New Perspectives On Gender Bias and Inequity In Organizations

Authors:

Abstract: This symposium explores several aspects of gender-based prejudice and bias in the workplace. We showcase recent novel insights into gender biases in the evaluation of leaders, strategies employed by leaders to address gender-related issues, and approaches to foster support for gender equity initiatives. Papers 1 and 2 identify novel gender biases in evaluation of leaders. First, women and male CEOs face different repercussions for engaging in self-promotion. Second, they reap different rewards and punishments for engaging in communal behaviors, the nuanced of which are captured by the newly introduced SPaCE model. The next two papers explore how organizational leaders tackle gender-related issues. Male organizational leaders grapple with credibility challenges when addressing gender-related issues, which they often resolve by is refencing personal connections with women, especially with daughters. Though the strategy is effective, it is also misleading, as fathers of daughters are not more gender egalitarian than other men. Paper 4 explores what happens when employees accused of biased speech make appeals to free speech. Such appeals are found to diminish managers' recognition of workplace bias severity and deservingness of punishment, effects that persist in response to various interventions and which cut across demographics. Finally, Paper 5 introduces a promising avenue for garnering broad support for gender equity initiatives. It develops and validates a new construct, Social Impact Leader (SIL) identity, and shows that, in a field study, a SIL intervention motivated participation in gender equity initiatives. Together, these papers contribute significantly to multiple ongoing conversations about equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Track: DEI

Keywords: prejudice; diversity; intergroup relations; experimental