Ironic Effects of Sexual Minority Group Membership: Are Lesbians Less Susceptible to Invoking Negative Female Stereotypes than Heterosexual Women?

Masculinity and Leadership Effectiveness (Self-)Perceptions: The Case of Lesbian Leaders

In line with the gay glass ceiling effect, sexual minorities are often target of discrimination within work-related contexts, thus potentially undermining their wellbeing at work. For gay men, discrimination may partially be attributed to gay men's stereotypical feminine perception, which does not fit with the stereotypically masculine traits required for leadership positions. Yet, when considering lesbian women, the masculine stereotypical view associated with them may come to represent an advantage in work-related contexts, especially when compared to heterosexual women. In Study 1, N = 303 heterosexual participants rated a lesbian vs. a heterosexual woman as a job candidate on stereotypical gender (masculine vs. feminine) traits as well as leadership effectiveness. Results showed that being lesbian was associated with higher levels of masculinity (but not femininity), which in turn was related to high leadership effectiveness. In Study 2, N = 268 lesbian and heterosexual women rated themselves on the same measures. Results showed that both groups associated masculine traits with enhanced leadership effectiveness. These studies provide a better comprehension regarding how lesbian women may be perceived in work-related contexts and shed light on the role played by gender stereotypical perceptions in shaping both heterosexual and lesbian perceptions of leadership effectiveness.

Stifled from the start: biased allocation of developmental opportunities and the underrepresentation of lesbian women and gay men in leadership

Purpose

The goal of this study was to help explain the underrepresentation of lesbian women and gay men (LG) in senior leadership positions by examining bias in the allocation of developmental opportunities (sponsorship/coaching and challenging work assignments). It further sought to test stigma-by-association as one reason for the biased allocation of developmental opportunities.

Design/methodology/approach

An online experimental vignette study (N = 273) using a 2 (target gender: male vs female) by 2 (sexual orientation: LG vs heterosexual) design was conducted.

Findings

LG workers were less likely to be allocated developmental opportunities than heterosexual workers overall and relative to their same-sex heterosexual counterparts. Further, lesbian women were least likely to be allocated developmental opportunities. These effects also operated indirectly via participants concerns about stigma-by-association.

Originality/value

Sexual orientation and gender identity minority workers remain underrepresented in senior leadership positions and oftentimes despite having better objective qualifications. Research has begun examining bias in leader selection. This study, however, directs attention to the biased allocation of developmental opportunities which make one competitive for senior leadership positions and occur prior to leader selection. In doing so, the authors provide a baseline understanding of an important reason why LG might be underrepresented in leadership positions.

Racism in Europe: Characteristics and Intersections With Other Social Categories

Concerning race and its intertwinements with gender, sexual orientation, class, accents, or ability there is a scarcity of social psychological research in Europe. With an intersectional approach studying racism in Europe it is possible to detect specific experiences of discrimination. The prevalent understanding of European racism is connected to migration from the former colonies to the European metropoles and the post-Second-World-War immigration of ‘guest workers.’ Thus, the focus of this research is on work-related discrimination. Against the background of a short historical review, we present the results of the few existing studies on intersectional discrimination within the labor market in Europe and discuss their implications. The pattern of findings is more complex than the assumption that individuals belonging to two or more marginalized social categories are always the most discriminated ones. Gender, sexual orientation, and origin rather interact with the specific job context. These interactions determine whether minority individuals are discriminated against or even preferred over individuals belonging to the majority group. We argue that considering the stereotype content model and social-identity theory helps to structure the sometimes contradictory results of intersectionality research. Therefore, the review presents new perspectives on racism in Europe based on current research, develops hypotheses on the interplay of intersecting identities, and identifies four novel research questions based on racist attributions considering situational variables: These are the role of concrete job contexts in explaining (no) discrimination, the influence of different stereotypes regarding marginalized groups, the explanatory value of sexual orientation as well as class or socioeconomic-status and age in terms of some patterns of results.

Explaining the Voluntary Compliance to COVID-19 Measures: An Extrapolation on the Gender Perspective

The discourse of gender amidst the COVID-19 pandemic had been a big fuss. Amongst the discussions is the gender-related responses to COVID-19 that generally assume females to better respond to COVID-19 than males. Despite the converging assumptions, previous studies tend to conceptualize gender as binary biological sex, and consequently, there is little understanding of the gender-COVID-19 measures compliance relationship. By taking gender as a multidimensional perspective, this research aims to examine the relationship between sex, gender psychology, and gender-role with voluntary compliance to COVID-19 measures as well as the moderating role of situational aspects that can activate individuals' responses toward COVID-19. A survey had been conducted in Indonesia, as Indonesia represents a country with relaxed COVID-19 restrictions making voluntary compliance is deemed important. Consistent with our predictions and previous studies, females tend to better comply with COVID-19 when gender is treated as dichotomous sex. However, a closer look at the gender dimensions revealed that gender psychology (feminine vs masculine) and gender-role (traditional vs egalitarian) provide a better explanation of the specific compliance behaviour toward COVID-19 measures. Interestingly, although situational pathogen avoidance (SPA) directly leads to adherence to several compliance behaviours, it does not moderate the four compliance behaviour of COVID-19 measures. Theoretical and practical contributions are further discussed.

A Leader Doesn’t Sound Lesbian!: The Impact of Sexual Orientation Vocal Cues on Heterosexual Persons’ First Impression and Hiring Decision

In three studies ( N = 340), we tested whether vocal cues to a person’s sexual orientation prompted sexual orientation discrimination in heterosexual individuals when hiring leaders. Our results inform how gender and sexual orientation intersect to produce discriminatory effects in the hiring context. Heterosexual participants listened to short clips of voices that sounded like job candidate was a lesbian or heterosexual woman, or a gay or heterosexual man, and rated all for job suitability and employability. Candidates applied for jobs as leaders (Study 1), as leaders or assistants (Study 2), and for leadership roles that varied in both gender role and status (Study 3). Sexual orientation discrimination occurred in all three studies and was greater among women job candidates. Refuting role congruity theory, several findings disconfirmed the prediction that lesbian-sounding women would be advantaged when stereotyped as masculine and when applying for leadership roles. Rather, in line with status-beliefs theory, lesbian-sounding women and gay-sounding men were rated and ranked poorly to the extent that they were perceived as less competent than heterosexual candidates. Findings suggest that hiring discrimination occurs in subtle ways, such as when individuals sound gay/lesbian. This has implications for recruitment as well as sexual-orientation discrimination court cases. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0361684319891168

Addressing gender inequality: Stumbling blocks and roads ahead

Despite many positive changes in terms of gender equality in recent decades, women remain underrepresented in positions of power and prestige, and continue to shoulder disproportionate amounts of unpaid domestic labor. This special issue brings together an examination of the different ways in which gender inequality can be addressed, the efficacy of such approaches, and the consequences these approaches can have. In this introduction to the special issue, we discuss the focus of past and present gender research and outline issues which have received less attention. We further give an overview of the papers in this special issue, which focus on a diverse range of ways in which gender inequality can be addressed, such as collective action, workplace diversity initiatives and parental leave policies, gender-fair language, and government policies. Taken together, these papers illustrate (a) the importance of ensuring that initiatives are evidence-based, (b) the ways in which we can maximize the effectiveness of interventions, and (c) the need to understand when these initiatives may inadvertently backfire.

Sex, Drugs, and Reckless Driving

We investigated whether risk-taking measures inadvertently focus on behaviors that are more normative for men, resulting in the overestimation of gender differences. Using a popular measure of risk-taking (Domain-Specific Risk-Taking) in Study 1 ( N = 99), we found that conventionally used behaviors were more normative for men, while, overall, newly developed behaviors were not. In Studies 2 ( N = 114) and 3 ( N = 124), we demonstrate that differences in normativity are reflected in gender differences in self-reported risk-taking, which are dependent on the specific items used. Study 3 further demonstrates that conventional, masculine risk behaviors are perceived as more risky than newly generated, more feminine items, even when risks are matched. We conclude that there is confirmation bias in risk-taking measurement.

Gay- and Lesbian-Sounding Auditory Cues Elicit Stereotyping and Discrimination

The growing body of literature on the recognition of sexual orientation from voice ("auditory gaydar") is silent on the cognitive and social consequences of having a gay-/lesbian- versus heterosexual-sounding voice. We investigated this issue in four studies (overall N = 276), conducted in Italian language, in which heterosexual listeners were exposed to single-sentence voice samples of gay/lesbian and heterosexual speakers. In all four studies, listeners were found to make gender-typical inferences about traits and preferences of heterosexual speakers, but gender-atypical inferences about those of gay or lesbian speakers. Behavioral intention measures showed that listeners considered lesbian and gay speakers as less suitable for a leadership position, and male (but not female) listeners took distance from gay speakers. Together, this research demonstrates that having a gay/lesbian rather than heterosexual-sounding voice has tangible consequences for stereotyping and discrimination.

Traditional Masculinity and Femininity: Validation of a New Scale Assessing Gender Roles

Gender stereotype theory suggests that men are generally perceived as more masculine than women, whereas women are generally perceived as more feminine than men. Several scales have been developed to measure fundamental aspects of gender stereotypes (e.g., agency and communion, competence and warmth, or instrumentality and expressivity). Although omitted in later version, Bem's original Sex Role Inventory included the items “masculine” and “feminine” in addition to more specific gender-stereotypical attributes. We argue that it is useful to be able to measure these two core concepts in a reliable, valid, and parsimonious way. We introduce a new and brief scale, the Traditional Masculinity-Femininity (TMF) scale, designed to assess central facets of self-ascribed masculinity-femininity. Studies 1–2 used known-groups approaches (participants differing in gender and sexual orientation) to validate the scale and provide evidence of its convergent validity. As expected the TMF reliably measured a one-dimensional masculinity-femininity construct. Moreover, the TMF correlated moderately with other gender-related measures. Demonstrating incremental validity, the TMF predicted gender and sexual orientation in a superior way than established adjective-based measures. Furthermore, the TMF was connected to criterion characteristics, such as judgments as straight by laypersons for the whole sample, voice pitch characteristics for the female subsample, and contact to gay men for the male subsample, and outperformed other gender-related scales. Taken together, as long as gender differences continue to exist, we suggest that the TMF provides a valuable methodological addition for research into gender stereotypes.