PERCEPTIONS OF MEN, WOMEN, AND CEOS: THE EFFECTS OF GENDER IDENTITY

In: Social behavior and personality: an international journal, Volume 32, Issue 2, p. 155-171

Abstract

Previous studies (e.g., Heilman, Block, & Martell, 1995; Heilman, Block, Martell, & Simon, 1989; Kunkel, Dennis, & Waters, 2003; Schein, 1973, 1975; Schein & Mueller, 1992) have detected differences in how participants perceive the characteristics of males and females
in general and those of male and female managers, though sex-based stereotyping dissipated with the consideration of successful managers. This study, an administration of the Schein Descriptive Index (SDI, Schein, 1973) and the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1974) to 220 participants (125
women and 95 men), is the second to extend the operationalization of the extant program beyond the commonplace label of manager to that of chief executive officer (CEO) and the first to find that participants' gender identities may be critical to their perceptions of similarities and
differences between the sexes. While males and masculinity continue to be associated with organizational leadership attributes, individuals of either sex who express feminine orientations perceive little difference between the sexes.