Gender, Diversity & Leadership

Outline Stereotypes and Discrimination of Women

Leaders

Assignment 3

Effects of Prejudice

Exercise: Creating an Organization that Embraces Diversity

Return Exam

Role Congruity Theory

The descriptive and prescriptive aspects of the female gender stereotype are incongruent with the leadership role

That incongruity leads to prejudice against women leaders.

Stereotypes Cognitive structures that influence

the way individuals process information regarding groups & group members

Descriptive Describe stereotypic beliefs about the

attributes of women and men Prescriptive

Prescribe how men and women should, or ought to, be

Descriptive Stereotypes

Men Women

AGENTIC

AggressiveForcefulIndependent Decisive

COMMUNAL

KindHelpfulSympatheticConcerned for others

Prescriptive Stereotypes Individuals should conform to their stereotypic

description, AND avoid stereotype-incompatible behaviors.

Ideal women and men are described in stereotypic terms Women and men’s ideal selves are stereotypically

differentiated

People hold stereotypically sex differentiated attitudes about the roles/responsibilities of women and men

Good Leadership is a Manly Business

…or so many think….

Role congruity theory maintains that the agentic qualities deemed necessary in the leadership role are incompatible with the predominantly communal qualities associated with women

Leadership prototypes are more congruent with male stereotypes than female stereotypes

Good managers are described predominantly by masculine attributes

Stereotypically male qualities are thought necessary to being a successful executive

"There are some people here who probably don't want a woman as the No. 1. They are comfortable with women in the No. 2 position.“

–Legislative Aide, San Francisco Chronicle

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Faces “cynics and doubters” who don’t believe a woman is capable of running Hewlett Packard

Hewlett-Packard CEOCarly Fiorina

Biases in the Perception and Evaluation of Women Leaders

Two competing expectations: Those based on gender stereotypes and those based

on leadership roles

Two forms of prejudice

These two forms of prejudice lead to Less favorable attitudes toward female than male

leaders Greater difficulty for women to attain top leadership

roles Greater difficulty for these women to be viewed as

effective in these roles

Biases in the Perception and Evaluation of Women Leaders Empirical evidence:

Male politicians seen as better suited for pursuing the more agentic tasks of public policy

Female political leaders as more appropriately suited for more communal tasks

Women managers are rated as more different from successful middle managers than are male managers

Women are presumed to be less competent leaders than men and less worthy of leadership positions

Biases in the Perception and Evaluation of Women Leaders

More empirical evidence: Male and female leaders are evaluated differently

(Eagly, Makhijani, and Klonsky’s 1992 meta-analysis): Male and female leaders are evaluated equally

favorably when using a stereotypically feminine leadership style (democratic)

Female leaders were evaluated unfavorably when they used a stereotypically male leadership style (autocratic and directive)

Women were particularly devalued when the raters were men.

In sum, substantial empirical evidence reveals that stereotypes can significantly alter the perception and evaluation of female leaders

An Empirical Test of Role Congruity Theory

Assignment 3

Imagine that you are a researcher and your next project is to empirically test one aspect of role congruity theory. In one page or less, describe at least one testable hypothesis (that is, a specific testable proposition) that can be derived from role congruity theory. Additionally, discuss a specific way in which a researcher could feasibly go about testing your hypothesis.

Effects of Prejudice

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy When stereotypes produce stereotype-confirming

behavior

The expectations embedded in stereotypes can be a powerful guide to behavior, creating self-fulfilling propheciesPerson A’s Person A’s Person B’s

Expectations Behaviors Behavior

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Research example (Word et al., 1974) Princeton students as interviewers Differences in the way they acted to B and W applicants Retrained to treat White students like Black students

Results: White students who were treated as black students

actually interviewed worse! Were reacted by outside observers as more nervous and less effective

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Self-esteem of the Oppressed

Kenneth and Mamie Clark (1947). Demonstrated that black children, as young as 3,

rejected black dolls. Felt that white dolls were prettier and generally superior

Goldberg found similar results for gender Women rated articles as superior if “written” by a

man (John vs. Joan McKay)

Swim and others have shown that these tendencies have diminished over the years

Stereotype Threat Stereotype Threat

Stereotyped group is aware of the stereotype Creates apprehension, which interferes with

performance Research example (Steel and Aronson, 1994)

Difficult verbal test: Black and White Stanford students Two conditions:

Testing intellectual ability Task unrelated to intelligence

Results: When task unrelated to intelligence: B & W performed

equally well When testing IQ= B poorer than W

Creating an Organization that Embraces Diversity

Create an organization that addresses the six challenges to a successfully diversified organization identified by Morrison: 1) Prejudice 2) Poor career planning 3) Unsupportive work environment 4) Lack of organizational savvy 5) Greater comfort in dealing with one’s own

kind 6) Difficulty in balancing career and family

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