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Personal Endorsement of Ambivalent Sexism and Career Success: an Investigation of Differential Mechanisms

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Abstract

Prior research on ambivalent sexism indicates that hostile and benevolent sexist attitudes together uphold the gender hierarchy or status quo. However, research has generally focused on the ambivalent sexism of others. The current study takes an alternative and complementary approach by examining whether, why, and for whom personal endorsement of hostile and sexist attitudes is related to career success. Integrating ambivalent sexism theory, resource management theories of career success, and social role theory, we theorize differential mechanisms via which hostile and benevolent sexism are divergently related to objective and subjective career success. Results revealed that gender had direct relationships with hostile sexism, whereas gender tended to also moderate relationships between benevolent sexism and choices and experiences at the work-family interface that could be prescribed by traditional gender roles (i.e., length of career interruptions and work-to-family conflict). Additionally, actions and choices that were more visible to others generally mediated relationships between sexist attitudes and objective career success (i.e., hostile sexism → seeking career advice from men → pay), whereas internal experiences and cognitions tended to mediate relationships between sexist attitudes and subjective career success (i.e., benevolent sexism → work-family conflict → satisfaction, but only for women). Overall, these results highlight the importance of studying whether, the process through which, personal endorsement of sexism influences work experiences, choices, and outcomes.

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Notes

  1. Although not hypothesized, we also examined whether gender moderated relationships between hostile sexism and proposed mediators (i.e., seeking career advice from men and social comparisons) as well as the relationships between these proposed mediators and objective and subjective career success. We found no evidence of gender moderation effects.

  2. Since hostile and benevolent sexism tends to be moderately correlated (r = .28, in the current sample), we completed additional analyses controlling for the other form of sexism to determine whether conclusions change. Conclusions regarding the serial mediation models did not change when controlling for benevolent sexism. Additionally, conclusions regarding moderated relationships between benevolent sexism and career interruptions and career interruptions and pay did not change when controlling for hostile sexism. However, when controlling for hostile sexism, the interaction between gender and benevolent sexism in predicting work-to-family conflict did become non-significant. However, we note that gender did not interact with hostile sexism to predict work-to-family conflict, indicating the interactive effect uncovered and presented in-text appears to be unique to benevolent sexism.

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This research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant to the second author (#435-2016-0696).

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  1. Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, 3700 McTavish St., Montreal, QC, H3A 1Y9, Canada

    Polly Cheng

  2. Schulich School of Business, York University, 111 Ian Macdonald Boulevard, Toronto, ON, M3J 1P3, USA

    Winny Shen

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

    K. Yourie Kim

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Cheng, P., Shen, W. & Kim, K.Y. Personal Endorsement of Ambivalent Sexism and Career Success: an Investigation of Differential Mechanisms. J Bus Psychol 35, 783–798 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-019-09652-9

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