Gender-related biases in evaluations of sex discrimination allegations: is perceived threat the key?

Does he see what she sees? The gender gap in perceptions of institutional sexism

Women are more likely than men to perceive institutional sexism. In the present study, we examined the gender gap in perceptions of a legal case in which a female plaintiff claims she was a victim of institutional gender discrimination by an employer. Participants were randomly assigned to receive information about institutional forms of sexism (or not) prior to learning the facts of the case. In addition, participants were randomly assigned to take the female plaintiff's perspective (or remain objective) while reviewing the case. In isolation, sexism awareness and perspective-taking both independently eliminated the gender gap in perceptions of discrimination. However, contrary to expectations, the gender gap reemerged among participants who were made aware of sexism prior to perspective-taking such that women perceived more discrimination than men. Implications for interventions to increase perceptions of institutional sexism are discussed.

What makes the pipeline leak? Women’s gender-based rejection sensitivity and men’s hostile sexism as predictors of expectations of success for their own and the respective other gender group

In academia, the proportion of women decreases with each career level. In this research, we examined how this so-called leaky pipeline relates to gender-based relative expectations of success. The participants were students from social sciences where women are the majority among students, such that it is more readily – but erroneously – inferred that gender discrimination is not an issue. We assumed that gender-based relative expectations of success should be predicted by two variables. Women students should experience higher gender-based rejection sensitivity than men students, with gender-based rejection sensitivity mitigating relative success expectations in women, but not in men. Men students should exhibit higher hostile-sexist attitudes toward women than women students, with hostile sexism reducing men students’ but not women students’ relative success expectations. We tested our hypotheses in an (under-)graduate sample of women and men students enrolled in educational or psychological majors (N = 372). Results show that a quarter of the women students expected men to be more successful than women and that proportionately more women than men students indicated that women have worse chances of success than men in the job they aspire to. Women were more concerned about being treated differently because of their gender than men, and men held more sexist attitudes toward women than women, with gender-based rejection sensitivity contributing to women students’ and sexism to men students’ expectation that their own gender group will less likely succeed in their aimed for future job. Implications how the leaky pipeline can be patched are discussed.

Bystander Reactions to Workplace Incivility: The Role of Gender and Discrimination Claims

Will men and women receive the same support at work when they claim to have been discriminated against? This paper reports a scenario-based experimental study (N = 240, 50.4% women, M age = 25.65) that investigated bystanders’ reactions to an incident where a co-worker is treated in a condescending manner by another co-worker. The results showed that women reacted more strongly to the incivility incident and were more willing to support and defend the co-worker. As expected, the gender difference in helping intentions was especially prominent when the co-worker attributed the incident to gender discrimination, compared to a control condition with an attribution unrelated to gender. Further, when the incident was attributed to discrimination, the female co-worker evoked somewhat stronger helping intentions than the male co-worker, suggesting the presence of gender bias. The results are discussed in relation to the prototype perspective of perceived discrimination.

Stalking and Intrusive Behaviors in Ghana: Perceptions and Victimization Experiences

Most studies of stalking and other forms of intrusive behavior are conducted in the West. Little is known about the phenomenon in the African context. The present work represents the first dedicated stalking study conducted in Ghana. Based on a sample of 371 male and female university students, this study explored the gender distribution of overall perceptions and experiences, and frequency and duration of personal worst experiences of stalking and intrusive behavior. Several significant gender differences were noted. Females were generally more likely than males to perceive a range of intrusive activities as unacceptable. Females and males were equally likely to have experienced aggression and surveillance, and unwanted attention types of behaviors, while males were more likely than females to have experienced persistent courtship and impositions, and courtship and information seeking types of behaviors. In respect of their worst experience of intrusive behavior, females were more likely to report unwanted communications, aggressive courtship, property damage, and harassment of third parties, whilst males were more likely to have been threatened with harm. More than half of our participants (55.5%) were judged to have been stalked. Given the devastating nature and impact of stalking victimization, the findings may provide impetus to increase awareness of stalking in Ghana and add urgency to calls for anti-stalking legislation.

Perceptions and Experiences of Intrusive Behavior and Stalking: Comparing LGBTIQ and Heterosexual Groups

The present research employed a mixed-methods approach and quasi-experimental design to examine perceptions and experiences of intrusive behavior (comprising 47 individual intrusive activities) within individuals identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, or queer (LGBTIQ) with a matched (in terms of age, sex, and income) sample of individuals identifying as heterosexual ( N = 214). Despite only minor differences between the LGBTIQ and heterosexual groups concerning perceptions of the acceptability of intrusive behavior, the LGBTIQ group was more likely to report experiencing a range of individual intrusive activities and to report experiencing stalking victimization (self-reported rates of 35.5% vs. 15.0%). Participant sex and personal experience of being stalked were minimally associated with perceptions of the acceptability of intrusive behavior. Sexual orientation significantly predicted whether a person had experienced stalking victimization, whereas participant sex did not. The qualitative analysis revealed that the two groups shared some experiences of intrusive behavior, whereas others represented a unique subset of intrusions that related to sexual orientation.

Theories for Race and Gender Differences in Management of Social Identity-Related Stressors: a Systematic Review

Sociodemographic group-specific strategies for stress management may contribute to racial and gender disparities in health outcomes in the USA. We aimed to systematically review theoretical and empirical investigations of factors influencing variation in response to and management of identity-related stress among black and white Americans. OvidPsychInfo and PubMed databases were searched to identify eligible studies. Criteria were participant age of ≥ 18 years, conducted in the US sampling black or white participants, and published in English in a peer-reviewed journal. The final sample included 167 articles. Theories suggesting social status inequities as the primary contributor to disparate strategies employed by black and white women and men to manage social identity-related stress were most frequently tested and supported. Studies disproportionally focused on how women and black persons cope as targets of prejudice and discrimination rather than on how management strategies of men or white persons are affected as perpetrators. Finally, there was theoretical support for an interactive effect of race and gender on stress management, but empirical evidence was lacking, particularly among black men, white women, and white men. The literature could be strengthened through the use of prospective cohorts and nationally representative samples, as well as study designs accounting for potential within-race and within-gender variation in the effects of social identity-related stressors on coping. With greater consistency in methodology, future empirical studies may yield additional information regarding group differences in stress management pertinent to clarifying mechanisms for the health consequences of exposure to social inequity among black and white women and men.

Prototypes and same-gender bias in perceptions of hiring discrimination

The present study investigated the relative importance of two explanations behind perceptions of gender discrimination in hiring: prototypes and same-gender bias. According to the prototype explanation, people perceive an event as discrimination to the extent that it fits their preconceptions of typical discrimination. In contrast, the same-gender bias explanation asserts that people more readily detect discrimination toward members of their own gender. In four experiments (n = 797), women and men made considerably stronger discrimination attributions, and were moderately more discouraged from seeking work, when the victim was female rather than male. Further, a series of regressions analyses showed beliefs in discrimination of women to be moderately correlated with discrimination attributions of female victims, but little added explanatory value of participant gender, stigma consciousness, or feminist identification. The results offer strong support for the prototype explanation.

Conceptual Review of Underrepresentation of Women in Senior Leadership Positions From a Perspective of Gendered Social Status in the Workplace

An increasing number of studies report more similarities than differences in leadership styles between women and men. However, the evident vertical gender segregation at top management levels still remains a common phenomenon for various organizations. This consistent disparity needs to be addressed by identifying the underlying mechanism embedded in organizational structures that portrays women as less suitable for senior leadership positions than their male counterparts, although evidence suggests that there is no substantial gender difference in leadership styles or behaviors. This conceptual review articulates the deeply rooted gendered social status of organizations by delineating conceptual constructs and relationships regarding women’s delayed advancement to senior leadership positions. The resulting model further implies that the gendered social status associated with women could compromise the effectiveness of human resources development (HRD) interventions initially developed to help women. This understanding prompts reexamination of existing HRD interventions to support women’s career advancement to senior leadership positions in organizations.

International Perceptions of Relational Stalking: The Influence of Prior Relationship, Perpetrator Sex, Target Sex, and Participant Sex

The present study examines the influence of prior relationship on perceptions of relational stalking in the context of both opposite- and same-sex scenarios using community samples from Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The study used a quasi-experimental 3 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 (prior relationship × perpetrator sex × target sex × participant sex × country) independent measures design. Participants comprised 2,160 members of the community, each receiving 1 of 12 versions of a hypothetical scenario and responding to scale items concerning the situation described. The findings support previous research, with scenarios involving a stranger (rather than an acquaintance or ex-partner), and scenarios involving a male perpetrator and a female target, being considered the most serious. The findings further indicate that female observers identify more closely with the role of the victim and male observers identify more closely with the role of the perpetrator, regardless of victim and perpetrator sex, and that differences in the findings across the three countries may be affected by location to a small but significant degree.

Mechanism of bystander-blaming: defensive attribution, counterfactual thinking, and gender

Contemporary victimology recognizes that an understanding of the mechanism of blaming requires a comprehensive approach that includes the victim, the offender, and the bystander. However, most of the existing research on blaming focuses on the victim and the offender, ignoring the issue of bystander-blaming. This study highlights the bystander and investigates bystander-blaming by exploring some theoretical explanations, including counterfactual thinking, defensive attribution, and gender differences. The study included 363 young male and female participants, who read vignettes describing the behavior of the victim and the bystander in a rape scenario and answered questions regarding bystander-blaming. The results show that both counterfactual thinking and defensive attribution play a role in bystander-blaming. This article addresses the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.