The Name Game: Employability Evaluations of Prototypical Applicants with Stereotypical Feminine and Masculine First Names

This study was designed to examine professional human resource managers recommendations and inferences about prototypical applicants who had identical qualifications, in which the presence of periods of unemployment and name (feminine, masculine) of applicants were manipulated. Results indicate that although overall income for female applicants was less than male applicants in some conditions, male applicants were penalized and evaluated more harshly than female applicants when they had experienced periods of unemployment. Specifically, male applicants with employment gaps were seen as less committed and as less hirable than their female counterparts. Overall, male applicants were less likely to be recommended for an interview, and, when they experienced multiple gaps, they were less likely to be recommended for further consideration.     

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

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.     

Televised Models of Female Achievement

Two studies examined the models of female achievement available to television viewers. The studies surveyed television's portrayal of both achievement behavior and its social consequences for the female achiever. Study I compared female models at four levels of achievement. Only those models at the lowest level of achievement were depicted as having successful social relations with males. Study II compared the marital status of male and female job holders. Compared with male job holders, females were depicted as less likely to be married, less likely to be successfully married, and more likely to be unsuccessfully married. Data on married females showed that those who held jobs were depicted as having 10 times as many unsuccessful marriages (proportionately) as housewives. It is suggested that female achievers portrayed on television are depicted in a way that does not encourage female viewers to imitate their behavior and in fact serves to inhibit achievement-oriented behavior in female viewers.     

The Impact of Gender on the Review of the Curricula Vitae of Job Applicants and Tenure Candidates: A National Empirical Study

The purpose of this study was to determine someof the factors that influence outside reviewers andsearch committee members when they are reviewingcurricula vitae, particularly with respect to the gender of the name on the vitae. The participants inthis study were 238 male and female academicpsychologists who listed a university address in the1997 Directory of the American PsychologicalAssociation. They were each sent one of four versions of acurriculum vitae (i.e., female job applicant, male jobapplicant, female tenure candidate, and male tenurecandidate), along with a questionnaire and aself-addressed stamped envelope. All the curricula vitaeactually came from a real-life scientist at twodifferent stages in her career, but the names werechanged to traditional male and female names. Althoughan exclusively between-groups design was used to avoidsparking genderconscious responding, the resultsindicate that the participants were clearly able todistinguish between the qualifications of the jobapplicants versus the tenure candidates, as evidenced bysuggesting higher starting salaries, increasedlikelihood of offering the tenure candidates a job,granting them tenure, and greater respect for theirteaching, research, and service records. Both men andwomen were more likely to vote to hire a male jobapplicant than a female job applicant with an identicalrecord. Similarly, both sexes reported that the male job applicant had done adequate teaching,research, and service experience compared to the femalejob applicant with an identical record. In contrast,when men and women examined the highly competitive curriculum vitae of the real-life scientist whohad gotten early tenure, they were equally likely totenure the male and female tenure candidates and therewas no difference in their ratings of their teaching, research, and service experience. There was nosignificant main effect for the quality of theinstitution or professional rank on selectivity inhiring and tenuring decisions. The results of this study indicate a gender bias for both men and womenin preference for male job applicants.     

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.     

Gender differences in psychological morbidity,burnout, job stress and job satisfaction among Chinese neurologists: a national cross-sectional study

Women are an important part of the medical workforce, yet little is known about gender differences in psychological morbidity, burnout, job stress and job satisfaction among neurologists. This study assessed gender differences in a large national sample of Chinese neurologists. Multivariate analyses were performed to examine associations. A total of 5558 neurologists were included in the analysis. Compared with their male counterparts, female neurologists were generally younger; were less likely to be married or to have children; had higher levels of education; were in practice for a shorter period of time; were less likely to hold senior roles; and had lower incomes. Male and female neurologists worked similar hours and spent a similar number of nights on call. No gender differences were found in psychological morbidity, burnout, and high levels of job stress for female and male, respectively. Women had higher emotional exhaustion scores, while men were more likely to have low levels of job satisfaction. The multivariate analysis showed that factors independently associated with psychological morbidity, burnout, high levels of job stress and low levels of job satisfaction were generally similar for women and men. These findings increase our understanding of gender differences in psychological morbidity, burnout, job stress, and job satisfaction among neurologists. As more women join the medical profession, these differences may be useful in designing medical training and practice.     

Ambivalent Sexism and Applicant Evaluations: Effects on Ambiguous Applicants

The purpose of the current research was to evaluate how gender stereotypes and sexist attitudes affect responses to hypothetical job applicants. In Study 1 (N?=?93) undergraduate and graduate students in the Southwestern USA evaluated a male, female, or gender-ambiguous resume. They also completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI; Glick and Fiske 1996). Hypotheses were tested using ANOVA. Results suggested that participants who expressed more hostile sexist attitudes evaluated the gender-ambiguous applicant more negatively than a male or female applicant. In Study 2 (N?=?117), graduate and undergraduate participants were asked to indicate the gender of the ambiguous applicant. Those who scored high on hostile sexism, and perceived a gender-ambiguous applicant to be male, provided the most favorable evaluations.     

The preference to work for a man or a woman: A matter of sex and gender?

A survey of 455 individuals sampled from two populations that varied in age, educational level, and work experience posed a question asked in Gallup polls over six decades: “If you were taking a new job and had your choice of a boss, would you prefer to work for a man or a woman?” Respondents could state that they would prefer a male boss, prefer a female boss, or had no preference. As expected from theory and Gallup results, respondents who had a preference preferred to work for a man more than a woman, although a majority expressed “no preference.” When they expressed a preference, women preferred to work for a female boss over a male boss more than men did, whereas men preferred to work for a male boss over a female boss more than women did. Sex-typed (i.e., masculine or feminine) respondents in gender identity exhibited a greater preference to work for a boss of a particular sex over having no preference than non-sex-typed respondents. Further, feminine respondents preferred to work for a female boss over a male boss more than masculine respondents did, whereas masculine respondents preferred to work for a male boss over a female boss more than feminine respondents did. Overall, these results suggest that the preference to work for a man or a woman is a matter of both sex and gender. Implications for job applicants' vocational decisions and how female leaders fare in the workplace are discussed.     

Perceptions of male and female success or failure in relation to spouse encouragement and sex-association of occupation

Male and female subjects read four paragraphs portraying successful (experiment 1) or unsuccessful (experiment 2) males or females in masculine or feminine occupations, with a supportive or nonsupportive spouse. The likelihoods of various conflicts, consequences, and causes of the success or failure were rated. Generally, ratings of more negative consequences were associated with lack of spouse support for a career pursuit. Spouse support influenced perceptions of female more than male success. The sex-association of the career proved to be an important determinant of perceptions of conflict, consequences, and attributions for the success or failure. Although male and female occupations had been equated for status, female jobs appeared to be generally devalued relative to male jobs.     

From heart attacks to melanoma: do common sense models of somatization influence symptom interpretation for female victims?

Common sense models regarding gender and stress influenced how laypeople responded to information about symptoms in 3 experiments. In Study 1, medical intervention was perceived to be less important for female targets reporting chest pain and stressful events than for male targets experiencing identical symptoms and stressors. In addition, chest pain was less likely to be attributed to cardiac causes for female targets. This gender-based stress-discounting effect was replicated for symptoms of gallstones and melanoma in Study 2, where participants again were less likely to recommend medical care for female than for male targets. Recognition memory for information about a somatizing target was tested in Study 3; results suggested that laypeople hold stereotypes associating somatization with female gender. The authors' findings provide insight into the naive theories that shape symptom interpretation and self-referral behavior.     

Selecting Job-Content Versus Job-Context Information: A Field Study of the Roles of Need for Closure and Prior Preferences

A field study was conducted in a job-interview setting among female secretarial job applicants with previously expressed preferences for receiving information either about job content or about job context. The results showed that (a) under high as opposed to low need for closure, job applicants requested more job information, whether for job content or job context; (b) across experimental conditions, subjects preferred job-context information; (c) high need for closure selectively reduced the job-context information requested by applicants who had expressed a preference for job-content characteristics as compared with subjects who had expressed a preference for job-context characteristics, but it did not reduce the need for job-content information of applicants with a job-context preference; and (d) under high need for closure, job applicants who had previously expressed a preference for job-content characteristics did, in fact, perceive job-content information as more important than job-context information, and subjects who had expressed a preference for job-context type of characteristics perceived job-context characteristics as more important.     

Female and male intravenous drug users not-in-treatment: Are they at differential risk for AIDS?

We describe and compare the drug-use patterns of ethnically diverse (45% white, 39% African American, 15% Hispanic) female and male intravenous drug users (IVDUs) not-in-treatment. Focusing on a group of hard-to-reach and economically disadvantaged IVDUs, we were able to document drug use patterns and practices that have been shown to place them at increased risk for AIDS. We were also able to examine if women IVDUs were at differential risk for AIDS in comparison to men IVDUs. Results indicated that female IVDUs practices may place them differentially at risk for contracting HIV because they were more likely than male IVDUs to share needles. When female IVDUs shared needles, they were also more likely than male IVDUs to share needles with a spouse or sexual partner. We argue that these results may be tied to gender role socialization and have important implications for designing interventions for female IVDUs.This research was supported by Grant DA01070 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to the second author.     

Gender Hierarchy in the Space: The Role of Gender Status in Shaping the Spatial Agency Bias

According to the Spatial Agency Bias (SAB), more agentic groups (men) are envisioned to the left of less agentic groups (women). This research investigated the role of social status in shaping the spatial representation of gender couples. Participants were presented pairs consisting of one male and one female target who confirmed gender stereotypes. The status of the targets in each pair was systematically varied (high-status vs. low-status job). Participants chose the target order (female/male vs. male/female) they preferred. In line with gender-status expectations (male: high-status, female: low-status), a male in a high-status job led to a spatial arrangement that favored the male/female order, regardless of the status of the female target. The female/male order was favored only when the female had a high-status job and the male a low-status job. No SAB occurred for pairs in which both targets displayed low-status jobs. The implications of status for the SAB are discussed.     

Managing discrimination in selection: the influence of directives from an authority and social dominance orientation

The authors examined one manner in which to decrease the negative impact of social dominance orientation (SDO), an individual difference variable that indicates support for the "domination of 'inferior' groups by 'superior' groups" (J. Sidanius & F. Pratto, 1999, p. 48), on the selection of candidates from low-status groups within society. Consistent with the tenets of social dominance theory, in 2 studies we found that those high in SDO reported that they were less likely to select a potential team member who is a member of a low-status group (i.e., a White female in Study 1 and a Black male in Study 2) than those low in SDO. However, explicit directives from an authority moderated this effect such that those high in SDO were more likely to select both candidates when authority figures clearly communicated that job performance indicators should be used when choosing team members. Thus, our studies suggest that the negative effects of SDO may be attenuated if those high in SDO are instructed by superiors to use legitimate performance criteria to evaluate job candidates.     

Depression,anxiety and social support in rheumatoid arthritic women without and with a spouse

Abstract

A comparison was made of income and physical, social and psychological aspects of health between 22 female patients who had never married, 127 patients living with a spouse and 53 patients who were widowed or divorced. No significant differences were found between never married patients and patients living with a spouse. The widowed or divorced patients however had a lower income, reported less potential support, more depression and anxiety than the patients who were never married and those living with a spouse. The relationship of social support to depression and anxiety was investigated in spouseless patients (n=75) and in those living with a spouse (n=127). In both groups of patients, less potential support was found to be related to more anxiety. In addition, pain was found to contribute significantly to depression and to anxiety only in the patients living with a spouse. With regard to the latter, it is suggested that the debilitating influence of pain on the relationship with the partner might have been the mediating factor.     

Managerial Support for Dual-Career Relocation Dilemmas

This study examined managerial decision making in the context of a dual-career relocation dilemma. Specifically, 143 managers and professionals responded to a memo contained in an in-basket simulation exercise that involved a dual-career employee relocation and corresponding request for spouse employment assistance. Competing theoretical predictions were tested with regard to managerial support for this dual-career work-family situation as a function of the gender of the employee. Findings indicated that managers offered more extensive assistance to the spouse of a female employee than to the spouse of a male employee. A content analysis of decision-makers' responses indicated a wide range of specific responses, with offering multiple forms of assistance being most common (27%), followed by delegating the issue to human resources (22%). The results are discussed in terms of implications for future research on managerial support for work-family and employee mobility. Practical suggestions are outlined.     

配偶情绪智力对员工工作投入的影响：员工生活幸福感的中介作用和性别的调节作用

本文关注配偶情绪智力对员工工作投入的跨领域的人际间影响。基于努力-恢复模型视角和情绪智力文献, 本文提出高情绪智力的配偶能够通过提升员工生活幸福感, 从而促进员工工作投入。此外, 通过整合社会性别角色理论, 本文进一步讨论了员工性别的调节作用。通过两个子研究, 本文发现：配偶情绪智力与员工生活幸福感之间呈现正相关关系; 员工生活幸福感与员工工作投入之间呈现正相关关系; 员工生活幸福感中介了配偶情绪智力对员工工作投入的影响; 并且, 员工性别调节了配偶情绪智力和员工生活幸福感之间的关系, 即当员工为男性时, 配偶情绪智力对该员工生活幸福感的正向影响更强; 此外, 员工性别还调节了员工生活幸福感在配偶情绪智力和员工工作投入之间起到的中介作用。本研究首次提出和检验了配偶情绪智力对员工工作投入的跨领域的人际间积极影响, 具有理论和实践上的重要意义。     

Gender bias in caregiving professions: The role of perceived warmth

One hypothesized reason for why a disproportionately low number of men enter caregiving fields is how such men are perceived. In two studies, drawing upon the Stereotype Content Model and the lack‐of‐fit model, we tested whether men would encounter more social (e.g., likeability bias) and economic (e.g., hiring or job opportunity bias) penalties than women in caregiving professions due to perceptions that men are less warm than women. In all three studies, we created job or employment materials in which the gender of the candidate or employee was manipulated. In Study 1, a female preschool teacher received higher warmth ratings than a male preschool teacher, which in turn predicted preference for the female teacher over the male teacher. In Study 2, a female social worker was rated more highly in warmth and job hireability than a male social worker; warmth also mediated the relationships between gender and both likeability and job hireability. In Study 3, a male preschool teacher was rated lower in warmth, likeability, job hireability, and job suitability than both a female preschool teacher and a preschool teacher with an unspecified gender. There were no differences between perceived competence of men and women in caregiving positions when competence was assessed. Implications for the factors that predict adverse reactions to and penalties against men in caregiving occupations, as well as interventions to combat the potential negative effects of such penalties on men's interest in caregiving careers, are discussed.     

Alcohol consumption, alcohol abuse, personality and female perpetrated spouse abuse

As part of the Winnipeg Health and Drinking Survey, this study examined the problem of female perpetrated spouse abuse and its relationship to alcohol consumption and personality. Subjects were drawn from a random sample of Winnipeg residents (N = 1257) between the ages of 18 and 65 years. For this study, data from the subsample of female subjects who were married or cohabiting (N = 452) were analyzed. Results show that more than 39% of female subjects participated in some form of spouse abuse with their male partners. Being young and having high scores on Eysenck's psychoticism scale, the Neuroticism Index and the MacAndrew Scale were found to be significant risk factors in the occurence of partner abuse among females. Also, the interaction between alcohol consumption and Eysenck's psychoticism scale was found to be a weak but significant predictor for this form of violence.