Madeline E. Heilman

Description and Prescription: How Gender Stereotypes Prevent Women's Ascent Up the Organizational Ladder

This review article posits that the scarcity of women at the upper levels of organizations is a consequence of gender bias in evaluations. It is proposed that gender stereotypes and the expectations they produce about both what women are like (descriptive) and how they should behave (prescriptive) can result in devaluation of their performance, denial of credit to them for their successes, or their penalization for being competent. The processes giving rise to these outcomes are explored, and the procedures that are likely to encourage them are identified. Because of gender bias and the way in which it influences evaluations in work settings, it is argued that being competent does not ensure that a woman will advance to the same organizational level as an equivalently performing man.

Why are women penalized for success at male tasks?: The implied communality deficit.

In 3 experimental studies, the authors tested the idea that penalties women incur for success in traditionally male areas arise from a perceived deficit in nurturing and socially sensitive communal attributes that is implied by their success. The authors therefore expected that providing information of communality would prevent these penalties. Results indicated that the negativity directed at successful female managers--in ratings of likability, interpersonal hostility, and boss desirability--was mitigated when there was indication that they were communal. This ameliorative effect occurred only when the information was clearly indicative of communal attributes (Study 1) and when it could be unambiguously attributed to the female manager (Study 2); furthermore, these penalties were averted when communality was conveyed by role information (motherhood status) or by behavior (Study 3). These findings support the idea that penalties for womens success in male domains result from the perceived violation of gender-stereotypic prescriptions.

When fit is fundamental: performance evaluations and promotions of upper-level female and male managers.

Using archival organizational data, the authors examined relationships of gender and type of position (i.e., line or staff) to performance evaluations of 448 upper-level managers, and relationships of performance evaluations to promotions during the subsequent 2 years. Consistent with the idea that there is a greater perceived lack of fit between stereotypical attributes of women and requirements of line jobs than staff jobs, women in line jobs received lower performance ratings than women in staff jobs or men in either line or staff jobs. Moreover, promoted women had received higher performance ratings than promoted men and performance ratings were more strongly related to promotions for women than men, suggesting that women were held to stricter standards for promotion.

When beauty is beastly: The effects of appearance and sex on evaluations of job applicants for managerial and nonmanagerial jobs.

Abstract To explore the idea that the career opportunities of attractive women are hindered by their appearance an experiment was conducted to determine the effects of both appearance and sex on the evaluations of applicants for managerial and nonmanagerial positions. As predicted, attractiveness consistently proved to be an advantage for men but was an advantage for women only when seeking a nonmanagerial position. This was found to be the case in ratings of qualifications, recommendations for hiring, suggested starting salary, and rankings of hiring preferences. Additional results indicated that attractiveness exaggerated perceptions of gender-related attributes involving work behaviors. Taken together, these data were interpreted as supporting the idea that the effects of appearance are mediated by fluctuations in the perceived fit between applicant attributes and job requirements. The implications of these findings both for organizations and for women who seek to advance their careers are discussed.

No credit where credit is due: Attributional rationalization of women's success in male-female teams

In 3 experimental studies, the authors explored how ambiguity about the source of a successful joint performance outcome promotes attributional rationalization, negatively affecting evaluations of women. Participants read descriptions of a mixed-sex dyads work and were asked to evaluate its male and female members. Results indicated that unless the ambiguity about individual contribution to the dyads successful joint outcome was constrained by providing feedback about individual team member performance (Study 1) or by the way in which the task was said to have been structured (Study 2) or unless the negative expectations about womens performance were challenged by clear evidence of prior work competence (Study 3), female members were devalued as compared with their male counterparts-they were rated as being less competent, less influential, and less likely to have played a leadership role in work on the task. Implications of these results, both theoretical and practical, are discussed.

Being attractive, advantage or disadvantage? Performance-based evaluations and recommended personnel actions as a function of appearance, sex, and job type

Abstract Prompted by a concern with the effects of appearance on how individuals and their work are regarded and how rewards are allocated in work settings, an experiment was conducted to determine whether physical attractiveness differentially affects the performance evaluations and recommended personnel actions for men and women holding managerial and nonmanagerial jobs. As predicted, attractiveness proved to be advantageous for women in nonmanagerial positions and disadvantageous for women in managerial ones. Unexpectedly, however, appearance had no effects whatsoever on reactions to men. Additional results indicated that attractiveness enhanced the perceived femininity of our female stimulus people, but did not enhance the perceived masculinity of those who were male. These data were interpreted as supportive of the idea that the differential effects of appearance in work settings are mediated by gender characterizations, and that fluctuations in the perceived person-job fit are key to understanding the seemingly inconsistent reactions to attractive and unattractive women in employment situations. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.

Motherhood: a potential source of bias in employment decisions.

Results of 2 experimental studies in which job incumbents were said to be applying for promotions to traditionally male positions demonstrated bias against mothers in competence expectations and in screening recommendations. This bias occurred regardless of whether the research participants were students (Study 1) or working people (Study 2). Although anticipated job commitment, achievement striving, and dependability were rated as generally lower for parents than for nonparents, anticipated competence was uniquely low for mothers. Mediational analyses indicated that, as predicted, negativity in competence expectations, not anticipated job commitment or achievement striving, promoted the motherhood bias in screening recommendations; expected deficits in agentic behaviors, not in dependability, were found to fuel these competence expectations. These findings suggest that motherhood can indeed hinder the career advancement of women and that it is the heightened association with gender stereotypes that occurs when women are mothers that is the source of motherhoods potentially adverse consequences.

The impact of situational factors on personnel decisions concerning women: Varying the sex composition of the applicant pool☆

Abstract One hundred male and female MBA students evaluated a woman applicant for a managerial position when the proportion of women in the applicant pool was varied. Results indicated that personnel decisions of both males and females were significantly more unfavorable when women represented 25% or less of the total pool. Additional findings suggest that this effect was mediated by the degree to which sex stereotypes predominated in forming impressions of applicants. The results were interpreted as supportive of the thesis that situational factors can function to reduce the adverse effects of sex stereotypes in employment settings.

Information as a deterrent against sex discrimination: The effects of applicant sex and information type on preliminary employment decisions☆

Abstract To investigate the idea that providing information about a job applicants past performance can avert sex discrimination in preliminary employment decisions, an experiment was conducted in which both Applicant Sex and Type of Information were varied. As predicted, highly job-relevant information was found to produce less differential treatment of male and female applicants than did information of low job relevance or no information at all. Also as predicted, the type of information provided had more impact on reactions to female applicants than male applicants, with high job-relevance information producing the most favorable responses and, unexpectedly, low job-relevance information producing the least favorable responses to female applicants. Additional results suggested that these effects were mediated by the degree to which female job applicants were characterized by stereotypic attributes. The findings are interpreted as supportive of the idea that undermining the information value of sex stereotypes as a basis of inference about the attributes of a given woman can function to reduce sex discrimination in employment settings.

Entrepreneurship as a solution: the allure of self-employment for women and minorities

Abstract In this paper, we discuss the experiences that women and minorities encounter in organizational settings that result in frustration and discontent with corporate life and their opportunities for advancement. We suggest that such experiences push many of these individuals out of organizations, attracting them to entrepreneurship as an alternate route to both personal and professional success. Our discussion includes an examination of the issues that give rise to these experiences and a consideration of how entrepreneurship appears to provide a solution to them. It also identifies some of the potential pitfalls of entrepreneurship for women and minorities. In our concluding comments, we urge organizations to recognize the unique problems women and minorities face and the necessity of addressing these problems if they are to retain these potentially valuable members of the workforce.