations are least effective at increasing the share of white women, black women, and black men in management. Efforts to attack social isolation through mentoring and networking show modest effects. Efforts to establish responsibility for diversity lead to the broadest increases in managerial diversity. Moreover, organizations that establish responsibility see better effects from diversity training and evaluations, networking, and mentoring. Employers subject to federal affirmative action edicts, who typically assign responsibility for compliance to a manager, also see stronger effects from some programs. This work lays the foundation for an institutional theory of the remediation of workplace inequality.

Occupational Feminization and Pay: Assessing Causal Dynamics Using 1950-2000 U.S. Census Data

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2009
SOC FORCES

Occupations with a greater share of females pay less than those with a lower share, controlling for education and skill. This association is explained by two dominant views: devaluation and queuing. The former views the pay offered in an occupation to affect its female proportion, due to employers' preference for men–a gendered labor queue. The latter argues that the proportion of females in an occupation affects pay, owing to devaluation of work done by women. Only a few past studies used longitudinal data, which is needed to test the theories. We use fixed-effects models, thus controlling for stable characteristics of occupations, and U.S. Census data from 1950 through 2000. We find substantial evidence for the devaluation view, but only scant evidence for the queuing view.

The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology

Article

Full-text available

Sep 1998

This article summarizes the practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research in personnel selection. On the basis of meta-analytic findings, this article presents the validity of 19 selection procedures for predicting job performance and training performance and the validity of paired combinations of general mental ability (GMA) and the 18 other selection procedures. Overall, the 3 combinations with the highest multivariate validity and utility for job performance were GMA plus a work sample test (mean validity of .63), GMA plus an integrity test (mean validity of .65), and GMA plus a structured interview (mean validity of .63). A further advantage of the latter 2 combinations is that they can be used for both entry level selection and selection of experienced employees. The practical utility implications of these summary findings are substantial. The implications of these research findings for the development of theories of job performance are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Expectancy Confirmation Processes Arising in the Social Interaction Sequence

Article

Full-text available

Oct 1980

Develops the theory behind R. K. Merton's (1948) self-fulfilling prophecy and related concepts. It is argued that self-fulfilling prophecy effects occur when any one of many possible forces distort the processes occurring in normal social interactions. To elucidate this argument, a model of simple social interactions is described that involves (a) a perceiver's formation of an expectancy about a target person, (b) his or her behavior congruent with the expectancy, (c) the target's interpretation of this behavior, (d) the target's response, (e) the perceiver's interpretation of the response, and (f) the target's interpretation of his or her own response. Biasing factors that may lead to self-fulfilling prophecy effects at each step of this sequence are discussed. Several other forms of expectancy confirmation that may occur via the social interaction process are suggested. (72 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Interdependence and the reduction of prejudice.

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2012

Susan T. Fiske

This chapter investigated the variable of outcome interdependence, based on the principle that interdependent types of social relationships influence people's social cognitions and affect toward other people. The research shows that individual-level interdependence (both cooperative relationships and even competitive ones) create attention to the other person's individual attributes and reduce stereotypic thoughts and evaluations about them. However, group-level interdependence, in which another group is competitive with one's own group (as in team sports) does not have these individuating and prejudice-reducing effects. Fiske concludes that, when people need other people, they pay attention to them as individuals, but that dependence on others-as-a-group produces stereotypic views and evaluations of the group. In addition, individuals in high-power positions are more likely to stereotype people who are dependent on them, but making them aware of their interdependence with others can reduce their stereotypic thinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders

Article

Jul 2002

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.

Moral credentials and the expression of prejudice

Article

Jul 2001

Three experiments supported the hypothesis that people are more willing to express attitudes that could be viewed as prejudiced when their past behavior has established their credentials as nonprejudiced persons. In Study 1, participants given the opportunity to disagree with blatantly sexist statements were later more willing to favor a man for a stereotypically male job. In Study 2, participants who first had the opportunity to select a member of a stereotyped group (a woman or an African American) for a category-neutral job were more likely to reject a member of that group for a job stereotypically suited for majority members. In Study 3, participants who had established credentials as nonprejudiced persons revealed a greater willingness to express a politically incorrect opinion even when the audience was unaware of their credentials. The general conditions under which people feel licensed to act on illicit motives are discussed.

Recognition for Group Work: Gender Differences in Academia

Article

May 2017

Heather Sarsons

How is credit for group work allocated when individual contributions are not observed? I use data on academics' publication records to test whether demographic traits like gender influence how credit is allocated under such uncertainty. While solo-authored papers send a clear signal about ability, coauthored papers are noisy, providing no specific information about each contributor's skills. I find that men are tenured at roughly the same rate regardless of coauthoring choices. Women, however, are less likely to receive tenure the more they coauthor. The result is much less pronounced among women who coauthor with other women.

A Meta-Analytical Integration of Over 40 Years of Research on Diversity Training Evaluation

Article

Sep 2016

This meta-analysis of 260 independent samples assessed the effects of diversity training on 4 training outcomes over time and across characteristics of training context, design, and participants. Models from the training literature and psychological theory on diversity were used to generate theory-driven predictions. The results revealed an overall effect size (Hedges g) of .38 with the largest effect being for reactions to training and cognitive learning; smaller effects were found for behavioral and attitudinal/affective learning. Whereas the effects of diversity training on reactions and attitudinal/affective learning decayed over time, training effects on cognitive learning remained stable and even increased in some cases. While many of the diversity training programs fell short in demonstrating effectiveness on some training characteristics, our analysis does reveal that successful diversity training occurs. The positive effects of diversity training were greater when training was complemented by other diversity initiatives, targeted to both awareness and skills development, and conducted over a significant period of time. The proportion of women in a training group was associated with more favorable reactions to diversity training. Implications for policy and directions for future research on diversity training are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Reducing women’s lack of fit with leadership positions? Effects of the wording of job advertisements

Article

Mar 2016

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.

Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family

Article

Apr 2016

Michael T. Ford

How can workers, their spouses, and their children thrive while facing competing and often incompatible demands from work and family? Working parents and caregivers have dealt with this problem for decades, but its salience seems to have risen in recent years with the increased proportion of dual-earning couples, blurring of work-nonwork boundaries, and the instability and insecurity of many modern employment arrangements

Getting on top of the glass cliff: Reviewing a decade of evidence, Explanations, And impact

Article

Jan 2016
LEADERSHIP QUART

The glass cliff refers to the tendency for women to be more likely than men to be appointed to leadership positions that are risky and precarious. This paper reviews the first decade of research into the phenomenon and has three key aims: (a) to summarize and integrate evidence of the glass cliff, (b) to clarify the processes that have been shown to underlie the glass cliff, and (c) to explore the factors that may moderate the glass cliff phenomenon. We show that the glass cliff has had a significant impact on public discourse around women and leadership but is a complex, contextual, and multiply determined phenomenon.

Pay Secrecy and the Gender Wage Gap in the United States

Article

Oct 2015
IND RELAT

Marlene Kim

Legislators and advocates claim that pay secrecy perpetuates the gender wage gap and that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) should be amended to outlaw these practices. Using a difference-in-differences fixed-effects human-capital wage regression, I find that women with higher education levels who live in states that have outlawed pay secrecy have higher earnings, and that the wage gap is consequently reduced. State bans on pay secrecy and federal legislation to amend the FLSA to allow workers to share information about their wages may improve the gender wage gap, especially among women with college or graduate degrees.

Unintended Effects of Anonymous Résumés

Article

Jul 2015

We evaluate an experimental program in which the French public employment service anonymized résumés for firms that were hiring. Firms were free to participate or not; participating firms were then randomly assigned to receive either anonymous résumés or name-bearing ones. We find that participating firms become less likely to interview and hire minority candidates when receiving anonymous résumés. We show how these unexpected results can be explained by the self-selection of firms into the program and by the fact that anonymization prevents the attenuation of negative signals when the candidate belongs to a minority.

Formal and Informal Discrimination Against Women At Work: The Role of Gender Stereotypes

Article

Jun 2010

When asked to think about a hostile environment for women in the workplace, many of us would first envision overt instances of sexual harassment or blatant employment discrimination. These associations are certainly not astonishing: even in an age in which these behaviors are denounced and in large part illegal, such organizational misconduct seems almost commonplace. There have been many high-profile allegations of discrimination leveled against organizations within the last several years (Morris, Bonamici & Neering, 2005). For example, Morgan Stanley’s investment banking business recently paid out $54 million to over 300 female employees who claim to have been denied pay and promotions equal to those received by their male colleagues. Additionally, 1.6 million women who are currently, or were formerly, employed at Wal-Mart are eligible to participate in what is poised to become the largest-ever civil rights lawsuit: like the women of Morgan Stanley, they claim to have been victims of sex discrimination (Greenhouse, 2004). In fact, according to statistics from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, there has been no systematic decline over the last 12 years in the number of discrimination lawsuits filed, or the amount of monetary damages awarded to the plaintiffs of these suits (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2004).

Motivational influences on impression formation: Outcome dependency, accuracy-driven attention, and individuating processes

Article

Sep 1987

How might being outcome dependent on another person influence the processes that one uses to form impressions of that person? We designed three experiments to investigate this question with respect to short-term, task-oriented outcome dependency. In all three experiments, subjects expected to interact with a young man formerly hospitalized as a schizophrenic, and they received information about the person's attributes in either written profiles or videotapes. In Experiment 1, short-term, task-oriented outcome dependency led subjects to use relatively individuating processes (i.e., to base their impressions of the patient on his particular attributes), even under conditions that typically lead subjects to use relatively category-based processes (i.e., to base their impressions on the patient's schizophrenic label). Moreover, in the conditions that elicited individuating processes, subjects spent more time attending to the patient's particular attribute information. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the attention effects in Experiment 1 were not merely a function of impression positivity and that outcome dependency did not influence the impression formation process when attribute information in addition to category-level information was unavailable. Finally, Experiment 3 manipulated not outcome dependency but the attentional goal of forming an accurate impression. We found that accuracy-driven attention to attribute information also led to individuating processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Accountability and Perseverance of First Impressions

Article

Dec 1983

Philip E. Tetlock

Previous research indicates that our initial impressions of events frequently influence how we interpret later information. This experiment explored whether accountability-pressures to justify one's impressions to others-leads people to process information more vigilantly and, as a result, reduces the undue influence of early-formed impressions on final judgments. Subjects viewed evidence from a criminal case and then assessed the guilt of the defendant. The study varied (1) the order of presentation of pro-vs. anti-defendant information, (2) whether subjects expected to justify their decisions and, if so, whether subjects realized that they were accountable prior to or only after viewing the evidence. The results indicated that subjects given the anti/pro-defendant order of information were more likely to perceive the defendant as guilty than subjects given the pro/anti-defendant order of information, but only when subjects did not expect to justify their decisions or expected to justify their decisions only after viewing the evidence. Order of presentation of evidence had no impact when subjects expected to justify their decisions before viewing the evidence. Accountability prior to the evidence evidence also substantially improved free recall of the case material. The results suggest that accountability reduces primacy effects by affecting how people initially encode and process stimulus information.

Sex Differences in Social Behavior: A Social-Role Interpretation.

Article

May 1989

The affirmative action stigma of incompetence: Effects of performance information ambiguity

Article

Jun 1997

In two studies, 264 male and female managers reviewed information about the job performance of a person portrayed as either a man or a woman and, if a woman, as either an affirmative action hire or not. As expected, subjects rated female affirmative action hires as less competent and recommended smaller salary increases for them than for men and women not associated with affirmative action. This pattern held even when disconfirming performance information was provided if that information was ambiguous either with regard to degree of success (Study 1) or with regard to who was responsible for the success (Study 2).

Accounting for the Gap: A Firm Study Manipulating Organizational Accountability and Transparency in Pay Decisions

Article

Apr 2015

Emilio J. Castilla

Great progress has been made in documenting how employer practices may shape workplace inequality. Less research attention, however, has been given to investigating which organizational strategies are effective at addressing gender and racial inequality in labor markets. Using a unique field study design, this article identifies and tests, for the first time, whether accountability and transparency in pay decisions-two popular organizational initiatives discussed among scholars and practitioners-may reduce the pay gap by employee gender, race, and foreign nationality. Through a longitudinal analysis of a large private company, I study the performance-based reward decisions concerning almost 9,000 employees before and after high-level management adopted a set of organizational procedures, introducing accountability and transparency into the company's performance-reward system. Before such procedures were introduced, there was an observed gap in the distribution of performance-based rewards where women, ethnic minorities, and non-U.S.-born employees received lower monetary rewards compared with U.S.-born white men having the same performance evaluation scores and working in the same job and work unit with the same manager and the same human capital characteristics. Analyses of the company's employee performance-reward data after the adoption of accountability and transparency procedures show a reduction in this pay gap. I conclude by discussing the implications of this study for future research about employer strategies targeting workplace inequality and diversity.

Experiments in Intergroup Discrimination

Article

Nov 1970

Henri Tajfel

Not So Subtle A Meta-Analytic Investigation of the Correlates of Subtle and Overt Discrimination

Article

Oct 2013

It's fair for us: Diversity structures cause women to legitimize discrimination

Article

Mar 2015

Three experiments tested the hypothesis that the mere presence (vs. absence) of diversity structures makes it more difficult for women to detect sexism. In Experiment 1, even when a company's hiring decisions disadvantaged women, women perceived the company as more procedurally just for women and were less supportive of sexism litigation when the company offered diversity training, compared to when it did not. In Experiment 2, women perceived a company as more procedurally just for women and as less likely to have engaged in sexism when the company offered diversity training, compared to when it did not. This effect was not moderated by women's endorsement of status legitimizing beliefs. In Experiment 3, women perceived a company as more procedurally just and less discriminatory when the company had been recognized for positive gender diversity practices compared to when it had not. Additionally, these effects were most pronounced among women who endorsed benevolent sexist beliefs and mitigated among those who rejected benevolent sexist beliefs. Together, these experiments demonstrate that diversity structures can make it difficult for women to detect and remedy discrimination, especially women who hold benevolent sexist beliefs.

Condoning Stereotyping? How Awareness of Stereotyping Prevalence Impacts Expression of Stereotypes

Article

Oct 2014
J APPL PSYCHOL

The deleterious effects of stereotyping on individual and group outcomes have prompted a search for solutions. One approach has been to increase awareness of the prevalence of stereotyping in the hope of motivating individuals to resist natural inclinations. However, it could be that this strategy creates a norm for stereotyping, which paradoxically undermines desired effects. The present research demonstrates that individuals who received a high prevalence of stereotyping message expressed more stereotypes than those who received a low prevalence of stereotyping message (Studies 1a, 1b, 1c, and 2) or no message (Study 2). Furthermore, working professionals who received a high prevalence of stereotyping message were less willing to work with an individual who violated stereotypical norms than those who received no message, a low prevalence of stereotyping message, or a high prevalence of counter-stereotyping effort message (Study 3). Also, in a competitive task, individuals who received a high prevalence of stereotyping message treated their opponents in more stereotype-consistent ways than those who received a low prevalence of stereotyping message or those who received a high prevalence of counter-stereotyping effort message (Study 4). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

The Structured Employment Interview: Narrative and Quantitative Review of the Research Literature

Article

Oct 2013
PERS PSYCHOL

In the 20 years since frameworks of employment interview structure have been developed, a considerable body of empirical research has accumulated. We summarize and critically examine this literature by focusing on the 8 main topics that have been the focus of attention: (a) the definition of structure; (b) reducing bias through structure; (c) impression management in structured interviews; (d) measuring personality via structured interviews; (e) comparing situational versus past-behavior questions; (f) developing rating scales; (g) probing, follow-up, prompting, and elaboration on questions; and (h) reactions to structure. For each topic, we review and critique research and identify promising directions for future research. When possible, we augment the traditional narrative review with meta-analytic review and content analysis. We concluded that much is known about structured interviews, but there are still many unanswered questions. We provide 12 propositions and 19 research questions to stimulate further research on this important topic.

Gender stereotypes and workplace bias

Article

Dec 2012
RES ORGAN BEHAV

Madeline Heilman

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.

Stereotypes and Mental Life: The Case of the Motivated but Thwarted Tactician

Article

Jul 1994

Two experiments investigated the effects of information-processing goals and attentional capacity on subjects′ impressions of a target. In Study 1, extending previous research in this area, both information-processing goals and a resource depleting task were manipulated simultaneously. It was predicted that, in contrast with outcome-independent subjects, subjects who were made outcome-dependent upon a woman would make individuated evaluations of her. This effect, however, was anticipated to be contingent upon the availability of attentional resources. Under conditions of cognitive busyness, it was predicted that both outcome-independent and -dependent subjects would view the woman in a relatively stereotyped (i.e., less individuating) manner. Our results supported this prediction. Resource depletion appeared to diminish subjects′ ability to individuate the woman, even when they were motivated to view her in such a manner. Study 2 utilized a probe reaction task to investigate the differential demands processing goals impose upon perceivers′ attentional capacity. In line with our predictions, outcome-dependent subjects used more cognitive resources when learning about a woman than comparable outcome-independent subjects. Taken together, these results demonstrate the dynamic interaction between cognitive and motivational factors in the determination of perceivers′ impressions of others. We consider these findings in the wider context of models of stereotyping and social inference.

Diversity Management in Corporate America

Article