Lecture 8: Diversity In Organisations Flashcards
Describe the major trends of gender diversity throughout the 20th century.
Pre WW2 men had majority of the jobs and women were the primary caregivers however during the world war when the men were off fighting women had to step into men’s work and fill the void. Most women continued to work when their husbands returned but to much stigma- they were criticised for disregarding their motherly duties. There was a rapid closing of the gap between the 60’s and the 2000’s but over the last 10 years not much has changed
Define stereotypes:
Stereotypes are beliefs about the characteristics, attributes and behaviours a group possesses
What two things are genders segregated by?
- Occupation
2. Status
What does the post secondary pyramid show about gender segregation?
The post secondary pyramid shows that there are a lot more women enrolled in undergrad uni than men but as the status/role of the job increases (professors, presidents etc) women in these roles dramatically decreases!
What are some problems with gender segregation?
Women are typically less paid
Women do more undesirable jobs
Women aren’t getting to voice their opinions about important issues
Both skills possessed by men and women aren’t being mixed across jobs
What are the dual aspects of stereotypes? Explain them.
Stereotypes can be descriptive or prescriptive.
Descriptive means that it describes the stereotypes men and women do posses
Prescriptive means it prescribes the stereotypes men and women should possess
What is gendered description for men? What are their skills and what jobs are suited to these?
They are agentic, cold, rational, dominant, determined, aggressive and competitive. Therefore would be suited for jobs that require little human interaction and require physically demanding labour. Eg. Lawyer, surgeon, builder
What is the gendered description of women? Therefore, what type of skills do they have and where should they work?
They are communal, caring, soft, submissive, emotional and collaborative. Therefore they would be skilled at working with people and helping them eg nurses, teachers
What did the study “gendered requirements” by Cejka and Eagly find?
Gendered requirements was a study where participants rated the attributes people needed for stereotypically male or female jobs and the results concluded that stereotypically male jobs needed male attributes and stereotypically female jobs needed female attributes
What did the study “Appointing candidates” by steinpries, Anders and ritzke find?
Their study sent psychology academics a resume of an academic applicant who was just starting out or who was applying for a high up role. The gender of the applicant was manipulated. They found that men were more likely to be chosen for either role and that men showed more potential in the employers eyes when they were just starting out.
What is the “Think manager- think men” study?
TMTM found that when people were asked to pick from a list of descriptive words what describes men, women and managers. There was a massive overlap in male and manager qualities. This was found in both male and female participants
When TMTM was revisited 20 years later what changed?
Not very much. It was evident across both genders and throughout different countries. But, particularly in the US women were starting to believe that they had manager qualities
What did the think crisis- think women study find? What could be a reason for this?
The TCTF study found that when a company was struggling they thought female attributes would be helpful in a management position. This creates a “glass cliff” as it is a harder job for the female to stop a company from continuing to fail. It is thought that people turn to females in these situations because think that it’s time for an obvious change
What are the gendered prescriptions for men and women?
Men ought to be strong, driven, confident, self- reliant
Women ought to be sensitive, caring, modest, dependent and sociable
What was Rudmans breaking prescriptions study about and what did they find?
Rudman had participants watch a tape of either a female or a male self promote or self efface in an interview and rate how competent, likeable and hireable they were. The results showed that men and women were equally rated incompetent when they self effaced. That women were less likeable when they self prompted and women were less hireable when they self promoted. Therefore women were punished for breaking their stereotype !
