Advancing Women in Leadership Journal
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The Effect of Stereotype Threat on the Interview Performance of Women
Get PDFWhen women are in a situation whereby they are at risk of being judged by a negative stereotype, they underperform relative to men. This quandary is called stereotype threat. The present study examined whether stereotype threat affects the performance of men versus women in a simulated job interview. The stereotype that women are not suitable for managerial jobs was unobtrusively embedded in a job description presented to interviewees (n = 50) prior to the interview. The interviews were evaluated by four HR managers, two male and two female. The results showed that stereotype threat disadvantages females vis- -vis those in the control group, and it disadvantaged them relative to men in the stereotype threat condition. This occurred regardless of whether the HR manager was male or femal
Gender and the Workplace: The Impact of Stereotype Threat on Self- Assessment of Management Skills of Female Business Students
Get PDFStereotype threat, the threat of being stereotyped against (Steele & Aronson, 1995), regardless of the legitimacy of the stereotype, can impact not only productivity, but goals, behavior, and ultimately attitudes. Stereotype threat impacts not only racial groups but men and women as well, each group impacted by the negative stereotypes about their intellectual and/or work performance. As the workplace becomes more and more diverse, managers must understand and brace for the impact stereotypes have on their workers. This study looks at the impact of stereotype threat on male and female business majors in the workplace and future entrepreneurs. The impact of stereotype was measured in their ranking of their own management skills, how they thought others would rank their management skills, and their goals in the workplace
"Discrimination? Low Pay? Long Hours? I am Still Excited:" Female Sport Management Students\u27 Perceptions of Barriers toward a Future Career in Sport
Get PDFWomen continue to be underrepresented in the management and leadership ranks of sport. Researchers have worked towards understanding the various challenges and barriers women face in the sport industry. This study sought to expand that research taking a new angle to explore the underrepresentation of women in sport by examining female undergraduates\u27 perceptions of their future careers within the sport industry. Three focus groups with a total of 16 participants were utilized to gather data. Two investigators coded and searched for emerging themes from the focus group transcripts. The following themes emerged in this study: (a) perceptions regarding potential job discrimination (i.e., gender stereotypes, gender discrimination), (b) perceptions regarding industry-specific concerns (i.e., difficulty networking, job market constraints, long work hours, low salary range, multiple-role conflict, excitement regarding entrance into the field), and (c) overall excitement regarding future careers in sport
Finding Courage and Confirmation: Resisting Impostor Feelings through Relationships with Mentors, Romantic Partners, and Other Women in Leadership
Get PDFThe Impostor Phenomenon (IP) has recently reappeared in popular culture as a result of the bestseller Lean In. IP asserts that many successful people feel like frauds that will be discovered in time. Twenty-nine women in leadership were interviewed in this qualitative study, and it was discovered that the majority of them do not have impostor feelings. Their confidence can be attributed to strong relationships with mentors, romantic partners, and other women in leadership
The Debates and Unresolved Issues Surrounding Feminist Research and its Distinction from Mainstream Research
No full textThere are many questions surrounding feminism. Since the Women\u27s Movement of the 1960\u27s, there has been an ongoing debate concerning the inclusion of women in leadership roles as well as the role of women in research. The most frequently asked questions concerning women\u27s roles in research, which parallel those of women\u27s leadership roles and styles, are: Is feminist research typically distinct from other more mainstream research within the Social Sciences? And are there specific feminist methods? There has been a long-standing debate addressing such questions. If one believes that feminist research is research about women, by women, and for women, then one may conclude that there are distinct methods that feminists use to study the oppression of women. Also, if one believes, as does Liz Stanley (1993), that there is a direct relationship between feminist consciousness and feminism, then there is research that is distinctly feminist. However, one could argue that no matter what the political ideologies of the researcher, the research methods remain the same.
In trying to answer the above posed questions, we need to examine not only political ideologies as suggested by Stanley. We also need to examine the goals of research, the assumptions made by the researcher, the methods utilized by the researcher, the methodology, and epistemology that lay the foundation for research. All these criteria will assist us in making clear distinctions between feminist research and mainstream research. Yet, we must keep in mind that many researchers, including feminist researchers, continue to struggle with the very issues presented in this paper, which remain unresolved. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to grant the reader with an overview of the debates and unresolved issues surrounding feminist research
Feminist Academics as Nomadic Subjects: Reconceptualizing Women in Universities
Get PDFFrom a feminist perspective, it is more than a little axiomatic to say that higher education has traditionally produced and reproduced, naturalized and valorized specific sets of behavior, specific forms of knowledge and specific versions of intellectual practice which celebrate that which is coded as masculine at the expense of that which is produced as feminine.
The production of this opposition is attendant on the primacy of the western cultural separation of the public from the private and the celebration of all that is associated with the first term at the expense of all that is subsumed under the second. This, in turn, is based on the construction of masculinity as synonymous with rationality, intellect, reason, culture and the production of femininity as all that is not male: in this binaristic logic women are irrational, emotional and nurturing. Braidotti (1994a) summarizes the situation well when she writes:
the universalistic stance, with its conflation of the masculine to represent the human and the confinement of the feminine to a secondary position of devalued "otherness", rests upon a classical system of dualistic oppositions, such as, for instance; nature/culture, active/passive, rational/irrational, masculine/feminine. Feminists argue that this dualistic mode of thinking creates binary differences only to ordain them in a hierarchical scale of power relations. (p. 155)
Consistent with this logic, the university has been naturalized as a homogeneous male institution: the true home, if you like, of the \u27enlightened male subject\u27.
Women\u27s marginality within academic environments manifests itself in diverse and complex ways. Women have been consistently absent, not just from the classrooms, offices, and meeting places of Academe, but also from the discourses, texts, and subjects on which a university education is based (Rich, 1979). There are fewer women academics in universities than men, they tend to be concentrated in the lower employment categories, and by extension, more likely to be engaged in teaching than in research. Women have been under represented on decision making bodies, and have encountered a \u27glass ceiling\u27 in attempts to achieve promotion (Porter, 1995).
The phallocentric nature of university environment has prompted significant debate among feminists in academia and given rise to a wide range of activities designed, in one way or another, to challenge the dominant masculinist culture. Despite many years of effort, however, universities remain male dominated environments within which women continue to be employed at lower levels, on shorter contracts, and with narrower career prospects.
In other words, there exists a significant gap between the hopes many of us held for the future of women in universities and the current (on-going) realities faced by those of us working in these environments. It is this gap and what it tells us about the on-going need for feminist reform in academic circles that has inspired this paper. More specifically, we are interested in using the work of feminist scholar Rosi Braidotti as a basis for identifying a particular \u27mindset\u27 that is valuable for thinking about the on-going challenges associated with the cultural transformation of university environments. We will illustrate the need for and value of these mindsets through a discussion of one particular university, and one specific attempt by women within that university to improve women\u27s participation in research activity.
This introduction, then, is followed by four main sections. In the first, we demonstrate the ways in which our case site, Central Queensland University, reflects the same kind of phallocentric ideologies that can be seen to characterize university environments more generally. In the second, we outline some of the major (feminist) strategies developed within this university to improve women\u27s research activity and discuss some of the differences of opinion concerning how this is best achieved. In the third section, we will explore what it is that Rosi Braidotti\u27s model of nomadic subjectivity offers to those women engaged in the work of cultural transformation, and in the fourth and final section, we will provide a brief example of how nomadic consciousness can shape the day-to-day practice of women academics.
As any exploration of gender and its consequences necessitates analysis of the particular context within which women are located, it is necessary for us to begin this paper with a brief overview of the particular university that we will be using to illustrate our points
Perceptions of Gender Differences in the Real Estate Profession
Get PDFUntil the mid-1960\u27s most real estate agents selling residential real estate were male. Over the next decade, increasing numbers of women entered the profession, and by 1980, female real estate agents outnumbered male real estate agents. In this paper, I explore some reasons for this increase by comparing female and male residential real estate agents’ motivations for becoming real estate agents, their satisfaction with the profession, and differences in the amount of hours worked.
The results show that the use of time and the amount of hours worked differs significantly for female and male real estate agents, and that female real estate agents believe more strongly than male real estate agents that the sex of the agent matters in residential real estate transactions
The View From The Female Principal\u27s Desk
Get PDFMore than in past years, females are enrolling in educational administration programs and aspiring to be to school principals, central office administrators, and superintendents. Efforts to increase the number of female employees by businesses, industries, and public agencies encourage women to work toward advanced degrees and apply for administrative positions typically regarded as male positions. Successful women are written about in newspaper articles and magazine features more often than ever before. These women leaders serve as role models to inspire other women to follow in their professional wake. Aburdene and Naisbitt (1992) write that "the women\u27s movement has reached \u27critical mass,\u27 the point at which a trend becomes a megatrend." If this trend continues, opportunities for professional advancement and increased salaries for women will result
When the Wrong Woman Wins: Building Bullies and Perpetuating Patriarch
Get PDFSome women are not good managers; and that is exactly why some companies keep them. For 30 years, researchers and working women have watched the progression of females into America\u27s corporate management positions, and in their examination of the glass ceiling phenomenon, Corsun and Costen (2001) report that 40% of US executives, managers, and administrators are now women. During the early years of the women\u27s movement, it was hypothesized that as the number of women entering the working public increased, a feminization or softening of business organizations would also occur. Publications such as Helgesen\u27s (1990) The Female Advantage, Helgesen\u27s (1995) The Web of Inclusion, and Rosener\u27s (1990) "Ways Women Lead" led us to believe that kinder, gentler, and nurturing environments fostered by humane, caring, and intuitive leaders were developing. Multiculturalism and diversity were the expected outcomes
Appeasing Women Faculty: A Case Study in Gender Politics
Get PDFConsistent with decades of research, the present study suggests that career satisfaction of many academic women can be affected significantly by their experience and/or perception of the way in which their university deals with a number of specific gender-related issues