Too young to be taken seriously? How being perceived as young in professional contexts elicits status threat in young women

Abstract: Although women are often encouraged to maintain youthful appearances, being perceived as young in professional contexts may be especially threatening for young women. While youth generally signals inexperience, younger women face a unique disadvantage, as they are perceived as more feminine than their older counterparts, and most modern workplaces value stereotypically masculine traits. Five studies examine how age discrimination manifests for young women at work. An archival analysis of 20,103 U.S. government employees found that young women reported experiencing more age discrimination than young men (Study 1). A study of MBA students found women were more likely than men to have their youth commented on at work (Studies 2a-2b). Younger women—but not older women—experienced status threat when perceived as young in professional settings (Study 3). When young women received comments on their perceived youth, they were more likely to attribute negative outcomes to discrimination (Study 4).

Keywords: Gender, age, discrimination, archival