Abstract
Whereas popular wisdom often centers on character differences between women and men when explaining work-related behavior, Kanter (1977) predicted that the proportion of women and men present in organizations is the crucial factor: With unequal proportions, women (similar to other minority persons) are singled out as “tokens” and gender becomes salient, which has been theorized to have a range of negative consequences. In contrast, if proportions of women and men are similar (i.e., in the presence of gender diversity), gender is not salient, and the work environment becomes much more positive for women. These considerations imply that not only a male majority, but also a female majority at work has negative consequences, because gender becomes salient in both cases. However, empirical research on work environments with female majorities at the top of organizations is scarce. The present study tested the perception of a range of negative consequences, including work-related well-being, among women in leadership positions in Spain who reported a male majority, a female majority, or similar proportions of both genders at the top level of their organization. The online convenience sample consisted of a total of N = 649 women leaders. In addition to work-related well-being, we measured perceived work–family conflict and perceived feelings of guilt associated with work–family conflict, traditional gender stereotypes regarding warmth and competence, women-leadership stereotypes, negative work-related stereotypes of mothers, gender harassment, and stigma consciousness. Almost all of our findings support Kanter’s theorizing that equal proportions of both genders go along with more positive perceptions as compared to a male majority. However, a female majority went along with as negative perceptions as a male majority regarding several of the outcome variables, but was associated with the most positive perceptions for other outcomes. We discuss implications and possible reasons for the latter mixed findings.
Highlights
Gender diversity has been especially scarce at the leadership level
Based on a heterogeneous sample of women in leadership positions in Spain, the present study tested Kanter’s (1977) seminal gender-diversity hypothesis on various outcome variables: In spite of all other possible differences between companies and organizations, can we find evidence for the hypothesis that outcomes are more positive in the presence of gender diversity than with a male or female majority? Gender diversity was operationalized as similar proportions of both genders at the top leadership level of the organization, and outcomes were related to gender stereotyping, gender roles, and work-related well-being
Some outcomes were women’s own endorsements, others were their perceptions of the climate in their organization
Summary
Gender diversity has been especially scarce at the leadership level. Past research has obtained mixed results regarding gender diversity (or the lack thereof) and the benefits of heterogeneous versus homogeneous work teams (Bowers et al, 2000; Joshi and Roh, 2009; Shore et al, 2009). The objective of the present study was to examine the effects of different gender compositions at the top-level of organizations on a whole range of potentially important outcome variables. Drawing on Kanter’s (1977) seminal paper on gender proportions in organizations, we set out to examine the consequences of balanced gender compositions as well as male or female majorities for female leaders. We introduce each of the concepts (written in italics) below after providing some background on women’s situation in Spain, where the present study was carried out
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