A Latent Semantic Analysis of Gender Stereotype-Consistency and Narrowness in American English

Using latent semantic analysis, we examined gender stereotypes in American English by submitting over 100 masculine, neutral, and feminine role-words and trait-words to pair-wise semantic similarity comparisons with masculine (man, he, him) and feminine (woman, she, her) referents separately. We expected to find: (a) Stereotyping—roles and traits would be more semantically similar to the ostensible ‘matching’ than ‘mismatching’ gender category referent; (b) Categorical narrowness—both categories would be less semantically similar to counterstereotypical than to neutral or stereotypical characteristics; but this would be especially so for the male category, indicating its relatively greater narrowness. Results supported these hypotheses, but only among role-words. American English reflects and reinforces gender stereotypes regarding gender roles at a level beyond that recognized previously.     

Gender Differences in Leadership Aspirations and Job and Life Attribute Preferences among U.S. Undergraduate Students

The purpose of the present study was to examine gender differences in constructs associated with leadership aspirations in a sample of 467 undergraduate students because these might contribute to the gender gap in leadership attainment. The results demonstrated that female participants perceived themselves as having less leadership ability than male participants, and viewed their attainment of leadership roles as less likely than male participants did, which could reflect anticipated discrimination. Female participants reported less interest than male participants in elite leadership positions (e.g., CEO, senator), and associated positive characteristics with such roles less than male participants. They were also less likely than male participants to indicate a willingness to accept a promotion that would require them to sacrifice enjoyable work. Male and female participants ranked the importance of a variety of job and life attribute preferences similarly, though female participants emphasized the importance of life attribute preferences (e.g., family, good health), whereas male participants emphasized the importance of job attribute preferences (e.g., high salary). Finally, male participants were more likely than female participants to expect and prefer that they would out-earn their future spouses. These results highlight the need for greater consideration of how young women’s and men’s leadership aspirations and job/life preferences contribute to the gender gap in leadership attainment.     

Associations Between Gender Segregation and Gender Identity in College Students

We investigated associations between gender segregation and the two traditions of gender identity identified by Wood and Eagly (2015): gender-typed personality traits and gender reference group identity. We also investigated whether one of these traditions was associated with gender segregation to a greater extent than the other. Our sample consisted of 73 male (and 93 female undergraduate students aged 18–24 attending a university in the northeastern United States of America. In support of our hypotheses we found that male and female college students reported a greater proportion of same-gender than cross-gender friends and that gender segregation was negatively associated with femininity for male college students and positively associated with gender reference group identity for male and female college students. In addition, as hypothesized, we found that gender reference group identity was associated with gender segregation to a greater extent than gender-typed personality traits. That gender segregation is associated with gender reference group identity to a greater extent than gender-typed personality traits supports a multifaceted model of gender, and it highlights the importance of considering different traditions of gender identity in gender research (Mehta 2015; Wood and Eagly 2015).     

Is School Feminine? Implicit Gender Stereotyping of School as a Predictor of Academic Achievement

One cause proposed for boys’ relatively lower academic achievement is a “feminisation” of schools that might result in a lack of fit between boys’ self-concept and academic engagement. Research so far has investigated math-male and language-female stereotypes, but no school-female stereotypes. Our study tested for implicit gender stereotyping of school and its impact on boys’ achievement in N?=?122 ninth-graders from a large city in Western Germany using the Go/No-go Association Task (GNAT). Gender role self-concept and grades in math (representing an academic domain stereotyped as male) and German (domain stereotyped as female) were assessed using written questionnaires. It was found that, overall, students associated school more strongly with female than with male, and that this association of school with female was related to boys’ academic achievement. The more strongly boys associated school with female and the more they ascribed negative masculine traits to themselves, the lower their grades in German were. Boys’ academic achievement in math was unrelated to the extent to which they perceived school as feminine and themselves as masculine. Girls’ grades in both German and math were unrelated to their gender stereotyping of school. These findings emphasize the importance of fit between a student’s gender, gender role self-concept and gender stereotyping of school for academic achievement. Strategies to improve this fit are discussed.     

Female first,leader second? Gender bias in the encoding of leadership behavior

In the current paper we investigate whether gender affects the encoding of leadership behavior. In three studies we found evidence that perceivers had difficulty encoding leadership behaviors into their underlying prototypical leadership traits when the behavior implied an agentic trait and the behavior was enacted by a female. Using a lexical decision making task, in Study 1 we demonstrated that agentic leadership traits were less accessible than communal leadership traits when the leader was female. Additionally, Study 1 also demonstrated that agentic traits were less accessible when the leader was female versus male. In Studies 2a and 2b, we replicated the differences we found for agentic leadership behaviors using perceiver’s self-ratings as the dependent variable. Results are discussed both in terms of their implications for future research on gender bias in leadership and their practical implications for eliminating gender bias against females who aspire to leadership positions.     

Gender ratio,societal culture,and male and female leadership

Top management teams are worldwide largely composed of men, with relatively few female members. The gender ratio in top management is indicative of the position of women in management within the organization, as well as related to leadership behaviours of male and female managers. In the present study, the relative importance of societal culture, organizational, and individual characteristics in explaining leadership behaviours and the associations of gender and gender ratio with leadership behaviours are studied. Hypotheses are tested with multi‐level analyses using a dataset with information from subordinates rating leadership behaviours of 12,546 managers in 437 organizations in 32 countries. The results show that in a three‐level model (i.e., societal, organizational, and individual level) to explain leadership behaviours, differences in leadership behaviours are predominantly explained by individual differences, followed by organizational and societal differences. Further, after controlling for societal influences, a higher gender ratio (relatively more female managers), was positively associated with consideration and negatively related to initiating structure. Moreover, for male managers, there was a negative association between gender ratio and initiating structure, indicating that male managers in organizations with more female managers tend to engage less in initiating structure, whereas the leadership behaviours of female managers were not associated with the gender ratio.     

Associations Between Mixed-Gender Friendships,Gender Reference Group Identity and Substance Use in College Students

We investigated the associations between same-gender friendship, gender reference group identity, and substance use in college students (54 % male, M age?=?19.23, SD?=?1.23) from the northeastern United States using an online survey. Male students reported greater weekly marijuana, but not alcohol use than female students. Regression analyses revealed that having a greater proportion of same-gender friendships was associated with greater weekly alcohol use for male students and lesser weekly alcohol and marijuana use for female students. Gender reference group identity was negatively associated with weekly marijuana use for male and female students. For female students, gender reference group identity mediated the association between proportion of same-gender friendships and weekly marijuana use. Our study highlights the importance of considering the social context (e.g., the gender of friends) and individual variables relating to gender (e.g. gender reference group identity) in substance use research. Our findings fit within social constructionist models of social development that suggest participation in gendered contexts (e.g., same-gender or other-gender-peer contexts) over time cue gender-typed behaviors such as using marijuana.     

Body movements of male and female speakers and their influence on perceptions of personality

Men and women score differently on some personality traits and people’s behavior reflects who they are. Therefore, males and females could be expected to express themselves differently on a behavioral level. To test this idea we turned the public performances of speakers (20 female and 20 male) into stick figure movies. Students of the University of Vienna (n = 150) rated these movies on scales measuring the Big Five personality traits. The participants experienced difficulties in ascribing the correct sex to the stick figures. Nevertheless, stick figures representing male speakers received higher ratings for extraversion and emotional stability than stick figure animations of female speakers. In addition, gender stereotypes seemed to influence the participants’ ratings. Agreeableness, for instance, was preferably classified as female trait. In conclusion, our results suggest that body motion conveys social information, that men and women present themselves differently, and that people’s judgments are influenced by gender stereotypes.     

Gender‐typing of leadership: Evaluations of real and ideal managers

This research focuses on female underrepresentation in managerial positions. Specifically, two studies examine gender‐typing for managerial roles in Spain using ratings for real and ideal managers. In addition, we analyse the existence of same‐gender bias on evaluations of the behavior of actual leaders. In the first study, 195 Spanish workers evaluate the extent to which gender‐stereotypical traits are important for becoming a successful middle manager in three conditions (female managers, male managers, and managers in general). In the second study, we explore the degree to which the behavior of real Spanish managers is gender‐typed and the existence of same‐gender bias on leadership styles – transformational, transactional and avoidant/passive – and on leadership outcomes – effectiveness, extra effort and satisfaction – from the perspective of subordinates (N = 605). Overall, the results demonstrate that masculine characteristics were rated as more important than feminine characteristics for managerial positions, and they were more often assigned to male managers than to female managers. Unexpectedly, this manager‐male association is stronger among female participants than among male participants. Our findings also demonstrate that women subordinates evaluate their same‐sex supervisors more favorably in transformational leadership, effectiveness, and extra effort. The negative consequences derived from gender‐typing managerial positions are highlighted according to the role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. The positive effects of in‐group female bias on behavior ratings are also noted. The mixed implications of these results for women's advancement to leadership positions are discussed.     

Male or Female Athletic Director? Exploring Perceptions of Leader Effectiveness and a (Potential) Female Leadership Advantage with Intercollegiate Athletic Directors

We investigated whether transformational leadership was associated with more positive perceptions of outcomes among intercollegiate athletic directors in the U.S. Also, we examined whether leader gender influenced perceptions of participants, and if there was an interaction between leadership style and leader gender in predicting organizational outcomes. Division I and II male participants (n?=?99) evaluated either a male or female transactional or transformational leader on extra effort, satisfaction, and effectiveness. MANOVA and post hoc analyses were used in our evaluation. Findings indicated transformational leadership was related to more positive organizational outcomes, that there was no difference between male and female leaders on attaining these outcomes, and that there was no interaction between leadership style and leader gender.     

MEN,WOMEN, AND MANAGERS: ARE STEREOTYPES FINALLY CHANGING?

As the number of women in management roles increases and organizations place a greater emphasis on diversity, a subsequent change in perceptions of women as leader-like is expected. To test this notion, we examined gender and management stereotypes of male and female managers and students. Results reveal considerable change in male managers' views of women over the past 30 years, as evidenced by greater congruence between their perceptions of women and successful managers and stronger endorsement of agentic and task-oriented leadership characteristics for women. Stereotypes held by male students changed less, remaining strikingly similar to stereotypes held by male managers 15 years ago. Across samples, there was general agreement in the characteristics of managers but less agreement about the characteristics of women. We also found men somewhat less likely than women to attribute successful manager characteristics to women. Respondents with positive past experiences with female managers tended to rate women higher on management characteristics.     

Cybernetic Big Five Theory

Cybernetics, the study of goal-directed, adaptive systems, is the best framework for an integrative theory of personality. Cybernetic Big Five Theory attempts to provide a comprehensive, synthetic, and mechanistic explanatory model. Constructs that describe psychological individual differences are divided into personality traits, reflecting variation in the parameters of evolved cybernetic mechanisms, and characteristic adaptations, representing goals, interpretations, and strategies defined in relation to an individual’s particular life circumstances. The theory identifies mechanisms in which variation is responsible for traits in the top three levels of a hierarchical trait taxonomy based on the Big Five and describes the causal dynamics between traits and characteristic adaptations. Lastly, the theory links function and dysfunction in traits and characteristic adaptations to psychopathology and well-being.     

Is Transformational Leadership Always Perceived as Effective? Male Subordinates' Devaluation of Female Transformational Leaders1

This study investigated the impact of the gender composition of the leader–subordinate dyad on the relationship between leaders' transformational leadership behavior and their subordinates' ratings of the leaders' effectiveness. There were 109 dyads of leaders (58 male, 51 female) paired with a subordinate who was either the same or a different gender from themselves. The relationship between a leader's self‐report on transformational leadership and their subordinates' evaluation of their performance was significantly less positive for female leaders with male subordinates than for female leaders with female subordinates. The male and female subordinates of male leaders rated their performance as equally effective, regardless of their levels of transformational leadership.     

Heterogeneity in Transgender: A Cluster Analysis of a Thai Sample

ABSTRACT

An analysis was performed of data from an Adjective Checklist (ACL) study of identity and gender-trait stereotype in Thai MtF transgenders (Winter and Udomsak, 2002a, 2002b). Contrary to previous analyses, the current analysis employed the participants (rather than the ACL traits) as the unit of analysis. For each participant a calculation was made of the extent to which traits endorsed for actual self were also those endorsed as stereotypically male (masculine) or stereotypically female (feminine) traits. In this way gender-in-self scores (indices of masculinity, femininity, and non-differentiation) in actual self-concept (MASC, FASC, and NASC respectively) were calculated. A similar matching procedure involving ideal self led to the calculation of indices for masculinity, femininity, and non-differentiation in ideal self-concept (MISC, FISC, and NISC respectively). A cluster analysis was then performed, using these six gender-in-self scores in order to identify any groups within our sample.

Participants clustered into three substantial groups, together accounting for 98% of the data. The largest (69.9% of the sample) endorsed stereotypically male and female as well as undifferentiated traits. It could therefore be described as an androgynous group. The next, accounting for 21.4% of the sample, endorsed overwhelmingly undifferentiated traits. It was accordingly labelled the undifferentiated group. The last, accounting for 6.6% of the sample, endorsed overwhelmingly female-stereotyped traits and. in view of the fact that they had constructed for themselves such a highly stereotypically female self-concept, was labelled the feminine group. All six gender-in-self scores played a part in distinguishing the groups from each other.

For all three groups discrepancies between actual and ideal self were found, suggesting personal growth goals that led away from female stereotype.

Traits endorsed for actual self were further examined for any sign of group differences in terms of scores for 14 underlying features, as well as loadings on four higher-order factors, as employed in the Winter and Udomsak (2002b) analysis. Traits endorsed for ideal self and for gender-trait stereotyping were examined in the same way and for the same purpose.

For actual self no significant group differences were found. In contrast, several differences were found for ideal self. Trails endorsed by the undifferentiated group stood out from the others by being higher on adult ego state, conscientiousness, and emotional stability, and lower on adapted child ego state. All this was reflected in stronger loadings on resourcefulness/dependability.

Numerous group differences were identified for gender-trait stereotyping. The feminine group (compared to the other two groups) considered stereotypically female traits to be (a) higher on strength, favourability, adult and free child ego states, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness, and psychological importance, and (b) lower on adapted child ego state. All this was reflected in a stereotypical view of the female as both more caring/harmonious (a stereotypically “female” factor), as well as more resourceful/dependable (usually a stereo-typically “male” factor) than how she was viewed by the other groups. The undifferentiated group's view of the female was at the other extreme, providing a mirror image effect.

In conclusion, three groups of MtF transgenders were identified, differing from each other in terms of the degree of gender stereotypy evident in their actual and ideal self-concepts. The three groups also differed in terms of the underlying elements of the traits that they had endorsed for ideal self, as well as for gender-trait stereotypes.     

Personality Traits and Plagiarism: an Empirical Study with Portuguese Undergraduate Students

Academic dishonesty is a major problem and is thus a highly relevant area of inquiry. Considerable research has shown that key traits from the Big Five model of personality are associated with various forms of anti-social behaviour. To date, however, relatively little research interest has been devoted to study the relationship between personality traits and plagiarism. This study attempts to fill this gap by examining the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and the inclination to commit plagiarism by undergraduate students. The main conclusion is that the inclination to plagiarize is negatively associated with Conscientiousness and Agreeableness traits. Neuroticism was not found to be related to the inclination to plagiarize. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Gender-Related Stereotypes of Transformational and Transactional Leadership

This study investigated gender differences in transformational and transactional leadership, and gender-related stereotypes for these forms of leadership. Results indicated that there were no differences in the way the primarily Caucasian subordinates evaluated their actual male and female managers. There were, however, differences in ratings of stereotypic male versus stereotypic female leaders on transformational and transactional leadership, but only by female respondents. Finally, congruence between ratings of actual managers and ratings of stereotypic managers was found primarily for male respondents. Results suggest that stereotypes may be one explanation for gender differences found in prior research on transformational and transactional leadership.     

An Interpretation of Evangelical Gender Ideology: Implications for a Theology of Gender

Abstract

One of the core findings in the sociology of religion literature regarding evangelicals is the penchant for the adoption of traditional family values. Despite the availability of alternative gender ideology models, evangelicals in general espouse a male headship and female domestic understanding of gender and concomitant domestic division of labor. There has been a "softening" of male headship language as this language is translated into a servant leadership model. This essay asks the question: What is the cost or impact for evangelicals to espouse a traditional model for gender ideology?