CHANGES IN ATTITUDES TOWARD FEMALE MANAGE RS - DIFFERENTIAL MODELS ASA FUNCTION OF GENDER

According to Kanter (1977), attitudes towards female managers will lik ely become more favourable as their numbers increase until a critical mass of 35% is reached. This hypothesis was partially supported by the results of a study conducted in Canada. The attitudes of 354 managers of the Federal public service were measured as a function of actual ( 9% and 20%) or fictitious (35% and 50%) proportions of female to male managers in their departments. The results indicated that attitudes to wards female managers were more positive amongst women (N = 158) than amongst men (N = 160), regardless of the ratios. The respondents' eval uations of the female managers' status and of their contribution to th e culture of the organization were not consistent with expressed attit udes nor were the attributions for their managerial behaviour. In orde r to assess the relations amongst these variables, the present study i ncluded them in a theoretical model that was tested using Path Analysi s for each gender group. Results showed that attributions are directly related with women's attitudes, while ratios are related directly wit h those of men. These findings suggested that an increase in the ratio of female to male managers is a necessary but insufficient condition to change attitudes towards female managers.