Gender Ideology and Evaluations of a Male versus Female Target: Effects of Emphasizing versus Downplaying Gender Differences

摘要

Society offers mixed messages about whether we should emphasize versus downplay the differences between the genders. This study investigates two ideologies: gender blindness, the view that one should ignore gender categories and treat men and women as fundamentally the same, and gender awareness, the view that one should acknowledge and appreciate differences between the genders. This experiment replicates the finding from earlier research that angry female bosses are evaluated negatively compared to angry male bosses (Brescoll u26 Uhlmann, 2008), and manipulates gender ideology to examine its effect on this bias. This study shows divergent results, but ultimately suggests that gender awareness may be the best approach to eliminating workplace bias against a female. The article concludes by discussing gender differences in the broader context of contemporary social issues.