García-Retamero,R.
López-Zafra,E.

In a cross-cultural study, the authors tested whether the leadership role is more congruent with the masculine than the feminine gender role. Participants in Germany and Spain evaluated a male or a female candidate for a leadership position in an industry congruent or incongruent with the candidate’s gender role, or in an unspecified industry. In line with the authors’ hypotheses, the female candidate was perceived as less qualified for the position, especially when she worked in the incongruent industry. Spanish participants showed more prejudice against the female candi- date than did German participants. Furthermore, when German participants predicted that the female candidate would succeed in obtaining the promotion, they made an internal causal attri- bution to explain this success. Spanish participants, however, sometimes made an external causal attribution. These results are consistent with the role congruity theory.

García-Retamero, R., & López-Zafra, E. (2009). Causal attributions about feminine and leadership roles. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 40, 492-509. doi:10.1177/0022022108330991 (Full text)

Publication year	2009
Document type:	Article
Publication status:	Published
External URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022022108330991 View
Categories:	Business
Keywords:	causal attributionsgendergender stereotypesleadershipprejudicerole