Sexism and beautyism in personnel consultant decision making.

Abstract

Each of 72 professional personnel consultants rated the suitability of one bogus applicant for selected masculine, feminine, and neuter jobs, and for alternatives to employment. Each resume was identical with the exception of the systematic variation of the applicant's sex and the omission or inclusion of a photo depicting the applicant as physically attractive or unattractive. As predicted, personnel decisions strongly reflected the operation of sex-role stereotypes as well as sex-relevant and sex-irrelevant attractiveness stereotypes. These factors similarly affected consultants' recommendations of alternatives to employment and consultants' causal attributions of applicants' projected occupational successes and failures. Sex-role typing provides a significant example of the powerful effects of stereotypes in the expansion and restriction of alternatives of expression and action available to men and to women in our society (Bern, 197S; Block, von der Lippe, & Block, 1973; Broverman, Vogel, Broverman, Clarkson, & Rosenkrantz, 1972). The influence of sex-role stereotypes on both access and employee treatment is centrally important to sex discrimination in employment, a practice prohibited by Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, The social sciences have begun to systematically examine sex discrimination in a number of settings, both naturalistic and experimental. The greatest amount of research has assessed discrimination against females in traditionally masculine, that is, male-dominated, occupations. Men have been evaluated more favorably than women for writing journal articles (Goldberg, 1968), for painting pictures (Pheterson, Kiesler, & Goldberg, 1971), and for

Cites (23)

1. Statistical principles in experimental design.
   Winer, B. J. · 1962 · McGraw-Hill Book Company
2. The measurement of psychological androgyny
   Bem, Sandra L. · 1974 · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
3. Department of Labor
   1941 · Research in International Economics by Federal Agencies
4. What is beautiful is good
   Dion, Karen, Berscheid, Ellen, Walster, Elaine · 1972 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
5. Statistics for the social sciences
   William L. Hays · 1973 · Medical Entomology and Zoology
6. Sex‐Role Stereotypes: A Current Appraisal1
   Broverman, Inge K., Vogel, Susan Raymond, Broverman, Donald M., Clarkson, Frank E., Rosenkrantz, Paul S. · 1972 · Journal of Social Issues
7. The relationship between sex role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics.
   Schein, Virginia E. · 1973 · Journal of Applied Psychology
8. Explanations of successful performance on sex-linked tasks: What is skill for the male is luck for the female.
   Deaux, Kay, Emswiller, Tim · 1974 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
9. Theories of motivation : from mechanism to cognition
   Bernard L. Weiner · 1972
10. Are women prejudiced against women?
    Goldberg, Philip · 1968 · Trans-action

Show all 23 references

Cited by (20)

1. Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders.
   Eagly, Alice H., Karau, Steven J. · 2002 · Psychological Review
2. Objectification Theory: Toward Understanding Women's Lived Experiences and Mental Health Risks
   Fredrickson, Barbara L., Roberts, Tomi-Ann · 1997 · Psychology of Women Quarterly
3. Social stigma and self-esteem: The self-protective properties of stigma.
   Crocker, Jennifer, Major, Brenda · 1989 · Psychological Review
4. That swimsuit becomes you: Sex differences in self-objectification, restrained eating, and math performance.
   Fredrickson, Barbara L., Roberts, Tomi-Ann, Noll, Stephanie M., Quinn, Diane M., Twenge, Jean M. · 1998 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
5. When small effects are impressive
   Prentice, Deborah A., Miller, Dale T. · 1992 · Psychological Bulletin

See all 366