Journal article
A Man's (Precarious) Place: Men's Experienced Threat and Self-Assertive Reactions to Female Superiors
Personality & social psychology bulletin, Vol.41(9), pp.1247-1259
09/2015
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/101602
PMID: 26162611
Abstract
Across three studies, we investigate men's reactions to women in superior roles. Drawing from precarious manhood theory, we hypothesize that when a woman occupies a superior organizational role, men in subordinate positions experience threat, which leads them to behave more assertively toward her and advocate for themselves. In Studies 1 and 2, we demonstrate that men feel more threatened (relative to women) by women in superior roles (relative to men in superior roles) and, as a result, engage in more assertive behaviors toward these women. In Study 3, we investigate a boundary condition to this effect and demonstrate that a woman in a superior role who displays qualities associated with administrative agency (e.g., directness, proactivity) rather than ambitious agency (e.g., self-promotion, power-seeking) elicits less assertive behavior from men. We conclude by discussing implications as well as directions for future research.
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Details
- Title
- A Man's (Precarious) Place: Men's Experienced Threat and Self-Assertive Reactions to Female Superiors
- Creators
- Ekaterina Netchaeva - Bocconi University, Milan, Italy ekaterina.netchaeva@unibocconi.itMaryam Kouchaki - Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USALeah D Sheppard - Washington State University, Pullman, USA
- Publication Details
- Personality & social psychology bulletin, Vol.41(9), pp.1247-1259
- Academic Unit
- Management, Information Systems, and Entrepreneurship, Department of
- Publisher
- United States
- Identifiers
- 99900546661801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article