Tineke M. Willemsen

Beyond prejudice as simple antipathy: Hostile and benevolent sexism across cultures

The authors argue that complementary hostile and benevolent components of sexism exist across cultures. Male dominance creates hostile sexism (HS), but mens dependence on women fosters benevolent sexism (BS)--subjectively positive attitudes that put women on a pedestal but reinforce their subordination. Research with 15,000 men and women in 19 nations showed that (a) HS and BS are coherent constructs that correlate positively across nations, but (b) HS predicts the ascription of negative and BS the ascription of positive traits to women, (c) relative to men, women are more likely to reject HS than BS, especially when overall levels of sexism in a culture are high, and (d) national averages on BS and HS predict gender inequality across nations. These results challenge prevailing notions of prejudice as an antipathy in that BS (an affectionate, patronizing ideology) reflects inequality and is a cross-culturally pervasive complement to HS.

Bad but Bold : Ambivalent Attitudes Toward Men Predict Gender Inequality in 16 Nations

A 16-nation study involving 8,360 participants revealed that hostile and benevolent attitudes toward men, assessed by the Ambivalence Toward Men Inventory (P. Click & S.T. Fiske, 1999), were (a) reliably measured across cultures, (b) positively correlated (for men and women, within samples and across nations) with each other and with hostile and benevolent sexism toward women (Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, P. Click & S.T. Fiske, 1996), and (c) negatively correlated with gender equality in cross-national comparisons. Stereotype measures indicated that men were viewed as having less positively valenced but more powerful traits than women. The authors argue that hostile as well as benevolent attitudes toward men reflect and support gender inequality by characterizing men as being designed for dominance.

Gender, context and leadership styles: A field study

In a field study in department stores it was investigated whether the gender-typing of the organizational context influences leadership behaviour of male and female managers. Shop assistants in masculine- to feminine-typed departments described their manager in terms of task-oriented, people-oriented, and transformational leadership styles. As predicted, no gender differences in leadership styles were found. The gender-typing of departments did not affect perceived leadership styles. Another contextual variable, the site of the department store, unexpectedly influenced leader behaviour.

Women's work roles and their impact on health, well-being, and career: comparisons between the United States, Sweden, and The Netherlands.

ABSTRACT As women have become more assimilated into the workforce over recent decades, they have realized considerable changes in their work roles which may contribute to health problems and other negative outcomes such as marital strain and diminished job status. The purpose of this review was threefold: (1) to synthesize data on the distribution of womens work efforts in the areas of paid employment, household chores, and childcare; (2) to outline research which addresses the impact of womens workload on their well-being and careers; and (3) to make international and gender comparisons regarding womens work responsibilities. Our findings showed that women from each of the three countries examined–the United States, Sweden, and The Netherlands–contribute more effort to household chores and childcare and less to the workplace than men do. As a result, their total workloads appear to be somewhat greater and more diffusely distributed than those of men. Heavy workloads may adversely affect womens health, especially in the presence of certain role characteristics (e.g., having a clerical, managerial, professional, or executive position, or caring for young children). Heavy work responsibilities may also undermine marital happiness, particularly if there is perceived inequity in the way partners share household work. Finally, womens total work responsibilities often impact their careers due to compensatory reductions in work commitment and job status. These observations point to the need for further research on womens workload and work roles, on the relationship of work to well-being, and on methods of preventing or alleviating adverse effects on overburdened workers.

Sex and leadership styles: a meta-analysis of research published in the 1990s.

Empirical research on sex differences in leadership styles, published between 1987 and 2000 in peer-reviewed journals, is reviewed by means of a metaanalysis. The leadership styles examined are interpersonal, task-oriented, democratic versus autocratic, and transformational and transactional leadership. Analysis showed that evidence for sex differences in leadership behavior is mixed, demonstrating that women tend to use more democratic and transformational leadership styles than men do, whereas no sex differences are found on the other leadership styles. Sex differences in leadership styles are contingent upon the context in which male and female leaders work, as both the type of organization in which the leader works and the setting of the study turn out to be moderators of sex differences in leadership styles.

Gender Typing of the Successful Manager : A Stereotype Reconsidered

The feminization of management is a recurring theme in both popular and scientific management literature. However, several studies have shown that successful managers are generally attributed predominantly masculine characterics. In this study, gender typing of the manager role was studied in a sample of 143 management students (74 men, 69 women) in the Netherlands. As was hypothesized, on a checklist with masculine, feminine, and gender-neutral traits, masculine characteristics were rated as more applicable to successful managers than feminine characteristics, but gender-neutral characteristics were rated even more applicable. Analysis of the wording used to describe a successful manager on an open-ended question showed that participants used either gender-neutral words or (generic) “he.” This finding indicates that the successful manager is still imagined as a man, even though on a checklist this manager seems to possess predominantly gender-neutral traits. It is concluded that more methodological variety is needed in the study of gender typing of successful managers.

Sources of Social Support as Predictors of Health, Psychological Well-Being and Life Satisfaction Among Dutch Male and Female Dual-Earners

ABSTRACT We examined whether gender differences in health, psychological well-being, and life satisfaction, can be explained by effects of work-related and nonwork-related sources of social support. The sample consisted of 459 men and women from dual earner families. Men report better health and psychological well-being than women, whereas women report higher life satisfaction than men. Contrary to our expectations, women receive more social support from colleagues than men, while men and women equally receive support from their supervisor. As for the nonwork-related sources of social support, men receive more social support from their spouse, while women receive more social support from relatives and friends. No gender differences exist in the effects of social support. Although men and women differ with respect to the social support they receive from different sources, these differences cannot explain gender differences in health, psychological well-being and life satisfaction.

Determinants of general fatigue and emotional exhaustion: a prospective study

The present study was undertaken to determine the factors that predict general fatigue and emotional exhaustion over two years. Because fatigue is hypothesized to be persistent, general fatigue and emotional exhaustion at baseline were included as predictors. A model of mediators and moderators of the stress-health relationship (Taylor and Aspinwall, 1996), was employed to select the other variables. A sample of the Dutch working population (N = 325) completed questionnaires concerning demographic variables, personality and temperament, work pressure and workload, perceived social support, perceived stress, and coping strategies. Emotional exhaustion and general fatigue, measured two years later, were the outcome variables. Structural equation modeling indicated that general fatigue and emotional exhaustion are rather persistent. Furthermore, workload predicted both emotional exhaustion and general fatigue. Finally, emotional exhaustion was predicted by hardiness, whereas general fatigue was predicted by strength of inhibition.

Emotional exhaustion and mental health problems among employees doing “people work”: the impact of job demands, job resources and family-to-work conflict

ObjectiveThis study investigates the relationship between four job characteristics and family-to-work conflict on emotional exhaustion and mental health problems.MethodsMultiple regression analyses were performed using data from 1,008 mental health care employees. Separate regression analyses were computed for high and low patient interaction jobs.ResultsDifferent job characteristics as well as family-to-work conflict were associated with emotional exhaustion and mental health problems in each job type. The relationship between family-to-work conflict and emotional exhaustion was mitigated by social support from colleagues for those who worked in low patient interaction jobs.ConclusionIn addition to general and specific stressors, it is worthwhile to include home-related stressors that interfere with the work domain in stress research.

Assessing multiple facets of gender identity: the gender identity questionnaire.

314 men and 451 women participated in a study to assess the reliability and validity of the multifaceted Gender Identity Questionnaire. Reliability coefficients of the (sub)scales varied between .67 and .80; content, criterion, and construct validity were satisfactory.