SEX STEREOTYPES - DO THEY INFLUENCE PERCEPTIONS OF MANAGERS

In a study designed to determine whether traditional stereotypic discr epancies in the characterizations of women and men persist when they a re depicted as managers, two-hundred twenty-four male managers complet ed an attribute inventory describing either men or women in general, m en or women managers, or men or women successful managers. Scales tapp ing traditional work-relevant sex stereotypes were created by combinin g subsets of inventory items, and characterizations on these scales we re analyzed using an analysis of variance framework. Results indicated that although characterizations of women on male stereotyped attribut es were more favorable when they were depicted as managers than when d epicted ill general terms, women managers still (with only one excepti on) were characterized more negatively than were men managers. Only wh en designated as successful managers did the majority of discrepant ch aracterizations on stereotypically male attributes abate. In addition, when depicted as managers, and particularly as successful managers, w omen were found to be characterized more negatively in interpersonal a ttributes than women typically are and, under some circumstances more negatively than men. The implications of these results, both theoretic al and practical, are discussed.