Abstract
This study was designed to examine professional human resource managers’ recommendations and inferences about prototypical applicants who had identical qualifications, in which the presence of periods of unemployment and name (feminine, masculine) of applicants were manipulated. Results indicate that although overall income for female applicants was less than male applicants in some conditions, male applicants were penalized and evaluated more harshly than female applicants when they had experienced periods of unemployment. Specifically, male applicants with employment gaps were seen as less committed and as less hirable than their female counterparts. Overall, male applicants were less likely to be recommended for an interview, and, when they experienced multiple gaps, they were less likely to be recommended for further consideration.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, T., & Russell, J. (1999). Parental leave of absence: Some not so family-friendly implications. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29, 166–191.
Aronson, E., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1968). Experimentation in social psychology. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 1–79). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Bakan, D. (1966). The duality of human existence: An essay on psychology and religion. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally.
Bennett, N., Martin, C., Bies, R., & Brockner, J. (1995). Coping with layoffs: A longitudinal study of victims. Journal of Management, 20, 311–342.
Bem, S. (1993). The lenses of gender: Transforming the debate on sexual inequality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Berger, J., Hamit, F., Norman, R., & Zelditch, M. (1977). Status characteristics and social interaction: An expectations states approach. New York: Elsevier.
Berger, J. Wagner, D., & Zelditch, M. (1985). Introduction: Expectations states theory—review and assessment. In J. Berger & M. Zelditch (Eds.), Status, rewards, and influence: How expectations organize behavior (pp. 1–72). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Bergmann, B. (1986). The economic emergence of women. New York: Basic Books.
Berry, J., & Rao, J. (1997). Balancing employment and fatherhood: A systems perspective. Journal of Family Issues, 18, 386–402.
Bertrand, M. & Mullainathan, S. (2003). Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A field experiment on labor market discrimination (Working Paper). Chicago, IL: Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago.
Bigelow, L., & McLean Parks, J. (2004). Skirting the issues: Sunspots, hemlines and TMT demographics (Working Paper). Olin School of Business, Washington University at St. Louis.
Brief, A. P., Buttram, R. T., Reizenstein, R. M., Pugh, S. D., Callahan, J. D., McCline, R. L., et al. (1997). Beyond good intentions: The next steps toward racial equality in the American workplace. Academy of Management Executive, 11, 59–72.
Brockner, J. (1988). The effects of work layoffs on survivors: Research theory, and practice. In B. Staw & L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 10, pp. 213–255). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Brockner, J. (1990). Scope of justice in the workplace: How survivors react to co-worker layoffs. Journal of Social Issues, 46, 95–106.
Brockner, J., & Greenberg, J. (1990). The impact of layoffs on survivors: An organizational justice perspective. In J. Carroll (Eds.), Advances in applied social psychology: Business settings (pp. 45–75). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Brockner, J., Wiesenfeld, B., Stephen, J., Hurley, R., Grover, S., Reed, T., et al. (1997). The effects on layoff survivors of fellow survivors’ layoff reactions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 27, 835–863.
Broverman, I., Vogel, S., Broverman, D., Clarkson, F., & Rosenkrantz, P. (1972). Sex-role stereotypes: A current appraisal. Journal of Social Issues, 28, 59–78.
Carpenter, S., & Trentham, S. (2001). Should we take “gender” out of gender subtypes? The effects of gender, evaluative valence, and context on the organization of person subtypes. Sex Roles, 45, 455–480.
CBS MarketWatch.com. (2002, May 14). The story behind the numbers. Retrieved from http://cbs.marketwatch.com/ news/economy/layoffs
Chodorow, N. (1978). The reproduction of mothering. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Cohen, A. (1992). Antecedents of organizational commitment across occupational groups: A meta analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13, 539–558.
Cotton, J., & Tuttle, J. (1986). Employee turnover: A meta-analysis and review with implications for research. Academy of Management Review, 11, 55–70.
Dodd-McCue, D., & Wright, G. B. (1996). Men, women, and attitudinal commitment: The effects of workplace experiences and socialization. Human Relations, 49, 1065–1085.
Druskat, V. (1994). Gender and leadership style: Transformational and transactional leadership in the Roman Catholic Church. Leadership Quarterly, 5, 99–119.
Eagly, A. H. (1987). Sex differences in social behavior: A social role interpretation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Eagly, A. H., & Karau, S. J. (1991). Gender and the emergence of leaders: A meta-analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 685–710.
Eagly, A. H., & Kite, M. E. (1987). Are stereotypes of nationalities applied to both women and men? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 451–467.
Eagly, A. H., Karau, S. J., & Makhijani, M. G. (1995). Gender and the effectiveness of leaders: A meta analysis. Psychology Bulletin, 17, 125–145.
Eagly, A. H., Makhijani, M. G., & Klonsky, B. G. (1992). Gender and the evaluation of leaders: A meta analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 111, 3–22.
Eagly, A. H., & Steffen, V. J. (1984). Gender stereotypes stem from the distribution of women and men into social roles. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 735-754.
Eagly, A. H., & Wood, W. (1991). Explaining sex differences in social behavior: A meta-analytic perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 306–315.
Eckes, T. (1994). Explorations in gender cognition: Content and structure of female and male subtypes. Social Cognition, 12, 37–60.
Eckes, T. (1996). Linking female and male subtypes to situations: A range-of-situation-fit effect. Sex Roles, 35, 401–427.
Edwards, G. H. (1992). The structure and content of the male gender role stereotypes: An exploration of subtypes. Sex Roles, 27, 533–551.
Eisenberg, P., & Lazarsfeld, P. (1938). The psychological effects of unemployment. Psychological Bulletin, 35, 358–390.
Feather, N. (1985). Attitudes, values, and attributions: Explanations of unemployment. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 48, 876–889.
Fiske, S., & Taylor, S. (1991). Social cognition. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Flanders, D., & Anderson, P. (1973). Sex discrimination in employment—theory + practice. Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 26, 938–955.
Foschi, M. (1989). Status characteristics, standards, and attributions. In J. Berger, M. Zelditch, & B. Anderson (Eds.), Sociological theories in progress: New formulations (pp. 58–72). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Foschi, M. (1996). Double standards in the evaluation of men and women. Social Psychology Quarterly, 59, 237–254.
Gilbert, L. (1994). Current perspectives on dual-career families. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 3, 101-105.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gorman, K., & Fritzsche, B. (2002). The good-mother stereotype: Stay at home (or wish you did!). Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 2190–2201.
Green, R., Reibstein, R., Becker, E., & Green, P. (1988). A BNA special report: Negligent hiring. Washington, DC: The Bureau of National Affairs.
Hort, B. E., Fagot, B. I., & Leinbach, M. D. (1990). Are people’s notions of maleness more stereotypically frames than their notions of femaleness? Sex Roles, 23, 197–212.
Hyde, J., Essex, M., & Horton, F. (1993). Fathers and parental leave: Attitudes and experiences. Journal of Family Issues, 14, 616–641.
Isaksson, K., & Johansson, G. (2000). Adaptation to continued work and early retirement following downsizing: Long-term effects and gender differences. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 73, 241–256.
Jick, T. D. (1979). Mixing qualitative and quantitative methods: Triangulation in action. Administrative Science Quarterly, 24, 602–611.
Johnston, D., & Swanson, D. (2003). Invisible mothers: A content analysis of motherhood ideologies and myths in magazines. Sex Roles, 49, 21–33.
Judiesch, M. K., & Lyness, K. S. (1999). Left behind? The impact of leaves of absence on managers’ career success. Academy of Management Journal, 42, 641–651.
Kelley, H. (1967). Attribution theory in social psychology. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 15, 192–238.
Kelley, H. (1972). Causal schemata and the attribution process. Morristown, N.J: General Learning Press.
Kelley, H. (1973). The process of causal attribution. American Psychologist, 28, 107–128.
Keppel, G. (1982). Design and analysis: A researcher’s handbook. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Keppel, G., & Zedeck, S. (1989). Data analysis for research designs: Analysis of variance and multiple regression/correlation approaches. New York: Holt.
Ketsche, P. G., & Branscomb, L. (2003). The long-term costs of career interruptions. Journal of Healthcare Management, 48, 30–44.
Kidder, D., Lankau, M., Chrobot-Mason, D., Mollica, K., & Friedman, R. (2004). Backlash towards diversity initiatives: Examining the impact of diversity program justifications, personal and group outcomes. International Journal of Conflict Management, 15, 61–94.
Kidder, D., & McLean Parks, J. (2001). The good soldier: Who is s(he)? Journal of Organizational Behavior, 22, 939–959.
Kiesler, S. B. (1975). Actuarial prejudice toward women and its implications. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 5, 201–216.
Latack, J. C., Kinicki, A., & Prussia, G. (1995). An integrative process model of coping with job loss. Academy of Management Review, 20, 311–342.
Leana, C. R., & Feldman, D. C. (1994). The psychology of job loss. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 12, 271–302.
Lefkowitz, J. (1994). Sex-related differences in job attitudes and dispositional variables: Now you see them. Academy of Management Journal, 37, 323–349.
Leyens, J., Zerbyt, V., & Schadron, G. (1994). Stereotypes, social cognition, and social explanation. London: Sage.
Lovell, S., Kahn, A., Anton, J., Davidson, A., Dowling, E., Post D., et al. (1999). Does gender affect the link between organizational citizenship behavior and performance evaluation? Sex Roles, 41, 469–478.
Lyness, K., & Judiesch, M. (2001). Are female managers quitters? The relationships of gender, promotions, and family leaves of absence to voluntary turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 1167–1178.
Locke, E. A. (1984). Generalizing from laboratory to field settings. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
Martin, G., & Bies, R. (1991, August). Just laid off, but still a “good citizen?” Only if the process is fair. Paper presented at the meeting of the Academy of Management, Miami, FL.
Maxwell, N. L., & D’Amico, R. J. (1986). Employment and wage effects of involuntary job separation: Male–female differences. American Economic Review, 76, 373–377.
McLean Parks, J., & Schmedemann, D. (1994). When promises become contracts: Implied contracts and handbook provisions on job security. Human Resource Management, 33, 403-423.
Miller, J., & Wheeler, K. (1992). Unraveling the mysteries of gender differences in intentions to leave the organization. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13, 465–478.
Noseworthy, C. M., & Lott, A. J. (1984). The cognitive organization of gender-stereotypic categories. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 10, 474–481.
O’Leary, V. E., & Ickovics, J. R. (1992). Cracking the glass ceiling: Overcoming isolation and alienation. In Sekaran, Uma, & Leong, Frederick (Eds.), Woman power: Managing in times of demographic turbulence (pp. 7–30). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Orpen, C. (1981). Causal attributions for the success and failure of Black and White managers. Journal of Occupational Behavior, 2, 81–87.
Paludi, M., & Strayer, L. (1985). What’s in an author’s name? Differential evaluations of performance as a function of author’s name. Sex Roles, 12, 353–361.
Petty, R., & J. Cacioppo 1986. Communication and persuasion. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Powell, G. (1993). Men and women in management. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Riggs, J. (1998). Social roles we choose and don’t choose: Impressions of employed and unemployed parents. Sex Roles, 39, 431–443.
Rousseau, D. M., & Anton, R. (1988). Fairness and implied contract obligations in termination: A policy capturing study. Human Performance, 1, 273–289.
Royalty, A. (1998). Job-to-job and job-to-nonemployment turnover by gender and education level. Journal of Labor Economics, 16, 392–443.
Schein, V. (1975). Relationships between sex role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics among female managers. Journal of Applied Psychology, 60, 340–44.
Schein, V., & Mueller, R. (1992). Sex role stereotyping and requisite management characteristics: A cross cultural look. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13, 439–447.
Schmedemann, D. A., & McLean Parks, J. (1994). Contract formation and employee handbooks: Legal, psychological, and empirical analyses. Wake Forest Law Review, 29, 647-718.
Schneer, J., & Reitman, F. (1990). Effects of employment gaps on the careers of M.B.A.s: More damaging for men than for women? Academy of Management Journal, 33, 391-406.
Schneer, J., & Reitman, F. (1994). The importance of gender in mid-career: A longitudinal study of MBAs. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 15, 199–207.
Schneer, J., & Reitman, F. (1995). The impact of gender as managerial careers unfold. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 47, 290–315.
Schneer, J., & Reitman, F. (1997). The interrupted managerial career path: A longitudinal study of MBAs. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 51, 411–434.
Schwartz, F. (1989). Management women and the new facts of life. Harvard Business Review, 1, 65–76.
Simons, T. (1993). Speech patterns and the concept of utility in cognitive maps: The case of integrative bargaining. Academy of Management Journal, 36, 139–156.
Spence, J. T., & Helmreich, R. L. (1979). On assessing androgyny. Sex Roles, 5, 721–738.
Spera, S., Buhrfield, D., & Pennebaker, J. (1994). Expressive writing and coping with job loss. Academy of Management Journal, 37, 722–733.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. M. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Strober, M. (1982). The MBA: Same passport to success for women and men? In P. Wallace (Ed.), Women in the workplace (pp. 25–44). Boston: Auburn House.
Stroh, L., Brett, J., & Reilly, A. (1996). Family structure, glass ceiling, and traditional explanations for the differential rate of turnover of female and male managers. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 49, 99–118.
Tavris, C. (1997). The science and politics of gender research: The meanings of difference. In D. Bernstein (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation: Gender and motivation (Vol. 45, pp. 1–23). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Taylor, S., Fiske, S., Etcoff, N., & Ruderman, A. (1978). Categorical bases of person memory and stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 778–793.
Tomlin, R. (1985). Interaction of subject, theme, and agent. In J. Wirth (Ed.), Beyond the sentence: Discourse and sententiual form (pp. 61–100). Ann Arbor, MI: Karoma.
U.S. Census Bureau. (February 14, 2003). Facts for features. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov
Wahn, J. C. (1998). Sex differences in the continuance component of organizational commitment. Group and Organization Management, 23, 256–266.
Watson, C. (1994). Gender differences in negotiating behavior and outcomes: Fact or artifact? In A. Taylor & J. B. Miller (Eds.), Conflict and gender (pp. 191–210). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Wayne, J. J., & Cordeiro, B. L. (2003). Who is a good organizational citizen? Social perception of male and female employees who use family leave. Sex Roles, 49, 233–246.
Wiesenfeld, B. M., Brockner, J., & Thibault, V. (2000). Procedural fairness, managers’ self-esteem, and managerial behaviors following a layoff. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 83, 1–32.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
smith, f.l., Tabak, F., Showail, S. et al. The Name Game: Employability Evaluations of Prototypical Applicants with Stereotypical Feminine and Masculine First Names. Sex Roles 52, 63–82 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-1194-7
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-1194-7