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Testing for backlash in hiring: A field experiment on agency, communion and gender.

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Author

Summary, in English

Gender stereotypes describe women as communal and men as agentic. Laboratory-based research (Rudman & Glick, 1999, 2001) suggests that trying to disconfirm such descriptive gender stereotypes (e.g., women self-promoting their agency), entails the risk of hiring

discrimination due to violation of prescriptive gender stereotypes: a backlash. To examine whether backlash occurs when applying for real jobs, we conducted a field experiment. Gender, agency, and communion were manipulated in the personal profile of 5,562 applications sent to 3,342 job openings on the Swedish labor market. The dependent variable was whether the application resulted in an invitation to a job interview or not. The results do not offer any support for the backlash hypothesis at this stage in the recruitment process.

Publishing year

2014

Language

English

Pages

204-214

Publication/Series

Journal of Personnel Psychology

Volume

13

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Hogrefe & Huber Publishers

Topic

  • Psychology

Keywords

  • communion
  • gender stereotypes
  • agency
  • norms
  • discrimination
  • backlash
  • hiring

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2190-5150