A Tale of Two Gender Roles: The Effects of Implicit and Explicit Gender Role Traditionalism and Occupational Stereotype on Hiring Decisions

Abstract

The current study examined how individual difference characteristics of an evaluator could affect real-world decisions, such as hiring decisions. Specifically, this study examined the gender role traditionalism of an evaluator, and whether this traditionalism interacted with occupational stereotypes during a laboratory simulated hiring decision. Gender role stereotypes were activated using a priming task, then participants evaluated male and female job applicants on a variety of work-related skills, ultimately selecting applicants for either a traditionally masculine or feminine position. Analyses revealed that applicants were more often selected for a position in which the occupation stereotype matched their gender suggesting an effect of an evaluator’s gender role traditionalism. In addition, those participants indicating that they held more traditional gender role beliefs tended to favor male applicants in their evaluations. Finally, the activation of ideas incongruent with traditional gender role stereotypes resulted in higher ratings on work-related skills from all participants, though these ratings did not seem to impact the overall hiring decision. This study highlights the impact of individual difference characteristics of an evaluator during a hiring decision, and identifies some possible ways to move toward a more impartial hiring process to reduce gender biases in hiring.