Prescriptive Gender Stereotypes Research Articles

Gender and sex in starting up: a social stereotype approach

ABSTRACT This article analyses the influence of gender stereotypes in entrepreneurship by jointly studying the effect of gender-role orientation (GRO) and sex (women vs. men) on the entrepreneurial intentions (EI) and actions of individuals. Entrepreneurship is associated with the typical male stereotype in most societies, leading to a lower rate of women entrepreneurs. Our model builds on social role theory (SRT) to identify how descriptive and prescriptive gender stereotypes exert this influence. It integrates SRT and the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to analyse the differential effect of sex and GRO on entrepreneurial motivations, intentions, and new venture creation behaviours. We test our model on a sample of highly educated adults in Spain using a longitudinal research design. Our results indicate that descriptive gender stereotypes influence individuals’ entrepreneurial motivations and intentions depending on their GRO. Androgynous people (women and men alike) exhibit the most favourable perceptions regarding entrepreneurship, and, through them, a higher EI (compared to masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated GRO individuals). In turn, prescriptive gender stereotypes affect individuals’ actual venture creation depending on their biological sex. Men are significantly more likely to act on their EIs and launch their venture than are women.

The Effects of a Targeted Intervention on Descriptive and Prescriptive Gender Stereotypes among Primary School Teachers

The Effects of a Targeted Intervention on Descriptive and Prescriptive Gender Stereotypes among Primary School Teachers

Barriers for women in the workplace: A social psychological perspective

AbstractWe present a social psychological perspective on the barriers that women face in the workplace. We begin by reviewing the prevailing theories of gender differences such as social role theory, role congruity theory, and prescriptive gender norms and stereotypes and then extrapolate from these social psychological mechanisms for gender differences in organizations to explain various barriers, including discrimination, prejudice, performance devaluation, backlash, and more. The genesis of many of these barriers thus result from the prescriptive, at times constrictive, social expectations that influence both the external social sanctions applied to women's behavior as well as women's individual preferences. We then review four domains in which women and men differ in their preferences and behavior in the workplace: leadership, decision‐making, negotiation, and influence. Finally, we acknowledge how the concept of gender is continuing to evolve, discuss its implications for economic inequality, and pose questions that will update our understanding of women in the workplace in the future.

Women and Credibility

This article examines the situations and tactics that cause gender discrimination with inside the place of business and preclude lady's profession advancement. It examines how descriptive and prescriptive gender stereotypes gasoline inequalities with inside the selection, promotion, and assessment of women through diverse mechanisms. Gender stereotypes that describe what ladies and men are like inspire discriminatory conduct with the aid of using contributing to the expectancy that ladies are unwilling to expect historically male positions. Also, recall how prescriptive gender stereotypes that dictate how guys and women must be like inspire discrimination. Behaviours that inspire disapproval and social sanctions for women. Gender discrimination segregation can sabotage financial improvement of any general public. The conventional techniques for separation are exceptionally normal like oppression ladies in positions. The course of advancement itself will make a number weaknesses for ladies. One of the primary and developing worries during the time spent improvement is the issue of feasible turn of events. This is ordinarily checked out according to the perspective of over-the-top corruption of assets prompting decreased pay age for people in the future. Women's global empowerment is a novel notion. The subject of women's empowerment has gained traction among university researchers from the second part of the twentieth century, and on both national and international stages. However, the notion was not well-ingrained in the governments' minds. Strategies and initiatives until 1975, when the 'Women's Decade' was declared. Despite this, the Indian government quickly granted citizenship to all people, regardless of caste, creed, sex, or colour. It was mostly contained in documents after Independence, and the majority of women were basically oblivious to it. Until the latter decade of the previous century, they were powerless. Given their poor socioeconomic status, researchers, bureaucrats, and governments have begun to place a greater emphasis on women's empowerment. Women's progress in India is slow due to the country's feudal system. The problems and reality of this scenario are discussed in this essay. It urges the government, political decision-makers, NGOs, and other stakeholders to work together to support women's overall development in order to help India become a developed country.

Recognition of power: The agency of Kurdish women in their everyday practices

Anthropological work on Kurdish women has hitherto adopted western stereotypes of power, representing it as non-existent, as women being deprived of agency in everyday practices, or totally politicized. In order to challenge prescriptive gender stereotypes, moving beyond objectification to subjectivity and offering a more complex analysis of gender relations, this study examines the position of women within their family and wider social structures in Şırnak in Turkish Kurdistan based on a sample of local women who are not employed in paid work, and their children. The implications of the results are discussed in order to enable understanding of the social structures that make it possible for women in Şırnak to exercise informal decision-making authority or to be part of the social power structures as subjects, highlighting their importance in household management and showing that ‘power’ does not necessarily equate straightforwardly with western understandings.

What is (Non-)Feminine and What is (Non-)Masculine? Negative Prescriptive Gender Stereotypes of Young Women in Poland - Between Change and Return to Traditional Patterns

The research presented in the article focused on negative prescriptive stereotypes of femininity and masculinity. The aim of the research performed was to identify definitions of non-femininity and non-masculinity of student women. The study was conducted using a diagnostic survey method and a self-completed survey questionnaire on a randomly selected sample of 1152 female students. Statistical processing was performed in the PS IMAGO statistical package. Analysis revealed that female students’ definitions of non-femininity and non-masculinity mainly reflect the traditional model of femininity and masculinity, but attitudes towards the obligatory validity of this model are waning.

Fear of Backlash Moderates Female Senior Executives' Communion (but Not Agency) as Compared to Female Lecturers.

Today, many women work in occupational roles that had once been dominated by men (e.g., senior business executives). However, expectations on senior executives to be agentic (e.g., assertive, dominant) may conflict with prescriptive stereotypes about women to be communal (e.g., helpful, warm). According to this double-bind dilemma, female senior executives get criticized for lacking either agency or communion as both dimensions can be perceived as posing a tradeoff. We hypothesize that female senior executives report higher levels of agency and lower levels of communion than women in a more neutral role (e.g., lecturers) due to the perceived requirements of these occupational roles. In Study 1, N = 212 students rated adjectives on their desirability for men vs. women in Chinese society. They rated agentic characteristics as more desirable for men and communal characteristics as more desirable for women. Studies 2 and 3 used this material. Study 2 randomly assigned N = 207 female students to the role of a senior executive vs. lecturer. Study 3 was conducted with N = 202 female role occupants (96 senior executives, 106 lecturers). As expected, female senior executives reported higher levels of agency and lower levels of communion than female lecturers in both studies. Some women may be particularly aware of the above-mentioned double-bind dilemma and may be more worried about the potential backlash than others. They may attempt to reconcile occupational demands (i.e., higher agency, lower communion) with prescriptive gender stereotypes (i.e., lower agency, higher communion). We, therefore, explored whether fear of backlash attenuates the effect of the type of role of women (senior executives vs. lecturers) on agency and communion. Indeed, we found that senior executives who were particularly worried about backlash reported almost as much communion as lecturers did. In contrast, senior executives consistently reported higher levels of agency than lecturers regardless of their fear of backlash. The present study documents prescriptive gender stereotypes in China, how women differ as a function of their occupational roles, and how fear of backlash may motivate female senior executives to reconcile having high levels of both agency and communion.

Gender role (in-)congruity and resource-provider gender biases: a conceptual model

PurposeExisting entrepreneurship literature has provided mixed evidence as to whether resource providers discriminate against female-led innovative start-up ventures in their resource commitment decisions either in terms of the likelihood or conditions of resource provision. While some studies revealed evidence indicative of negative discrimination against female entrepreneurs, others have provided evidence suggestive of positive discrimination. In light of these divergent findings, the purpose of this paper is to develop a more nuanced and integrative approach to studying gender biases in entrepreneurial resource provision with greater attention paid to both moderating contingency factors and mediating mechanisms.Design/methodology/approachThe authors develop a conceptual model and empirically testable propositions describing whether, how and when entrepreneurial resource providers are likely to under-, over- and equivalue female-led innovative start-up ventures relative to equivalent male-led start-up ventures. The model applies not only to institutional or private investors as providers of financial capital to start-up ventures as discussed extensively in extant entrepreneurship literature but also to prospective employees as providers of human capital and prospective consumers as providers of money in exchange for an entrepreneurial product or service. The authors discuss the gender-typing of the entrepreneur's core product/service offering as a key contingency factor likely to moderate the proposed relation. The authors further delineate the importance of what they refer to as the “first”- and “second-order” mediating mechanisms underlying the hypothesized relation between resource provider evaluations of the male versus female founder-CEO, the attractiveness of his/her start-up venture and the (conditions of) resource provision to their start-ups.FindingsBuilding on social-psychological theories of descriptive and prescriptive gender stereotypes and extant entrepreneurship literature, the authors establish that gender biases are likely to occur because of resource providers' perceptions of women entrepreneurs at the helm of male-typed start-up ventures to be less competent and agentic, as well as less warm and other-oriented than equivalent male entrepreneurs leading male-typed start-up ventures. The authors discuss the implications of such gender-biased evaluations for the application of stricter performance standards to female-led-male-typed start-up ventures and the likelihood and conditions of resource provision to their companies. The authors further discuss why and when female founder-CEOs of a female-typed (gender-neutral) start-up venture are likely to be overvalued (equivalued) compared to equivalent male founder-CEOs. The authors also develop propositions on additional contingency factors and mediators of the gendered evaluations of founder-CEOs and their start-up ventures, including resource providers' “second-order” gender beliefs, the high-cost versus low-cost resource commitment, individual differences in gender stereotyping and the perceived entrepreneurial commitment of the founder-CEO. The authors conclude by suggesting some practical implications for how to mitigate gender biases and discrimination by prospective resource providers.Originality/valueDiscussing the implications of descriptive and prescriptive gender stereotypes on evaluative decisions of entrepreneurial resources providers, this study advances not only the women's entrepreneurship literature but also the more-established scholarship on the role of gender stereotypes for women's advancement opportunities in the corporate world that has traditionally viewed entrepreneurship as the solution for women fleeing the gender-stereotype-based discrimination in the corporate setting to advance their careers.

Beyond adherence to justice rules: How and when manager gender contributes to diminished legitimacy in the aftermath of unfair situations

SummaryUnfair situations are a reality of organizational life. Although managers are typically advised to enact justice (i.e., adhere to justice rules) to mitigate negative employee reactions to unfair situations, the subjective nature of fairness suggests that employees may still react negatively to managers, regardless of managers' adherence to justice rules. Integrating fairness theory with social role theory, we propose that prescriptive gender stereotypes can differentially influence employees' reactions toward female (versus male) managers in the aftermath of unfair situations. Across two studies, female (versus male) managers were especially likely to experience diminished legitimacy in the aftermath of unfair situations, regardless of their adherence to justice rules. Moreover, these effects were especially likely to emerge for situations that reflected isolated versus ongoing issues. In turn, diminished legitimacy prompted negative employee behaviors that can detract from managerial effectiveness (e.g., withdrawal of manager‐directed citizenship behaviors, enhanced negative gossip about the manager, and increased resistance behaviors). Theoretical and practical contributions include recognizing the importance of broadening focus beyond adherence to justice rules to understand employees' reactions and managers' experiences, acknowledging the impact of gender in the context of fairness, and highlighting that upward‐directed gender bias may contribute to the (un)intentional undermining of female managers.

Transgender and Cisgender Children’s Stereotypes and Beliefs About Others’ Stereotypes

Early in childhood, children already have an awareness of prescriptive stereotypes—or beliefs about what a girl or boy should do (e.g., “girls should play with dolls”). In the present work, we investigate the relation between children’s own prescriptive gender stereotypes and their perceptions of others’ prescriptive gender stereotypes within three groups of children previously shown to differ in their prescriptive stereotyping—6- to 11-year-old transgender children (N = 93), cisgender siblings of transgender children (N = 55), and cisgender controls (N = 93). Cisgender and transgender children did not differ in their prescriptive stereotypes or their perceptions of others’ prescriptive stereotypes, though the relationship between these variables differed by group. The more cisgender control children believed others held prescriptive stereotypes, the more they held those stereotypes, a relation that did not exist for transgender children. Further, all groups perceived the stereotypes of others to be more biased than their own stereotypes.

Gender Stereotypes and Preconception Health: Men's and Women's Expectations of Responsibility and Intentions to Engage in Preventive Behaviors.

Introduction As mounting evidence underscores the importance of both men and women taking steps before pregnancy to improve reproductive outcomes, public health priorities are shifting toward a more gender-inclusive program of promoting preconception health (PCH). This study examined whether prescriptive gender stereotypes, defined as men's and women's beliefs about PCH behavioral norms each gender should uphold, were positively associated with intentions to engage in behaviors to protect a future child's health. Methods Data came from a June 2017 online survey of 609 U.S. men and women ages 18-44. Two six-item scales of prescriptive same- and opposite-gender stereotypes were used to predict a six-item scale of intentions to engage in six recommended PCH behaviors (i.e., avoiding smoking, secondhand smoke, drinking, exposure to bisphenol A and pesticides, and preventing Zika infection). Multiple linear regression models also adjusted for demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics. Results Among both male and female respondents, PCH prescriptive gender stereotypes for men were rated significantly lower than those for women. Adjusting for covariates, stronger prescriptive same-gender stereotypes were associated with increased PCH intentions (men: B = 0.496, p < 0.001; women: B = 0.486, p < 0.001). Opposite-gender stereotypes were also positively associated with PCH intentions (men: B = 0.205, p < 0.001; women: B = 0.235, p < 0.001). Current every day smoking status (men and women), being uninsured (women only), and having children (women only) were also associated with lower PCH intentions. Conclusion Prescriptive gender stereotypes may play an important, yet slightly different, role in promoting PCH behavior among men and women.

Obituaries of Female and Male Leaders From 1974 to 2016 Suggest Change in Descriptive but Stability of Prescriptive Gender Stereotypes

We analyzed 1415 newspaper obituaries of female and male leaders published in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland from 1974 to 2016, covering a time-span of 42 years, to investigate change in descriptive and prescriptive gender stereotypes. The obituaries’ content was condensed to four categories: agency, competence, and communion were used to investigate changes in descriptive stereotypes. The category likability was used to infer changes in prescriptive stereotypes. Consistent with theories claiming changeability of stereotypes, our results indicate changes in descriptive stereotypes. Female leaders were described as increasingly agentic over time, but not as increasingly competent. Descriptions regarding communion remained unchanged. In contrast, the description of male leaders remained relatively stable at first, followed by changes in recent years, where men were described as decreasingly competent and increasingly communal. Simultaneously, our results support theories suggesting stability of stereotypes over time indicating unchanged prescriptive stereotypes. Accordingly, increases in female leaders’ agency were associated with decreases in likability. In male leaders, increases in communion were associated with decreases in likability. Overall, our results reconcile divided theories regarding the changeability of gender stereotypes. Furthermore, our results emphasize that research and praxis need to enhance attention on prescriptive stereotypes to facilitate female leadership.

Reactions to men’s and women’s counterproductive work behavior

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to clarify the nature of counterproductive work behavior (CWB) gender stereotypicality, and to consider whether despite efforts to systematically evaluate employees through formalized performance appraisal processes, gender-stereotypic bias is likely to enter into performance management systems.Design/methodology/approachStudy 1 used archival data from 197 federal employees to explore actual punishment recommendations allocated to men and women who engaged in a variety of CWBs. Study 2 tested the causal effect of gender stereotypicality on punishment recommendations with 47 EMBA students who participated in a laboratory study.FindingsStudy 1 revealed an interaction between appellant gender and CWB stereotypicality with regard to termination decisions suggesting that women who engage in stereotypical (i.e. feminine) CWBs and men who engage in stereotypical (i.e. masculine) CWBs are more likely to be terminated than women and men who engage in gender counter-stereotypic CWB. Study 2 revealed that women (not men) tended to receive harsher punishment recommendations for stereotypical (i.e. feminine) CWB than for counter-stereotypical (i.e. masculine) CWB.Practical implicationsFindings illustrate that punishments are not universally extreme, as men and women are denigrated differentially depending on the stereotypicality of their behavior. The current research affirms that there are social constructions for evaluating performance that may continue to confound evaluations of performance.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies to explore the gendered nature of CWB and supports the argument that prescriptive gender stereotypes shape reactions to CWBs.

Comparing Prescriptive and Descriptive Gender Stereotypes About Children, Adults, and the Elderly.

Gender stereotypes have descriptive components, or beliefs about how males and females typically act, as well as prescriptive components, or beliefs about how males and females should act. For example, women are supposed to be nurturing and avoid dominance, and men are supposed to be agentic and avoid weakness. However, it is not clear whether people hold prescriptive gender stereotypes about children of different age groups. In addition, research has not addressed prescriptive gender stereotypes for the elderly. The current research measured prescriptive gender stereotypes for children, adults, and elderly men and women in 3 studies to (a) compare how prescriptive gender stereotypes change across age groups and (b) address whether stereotypes of males are more restrictive than stereotypes of females. Students (Studies 1 and 2) and community members (Study 3), which were all U.S. and majority White samples, rated how desirable it was for different target groups to possess a list of characteristics from 1 (very undesirable) to 9 (very desirable). The target age groups included toddlers, elementary-aged, adolescent, young adult, adult, and elderly males and females. The list of 21 characteristics was created to encompass traits and behaviors relevant across a wide age range. In a meta-analysis across studies, prescriptive stereotypes were defined as characteristics displaying a sex difference of d > 0.40 and an average rating as desirable for positive prescriptive stereotypes (PPS) or undesirable for negative proscriptive stereotypes (NPS) for male or females of each age group. Results replicated previous research on prescriptive stereotypes for adults: Women should be communal and avoid being dominant. Men should be agentic, independent, masculine in appearance, and interested in science and technology, but avoid being weak, emotional, shy, and feminine in appearance. Stereotypes of boys and girls from elementary-aged to young adults still included these components, but stereotypes of toddlers involved mainly physical appearance and play behaviors. Prescriptive stereotypes of elderly men and women were weaker. Overall, boys and men had more restrictive prescriptive stereotypes than girls and women in terms of strength and number. These findings demonstrate the applicability of prescriptive stereotypes to different age groups.

“Dirty” Workplace Politics and Well-Being

We build and empirically test an integrative model of gender, workplace politics, and stress by integrating social role theory and prescriptive gender stereotypes with the transactional theory of stress. To examine the effect of gender on the relation between exposure to non-sanctioned political influence tactics (NPITs; e.g., self-serving and socially undesirable behaviors such as manipulation and intimidation) and stress outcomes, we employed a daily diary design with 64 employed adults over the course of 12 working days. In support of our hypotheses, exposure to NPITs––that is, “dirty politics”––elicited a threat appraisal that, in turn, related to the activation of negative emotions. Moreover, unlike men, women who reported higher levels of NPITs experienced heightened levels of threat appraisal and ultimately negative emotions. We demonstrate that pairing social role theory with the transactional theory of stress is a useful approach for researchers interested in better understanding gender differences in the occupational stress process. Anyone interested in reducing stress in the workplace is encouraged not only to reduce the occurrence of NPITs, but also to consider ways to reduce the threat associated with them, especially for women.

Descriptive and Prescriptive Gender Stereotypes in Agency

Using archival data, we examined gender stereotypes in agency in performance reviews of 107 managers of an international insurance company. Aiming to detect gender stereotypes in agency in qualitat...

Gender Diversity Dynamics in Humanitarian Negotiations: The International Committee of the Red Cross as a Case Study on the Frontlines of Armed Conflicts

Negotiations for access are crucial for the success of humanitarian operations. They also occur in contexts of armed conflict and violence that typically entrench gender identities. Building on the vast research showing that gender affects the conduct and outcome of negotiations, this paper explores gender dynamics in a humanitarian setting. After outlining its methodology and surveying the relevant literature, this paper sketches out the ways 21 practitioners at the International Committee of the Red Cross see gender dynamics affecting their work in the field. These interviews support previous findings on men and women’s diverging conceptions of gender’s impact and relevance, as well as on the cross-cultural consistency of gender dynamics in war. In a context where, unlike in many corporate settings, women’s work as humanitarian actors is congruent with prescriptive gender stereotypes, this study shows that they can be perceived as more legitimate because they are thought of as selfless caregivers and potential mothers. This paper ultimately argues that, rather than studying the impact of gender in isolation, further research should explore how the intersectionality of different diversity dimensions — such as gender, race/ethnicity, age, and religion — affect humanitarian negotiations. In terms of policy implications, this study makes the case for actively fostering diversity, including in terms of gender, within negotiating teams to ensure they are more flexible in adapting to different scenarios and more creative in dealing with complex problems.

Gender and competitive preferences: The role of competition size.

In a series of 8 studies, we examine whether gender differences in competition entry preferences are moderated by the size of the competition. Drawing on theories of gender roles and stereotypes, we show that women, relative to men, prefer to enter smaller compared with larger competitions. Studies 1a and 1b demonstrate this effect in observational data on preferences for working in differently sized firms and applying to differently sized colleges. Studies 2a and 2b replicate the effect with real behavioral decisions in different domains. We also find empirical evidence that prescriptive gender norms and stereotypes underlie this effect. In Study 3, we find experimental evidence that women and men differ in their preferences for differently sized groups under competition, but not in noncompetitive settings. Three additional experimental studies (Studies 4, 5a, and 5b) show that perceptions of comfort in small versus larger competitions underlie women's preferences. These findings suggest that women's preferences for smaller competitions may be driven by an adherence to prescriptive gender norms. We discuss the implications of the current findings for gender inequalities in organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record

Are organizational justice rules gendered? Reactions to men's and women's justice violations.

Research has shown that gender role prescriptions can bias reactions to men's and women's work behaviors. The current work draws upon this idea and extends it to consider violations of procedural and interactional justice rules. The results of four experimental studies demonstrate that men and women receive differential performance evaluation ratings and reward recommendations when they violate those organizational justice rules that coincide with the content of prescriptive gender stereotypes. Specifically, women were rated less favorably than men when they exhibited interactional injustice (Study 1 and Study 4), but not when they engaged in procedural injustice (Study 2). Findings also indicate that interactional justice violations (e.g., being impolite, not caring about the well-being of subordinates), but not procedural justice violations, are deemed less acceptable for female managers than male managers (Study 3). Overall, the findings suggest that reactions to injustice can be influenced by expectations of how men and women should behave. (PsycINFO Database Record

Gender Differences in the Perceived Effectiveness of Narcissistic Leaders

Researchers have obtained inconsistent results on the relationship between leader narcissism and leader effectiveness evaluations. Here we draw on social role theory and recent findings on prescriptive gender stereotypes to propose that leader's and follower's gender influence the degree to which narcissistic leaders are perceived as effective. Narcissistic female leaders lack stereotypically gender appropriate qualities (e.g. kindness) and demonstrate undesirable qualities associated with the other gender (e.g. arrogance). This combination is potentially threatening to the traditionally higher status of males, thus resulting in poor leader effectiveness ratings, especially by male subordinates. Conversely, we expect narcissism to be tolerated in male leaders. We find support for this idea in a study on 145 leader subordinate dyads. Female narcissistic leaders were seen as less effective than male narcissistic leaders. However, looking more closely, these lower ratings were only found when male subordinates served as raters. Specifically, male subordinates rated female narcissistic leaders lower while their effectiveness ratings of male leaders were not affected by narcissism. Female subordinates showed no gender bias in their effectiveness evaluations of narcissistic leaders. Thus, gender differences may be an important source of inconsistencies in evaluations of narcissistic leaders.