Gender Dissimilarity Research Articles

Too few or too many? Exploring the Link between gender dissimilarity and employee absenteeism

Despite well-intentioned gender diversity initiatives aimed at addressing gender imbalances by ensuring minimal female representation in predominantly male groups, such tokenism often exacerbates discrimination and social isolation for these women, potentially leading to absenteeism. Research suggests that the benefits of diversity are realized only when the ratio of women to men reaches a critical threshold that allows for genuine integration and participation. However, this threshold remains uncertain. We integrate tokenism theory with social identity and status characteristics theories to investigate the effects of gender ratios within organizational teams on individual absenteeism. Specifically, we theorize a U-shaped relationship between gender dissimilarity and absenteeism for women, but not for men. Study 1, with a one-year cross-lagged design, encompassing 10,332 blue-collar workers in 1064 teams, supports the U-shaped relationship for women, while the relationship for men was non-significant. In Study 2, we use an experimental design with a sample of 370 female blue-collar workers to explore two potential mechanisms that may together explain the U-shaped gender dissimilarity effect for women. We test whether the gender composition of the work group affects both women’s likelihood of reporting unpleasant experiences and the group’s norms regarding absence. We draw theoretical and practical implications from these findings.

Does the gender dissimilarity of female mayors with their political government team affect municipalities’ budgets? Evidence from Spain

ABSTRACT Recent research has considered whether the growing presence of women in political institutions has affected public budgets. This study takes a different gender perspective. The aim is to assess how gender dissimilarity between female mayors and their government teams can affect municipal budgetary policies. We use data from Spanish municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants in the period from 2004 to 2018, a dynamic regression model and take into account the possible moderating effect of ideology. Our main findings are that gender dissimilarity of female mayors increased current social spending and reduced nonsocial spending in line with female gender preferences, while it decreased tax revenues. However, when we analyze only the years of economic growth, we observe that the gender dissimilarity of female mayors increased tax revenue in accordance with their gender preferences. We also see that the interaction between right-wing ideology and the dissimilarity of female mayors substantially and significantly accentuated the decrease in nonsocial spending. We confirm our findings in different population segments.

Trusting and Working with Robots: A Relational Demography Theory of Preference for Robotic over Human Co-Workers

Organizations are facing the new challenge of integrating humans and robots into one cohesive workforce. Relational demography theory (RDT) explains the impact of dissimilarities on when and why humans trust and prefer to work with others. This paper proposes that RDT would be a useful lens to help organizations understand how to integrate humans and robots into a cohesive workforce. We proposed a research model based on RDT and examined dissimilarities in gender and co-worker type (human vs. robot) along with dissimilarities in work style and personality. To empirically examine the research model, two experiments were conducted with 347 and 422 warehouse workers. Results show that the negative impacts of gender, work style, and personality dissimilarities on swift trust depended on the co-worker type. Gender dissimilarity had a stronger negative impact on swift trust in a robot co-worker, while work style and personality had a weaker negative impact on swift trust in a robot co-worker. Also, swift trust in a robot co-worker increased the preference for a robot co-worker over a human co-worker, while swift trust in a human co-worker decreased such preferences. Overall, this research contributes to our current understanding of human–robot collaboration by identifying the importance of dissimilarity from the perspective of RDT.

What if the supervisor has a different gender? The roles of value fit, identification, and beliefs in gender equality

In the past decades, the number of female employees and managers has strongly increased in most developed countries. This demographic development emphasizes the importance to investigate gender dissimilarity between employees and their supervisor and how it can be managed to elicit beneficial gender dissimilarity effects on employees’ attitudes and interpersonal interactions. Past gender dissimilarity research often assumes women and men to have different values. Due to these value differences, women and men should be less satisfied with a supervisor who has a different gender. However, past research reported inconsistent gender dissimilarity effects on employees’ satisfaction and other work-related satisfaction variables. To clarify gender dissimilarity effects on employees’ satisfaction with their supervisor, we analyze the moderating role of an employee’s beliefs in gender equality. We further draw on social identity theory and investigate value fit with the supervisor and identification with the supervisor as underlying mechanisms of gender dissimilarity effects. To test our research model, we conducted a three-wave survey study with 463 employees. Value fit and identification with the supervisor mediated the relationship between gender dissimilarity and employees’ satisfaction with supervisor. This indirect relationship was only significant for employees with low beliefs in gender equality. This means high beliefs in gender equality can offset dysfunctional gender dissimilarity effects.

Principal–teacher gender (dis)similarity as a moderator in the relationship between paternalistic leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour in the Arab minority in Israel

Relying on the similarity attraction paradigm and self-categorisation theories, the current study examines how principal–teacher gender (dis)similarity affects the emergence of paternalistic leadership and the influences of such leadership on teachers’ organisational citizenship behaviour in the Arab minority in Israel. Data were collected from a sample of 180 randomly selected teachers and their principals from elementary schools in the Arab education system in Israel (180 dyads). MANCOVA, ANCOVA, hierarchical regression analyses and structural equation modelling were used to test the proposed relationships. The results of the overall model indicated that principal–teacher gender dissimilarity affected the emergence of paternalistic leadership and its influences on teachers’ organisational citizenship behaviour. Specifically, in the case of principal–teacher gender dissimilarity, paternalistic leadership contributed to improving organisational citizenship behaviour. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Gender and Ethnic Dissimilarity and Organizational Embeddedness: A Study of Team Climates

Drawing upon relational demography and conservation of resources theory, we study the relationship between gender and ethnic dissimilarity and organizational embeddedness to understand why dissimilar employees stay in their work organizations. Further, we study the role of team justice climate and climate for inclusion as moderators ameliorating this adverse effect. The study was conducted on 82 work teams in Malaysia. We conducted this study in a unique national context where a societal numerical minority—Chinese—has higher socioeconomic status than the Malay majority, as well as less gender egalitarianism than Western countries. The results show that climate for inclusion ameliorated adverse ethnic dissimilarity effects on organizational embeddedness, but not for gender dissimilarity, and that justice climate ameliorated adverse gender and ethnic dissimilarity effects on organizational embeddedness. Further, the ameliorating effects of justice and inclusive climates were more pronounced for women and non-Chinese employees, demographic groups who are more sensitive to justice and inclusion due to lower status and relative lack of social and material resources in the workplace. Our study points to the importance of fostering positive team climates for justice and inclusion to retain traditionally underrepresented employees in Malaysia and other nations.

Does it Pay to Stand Out? Examining the Effect of Gender Dissimilarity on Women’s Pay in Tech

Does it Pay to Stand Out? Examining the Effect of Gender Dissimilarity on Women’s Pay in Tech

Team members' reactions to a gender‐dissimilar leader: Competence monitoring and influence

Team members' reactions to a gender‐dissimilar leader: Competence monitoring and influence

Acting on Leader's Emotions: How and When Emotion Recognition Ability Motivates Voice?

PurposeEmployee voice has been considered as an important means to understand the cutting-edge information, gain social status and performance advantage for leaders, employees and the organization, respectively. However, our knowledge about how and when employees’ emotions influence voice remains limited.Design/Methodology/ApproachIn order to better illustrate the role of emotion on voice, based on emotion as social information theory and similarity attraction theory, we proposed a research model through which emotion recognition ability affects voice via perceived ambidextrous leadership. A sample of 182 comprised of full-time employees and their 43 immediate supervisors was collected through questionnaires in China, and analyzed via hierarchical regression method.FindingsWe found that subordinate’s emotional recognition ability has a significant positive effect on promotive and prohibitive voice, and that perceived ambidextrous leadership plays a significant mediating role between subordinate’s emotional recognition ability and promotive voice, while no mediating role is found between subordinate’s emotional recognition ability and prohibitive voice. In addition, in contrast to leader-subordinate gender dissimilarity, leader-subordinate gender similarity is more effective in strengthening the impact of emotion recognition ability on perceived ambidextrous leadership, and thus promotes employee voice.Originality/ValueThis research not only advances our understanding of employee voice, but also provides specific reference for management practices from the perspective of gender.

The Combined Impact of Workplace and Occupational Gender Composition on Workers’ Mental Health and Employment Consequences

ABSTRACT We examine whether the gender composition of one’s workplace influences mental health and employment consequences and whether these associations vary for men and women. We test the impact of perceived gender dissimilarity and the aggregate averaged gender composition of the respondent’s occupation. Our study is situated in the mid 2000’s, when women’s labor market participation was comparable to men’s. We use nationally-representative individual-level data from the American Work Stress and Health Survey matched to occupation-level data. We find perceived gender-dissimilarity is associated with worse mental health and employment consequences in feminized occupations. Respondents’ gender partially impacts these associations.

Together forever? The relation between (dis)similar demographics in politico-administrative relationships and executive turnover

Turnover among top executives in government organizations warrants our research interest because of their importance for executive politics, public policy, and the management and performance of public organizations. Whereas the literature so far has primarily studied political, organizational and individual antecedents of turnover, we focus on the relational level. Based on homosocial reproduction, relational demography and social identify theory, we hypothesize that demographic similarities between senior executives and their political counterparts influence executive turnover. Using longitudinal register data of Danish mayors and chief administrative officers (CAOs), our results suggest that gender dissimilarity (specifically, a male mayor and a female CAO) increases the risk of CAO turnover. Similarly, the risk of CAO turnover is higher when the CAO is older than the mayor. Contrary to expectations, however, differences in education reduces turnover risk (specifically when the CAO has more education than the mayor). Our study illustrates the relevance of understanding turnover as a relational phenomenon based on factors beyond rational, political, and functional explanations.

The Welfare State and the Gender Dissimilarity Index in Homelessness: A Comparison of Norway, Belgium and Poland

This article investigates the structural underpinnings of gender dissimilarities in homelessness from a comparative perspective. The Gender Dissimilarity Index is introduced as a simple measure for quantifying the unevenness of the distribution of men and women across the ETHOS-light categories. Three gendered aspects of the welfare state are considered and compared for Norway, Belgium, and Poland: employment and childcare, housing, and homelessness policies. Based on available data, it appears that the most uneven distribution of genders may indicate a combination of the promotion of the male breadwinner model and relatively broad support for people who are homeless, but also the shortage of affordable housing. A more gender-balanced homeless population may be the result of a combination of housing-led approaches and degenderising policies. However, a similar distribution may be attributed to states with implicitly genderising policies coupled with ‘traditional’ attitudes towards gender roles and a lack of adequate responses to women’s needs.

Gender dissimilarity between subject and object facilitates online-comprehension of agent–patient–relations in German: An eye-tracking study with 6- to 10-year-old monolingual children

In this eye-tracking study, we examined whether gender dissimilarity between the case-marked subject and object noun phrases in a subject-verb-object (SVO) or object-verb-subject sentence (OVS) was used to predict thematic roles (agent and patient) and facilitate the grammatical analyses needed for thematic role assignment. Forty-two German-speaking 6- to 10-year-old children looked at two drawings depicting an action between two figures while listening to a sentence. One drawing matched the sentence, but the other showed the figures’ thematic roles reversed. For half of the sentences, each figure's thematic role could be predicted shortly after stimulus onset from the gender of the first word (an article) due to gender dissimilarity between the subject and the object. For the other sentences, children had to wait at least until they heard the first noun of the sentence. Our results confirmed that the children shifted their looks earlier and more confidently to the target in SVO sentences with gender-dissimilar noun phrases. Results for OVS sentences were not so clear-cut: a sentence-final facilitation effect of gender dissimilarity was only visible subsequently when agent and patient were analyzed separately. Our findings are discussed with respect to different approaches to the role of gender processing in sentence comprehension.

PATTERN OF DENTAL OCCLUSION IN A POPULATION OF URHOBO SUBJECTS IN ABRAKA, NIGERIA

The closing order of superior and inferior teeth whilst chewing or at relaxation is termed dental occlusion. Literature exploration divulged want of information on dental occlusion among the Urhobos in Delta State, Nigeria. The endeavour of this work was to consider varied dental occlusion patterns and explore gender variation in dental occlusion patterns amongst the Urhobo tribal cluster in Abraka, Nigeria. Totality of 384 citizens (200 females and 184 males) who were within 15-30 years age set were engaged in this inquisition. The gender gap is a depiction of the male/female scattering in the appraised populace. Records on dental occlusion patterns were composed by having the subjects’ bite, gulp saliva, occlude and open their mouths. The connexion of the upper and lower teeth was labelled as mild overbite, edge to edge bite, negative bite or severe overbite as specified by Eveleth in 1972. Inferential statistics were explored using chi-square by means of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 23 and significance level were determined by p < .05. The dental occlusion patterns observed were mild overbite 168 (43.4%), edge-edge bite 146 (38.2%), severe overbite 70 (18.4%) with no negative overbite 0 (0%). The gender dissimilarity in dental occlusion pattern was not notable (p>.05). Mild overbite is preponderant and severe overbite is infrequent amid the Urhobos in Abraka, Nigeria.

Registry of the Egyptian specialized hypertension clinics: Sex-related differences in clinical characteristics and hypertension management among low socioeconomic hypertensive patients.

Hypertension is a major modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) which is a leading cause of death in developing countries affecting both genders. Gender dissimilarity in clinical characteristics and hypertension (HTN) management among hypertensive patients has been reported in several reports before. The aim was to detect sex differences in clinical characteristics and HTN management among Egyptian hypertensive patients. Data from 4701 hypertensive patients attending 9 university located Specialized Hypertension clinic (SHC) were collected from October 2014 to September 2017. The collected data included demographics, cardiovascular risk profile, hypertension‐related history, anthropometric and blood pressure (BP) measurements, antihypertensive medications used, number of patients attending the follow‐up visits, and HTN control rate. Females represented 58.5% of the recruited patients, they were younger, with higher BMI, lower education level, and employment rate compared with males. Females had lower mean office systolic and diastolic BP than males (144.2 ± 22.6 vs. 146.5 ± 22.0 mmHg and 88.1 ± 13.0 vs. 89.9 ± 12.6 mmHg, respectively) and lower rate of uncontrolled BP (54.8% vs. 61.1% in males P < .001). Antihypertensive drugs were comparable among both sexes except for angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors which were more prescribed in males. Compliance to antihypertensive medications was better in females (63.6% vs. 60.1% in males, P = .015). To conclude, Egyptian hypertensive females have different clinical characteristics as compared to their counterpart males with better BP control, adherence to antihypertensive medications, lower systolic and diastolic BP, and no major differences in the prescribed antihypertensive distribution.

The role of intersectionality in exploring the asymmetrical effects of demographic dissimiliarity on employees

By linking intersectionality to relational demography, this study examines the effects of different gender and racial contexts on overall satisfaction with job and organization among four employee groups in U.S. federal agencies: minority women, minority men, White women, and White men. As opposed to previous research that treated each demographic identity as an independent category, this study considers the intersection of privileged and marginalized identities to help illuminate varying organizational experiences among different employee groups. The analyses find that all four employee groups react negatively to an increased minority percentage and positively to an increased female percentage in their organizations. In general, Whites are affected by gender and racial dissimilarity to a greater extent than minorities. However, the extent to which gender and racial dissimilarity have significant impacts differs between Whites and minority women, but not between White women and minority men. This study discusses the implications of these findings and calls for a consideration of intersectionality in relational demography research.

Elucidation of Gut Microbiota-Associated Lipids Using LC-MS/MS and 16S rRNA Sequence Analyses.

SummaryHost-microbiota interactions create a unique metabolic milieu that modulates intestinal environments. Integration of 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) sequences and mass spectrometry (MS)-based lipidomics has a great potential to reveal the relationship between bacterial composition and the complex metabolic network in the gut. In this study, we conducted untargeted lipidomics followed by a feature-based molecular MS/MS spectral networking to characterize gut bacteria-dependent lipid subclasses in mice. An estimated 24.8% of lipid molecules in feces were microbiota-dependent, as judged by > 10-fold decrease in antibiotic-treated mice. Among these, there was a series of unique and microbiota-related lipid structures, including acyl alpha-hydroxyl fatty acid (AAHFA) that was newly identified in this study. Based on the integrated analysis of 985 lipid profiles and 16S rRNA sequence data providing 2,494 operational taxonomic units, we could successfully predict the bacterial species responsible for the biosynthesis of these unique lipids, including AAHFA.

Abusive Supervision in Agencies: The Role of Gender in Reporting and Complaint Success

ABSTRACT Even though studies often examine supervisory acts of non-physical aggression (i.e., abusive supervision) towards subordinates, most examine either the antecedents or the adverse outcomes of abusive supervision. Similar to physical and sexual abuse, many organizations, especially in the public sector, have a process in place to handle abusive supervision. Yet research has largely ignored what happens during this process. More specifically, no studies were found to examine subordinate reporting of abusive supervision (i.e., non-violent behaviors that are non-sexual) and whether complainants were effective. Furthermore, scholars recently called for aggression research to examine the role gender plays in this process. The present study seeks to fill this lacuna in the literature, by investigating the impact of gender in reporting abusive supervision and complaint success. After examining Merit Principles Survey Path 1, several interesting findings emerged. First, the gender of the subordinate and the hierarchical aggressor were found to impact reporting decisions. Gender dissimilarity (i.e., the gender mismatch between the subordinate and the manager) did not seem to affect reporting decisions. Next, the gender of the subordinate was found to affect complaint success, while the gender of the hierarchical aggressor did not. Nevertheless, gender dissimilarity did affect complaint success. The implications of the findings are thoroughly discussed in the article.

Differences among women in response to workplace incivility

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the consequences of experienced workplace incivility when female employees perceive that they are different from their workgroup. The authors examine how women’s perceptions of demographic dissimilarity from their workgroup moderate the relationships between incivility and psychological wellbeing, and between incivility and turnover intentions.Design/methodology/approachA total of 125 female employees of a post-secondary institution participated in this study. Participants were recruited through an electronic mailing list over the course of one month and completed an online survey.FindingsExperienced workplace incivility among females is related to poorer psychological wellbeing and higher turnover intentions. Controlling for actual age and gender dissimilarity at the department level, perceived gender dissimilarity from one’s workgroup moderated the workplace incivility-turnover intentions relationship, whereby the relationship was strengthened at low, but not high levels of experienced incivility. Perceived gender dissimilarity did not moderate the incivility–psychological wellbeing relationship. Perceived age dissimilarity was not a significant moderator.Research limitations/implicationsThe role of perceived dissimilarity and other personal contextual variables should be considered in future work on selective incivility. Perceived dissimilarity can influence some of the negative outcomes associated with incivility, particularly at low levels.Originality/valueThis research extends the selective incivility literature by incorporating a relational demography perspective to the study of female targets’ experience of workplace incivility. Findings suggest that perceptions of difference may affect the interpretation and outcomes associated with females’ experience of incivility.

The Role of Dispositional and Social Factors in Argentinian and Spanish Women’s Sexuality

This study examines the role of sociocultural and dispositional factors in the sexual expressions of young Argentinian and Spanish women. Three hundred young women self-evaluated their sexual practices, sexual orientation, and relationships. Results reveal differences in women’s sexuality based on societal and dispositional variables. The latter seem to play a more important role in those sexual behaviors that are normative in Hispanic traditions, whereas gender dissimilarity is more relevant when these behaviors are socially censured. Therefore, women’s sexuality in Hispanic traditions, such as in Argentina and Spain, seems to be more complex than past studies reported.