Gender-Biased Implementation Support for Novel Ideas: A Theoretical Lens of Judgments of Morality

Abstract

Although gender inequality research has long recognized social and economic barriers as primary factors causing gender disparity in creative achievement, less well understood is why such barriers emerge and how they accumulate to disadvantage creative women. Drawing upon research on the ethicality of creation and social role theory, we posit that resource holders may unconsciously adopt stricter moral standards for, then impose harsher moral judgments on, novel ideas proposed by women regardless of idea usefulness. This asymmetry leads resource holders to disproportionately withhold support for implementing ideas from women. Our hypotheses were supported by results from four methodologically complementary studies situated in managerial and entrepreneurial settings including two experiments with manager participants, one archival field study of Shark Tank (2009-2019), and one survey study of organizational managers. By studying how resource holders’ gender-based double standards for moral evaluations of creative ideas affect their implementation support, our research casts light on a cumulative disadvantage process that precipitates gender stratification in creative achievements and thus, generates new insights for reducing sequential barriers that produce and perpetuate gender inequality.