Male Majority, Female Majority, or Gender Diversity in Organizations: How Do Proportions Affect Gender Stereotyping and Women Leaders’ Well-Being?

Whereas popular wisdom often centers on character differences between womenand men when explaining work-related behavior, Kanter (1977) predicted that theproportion of women and men present in organizations is the crucial factor:With unequalproportions, women (similar to other minority persons) are singled out as “tokens”and gender becomes salient, which has been theorized to have a range of negativeconsequences. In contrast, if proportions of women and men are similar (i.e., in thepresence of gender diversity), gender is not salient, and the work environment becomesmuch more positive for women. These considerations imply that not only a malemajority, but also a female majority at work has negative consequences, because genderbecomes salient in both cases. However, empirical research on work environments withfemale majorities at the top of organizations is scarce. The present study tested theperception of a range of negative consequences, including work-related well-being,among women in leadership positions in Spain who reported a male majority, a femalemajority, or similar proportions of both genders at the top level of their organization. Theonline convenience sample consisted of a total of N = 649 women leaders. In additionto work-related well-being, we measured perceived work–family conflict and perceivedfeelings of guilt associated with work–family conflict, traditional gender stereotypesregarding warmth and competence, women-leadership stereotypes, negative workrelatedstereotypes of mothers, gender harassment, and stigma consciousness. Almostall of our findings support Kanter’s theorizing that equal proportions of both genders goalong with more positive perceptions as compared to a male majority. However, a femalemajority went along with as negative perceptions as a male majority regarding several ofthe outcome variables, but was associated with the most positive perceptions for otheroutcomes. We discuss implications and possible reasons for the latter mixed findings.

Jaar van publicatie:2019