Stereotypes towards women managers: An experimental illustration using the Goldberg paradigm in a Romanian sample
Curseu, Petru L . Boros, Smaranda
Curseu, Petru L .
Boros, Smaranda
Citations
Altmetric:
Publication Type
Journal article
Editor
Supervisor
Publication Year
2008
Journal
Studia Psychologica
Book
Publication Volume
50
Publication Issue
3
Publication Begin page
10
Publication End page
20
Publication Number of pages
Collections
Abstract
An experimental study based on Goldberg’s paradigm was carried out to investigate stereotypes towards women managers in a mixed gender sample. 329 participants were asked to participate in a simulated personnel selection decision task. 166 participants had to choose between 2 identical resumes describing 2 men, while 163 participants had to choose between the same 2 resumes, but they were told that the first resume belonged to a woman. All participants were also asked to assess the managerial skills, orientation towards task and towards relations for both candidates. Results show a clear drop of preferences in the second experimental condition for the resume describing a woman compared to the preferences expressed by the participants in the first experimental condition for the same resume describing a man. Also, participants in the second experimental condition rated the male applicant’s managerial skills, task orientation and relationships orientation higher than the female applicant’s. However, contrary to what was expected, women raters were equally discriminative toward women applicant as men raters were. This result does not support the prediction of the implicit social cognition theory and is explained by the traditional values of the Romanian culture in which women are perceived much more active in the private areas of life as opposed to public areas.