ENVISIONING ONESELF AS A LEADER: COMPARISONS OF WOMEN AND MEN IN SPAIN AND THE UNITED STATES

In an examination of aspirations for leadership in the United States and Spain, male and female students envisioned themselves as a chief executive officer, vice president, or mid-level manager in an industry with a feminine image (clothing manufacturing) or a masculine image (auto manufacturing). Although men and women perceived these roles as equally positive, women perceived them as less possible and less facilitative of close relationships and gender relationships. Other gender effects included more positive perceptions of the roles by women in the feminine industry and by men in the masculine industry. Cross-nationally men perceived the roles as more positive than women did only in Spain, and U.S. students perceived the roles as more possible than Spanish students did.     

WHO FILLS OUT A "LESBIAN" QUESTIONNAIRE?

Most research on lesbians has used self-report questionnaires, and assumed that respondents who complete a "lesbian" questionnaire self-identify as lesbians and engage in sexual relationships with women. The present study examined the degree to which 2,393 women who answered a "Lesbian Wellness Survey" are distributed on five aspects of lesbian sexuality and the coming-out process. The five aspects were: (a) Sexual Orientation (numerical rating of sexual identity from exclusively lesbian/gay to exclusively heterosexual); (b) Years Out (length of time of self-identity as lesbian/gay/bisexual); (c) Outness/Disclosure (amount of disclosure of sexual orientation to others); (d) Sexual Experience (proportion of sexual relationships with women); and (e) Lesbian Activities (extent of participation in lesbian community events). Mild but significant correlations were found among these dimensions, indicating that being lesbian is not a homogeneous experience. Closer examination by the demographic characteristics of race/ethnicity and age revealed a diversity of experience. African American, Native American, and Latina respondents had moderate correlations among these aspects of lesbian experience, whereas White and Asian American respondents evidenced only mild or nonsignificant correlations. The results indicate that researchers who are studying one aspect of the lesbian experience (e.g., outness to others) need to ensure that they are not assuming such behavior based on other dimensions (such as frequent participation in lesbian community activities or years of being out), especially among White and Asian American lesbians.     

The right thing to do or the smart thing to do? How communicating moral or business motives for diversity affects the employment image of Dutch public and private sector organizations

Many organizations have diversity statements in place in which they publicly declare their appreciation of and commitment to workforce diversity. These statements can either contain moral motives (e.g., “diversity reduces social inequalities”), business motives (e.g., “diversity enhances innovation”), or a combination of moral and business motives. In a desk study involving 182 Dutch organizations, we found that (a) private sector organizations more often than public sector organizations communicate business motives, (b) that public and private sector organizations are equally likely to communicate moral motives, and (c) that public sector organizations more frequently than private sector organizations communicate a combination of moral and business motives. Next, we used an experimental design to examine the causal influence of communicating different diversity motives on organizations' employment image (i.e., perceptions of organizational morality, competence, and attractiveness) among prospective employees (n = 393). Here, we used a scenario in which a healthcare organization was portrayed as either a public or a private sector organization and communicated either only moral motives, only business motives or a combination of moral and business motives for diversity. We found that for a public sector organization communicating moral instead of business motives for valuing diversity induced a more favorable employment image. For a private sector organization, there were no differences in employment image depending on the motive communicated. Together, these two studies shed new light on the role of diversity motives in establishing a positive employment image.