How perceptions of group boundaries influence women's interactions with their group and the domains in which they are devalued
Date
2019
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Despite tremendous progress over the past 50 years, women are still vastly underrepresented in high-status positions in STEM and Business leadership. One of the many factors contributing to the underrepresentation of women in these domains is a phenomenon called Social Identity Threat (SIT), a situational predicament that occurs when a person feels devalued or stereotyped based on his or her group membership (Schmader, Block & Lickel, 2015). When primed, SIT can lead to underperformance in domains where one is stigmatized or devalued. Yet despite the pervasive effects of SIT, there is a set of women who are able to buffer themselves from SIT and perform optimally in these contexts. One possible factor contributing to women’s experience in devalued domains such as STEM and Business leadership is their perceptions of group boundaries between men and women within these domains. Perceptions of group status boundaries is defined as perceptions of the extent to which one group’s status can reach the same level as another group’s status (Armenta, Stroebe, Scheibe, Yperen, Stegman & Postmes, 2017). A large body of research suggests that perceptions of group boundaries can have powerful effects on how women identify with their gender in domains where they are devalued (Ellemers, Runk, Derks & Ryan, 2012; Lalonde & Silverman, 1994). This, in turn, can have robust effects on how they perform in SIT situations, as well as their willingness to support and engage in collective action on behalf of their gender. ☐ In this dissertation, I test whether perceptions of group boundaries differentially impact women’s performance in a SIT context, as well as their willingness to support and engage in collective action on behalf of other women. I tested the hypothesis that women primed with perceptions of open group boundaries in a typically male-dominated field (STEM and leadership) would perform better on a domain specific task than women primed with closed group boundaries (Studies 1-3). I also tested the hypothesis that priming perceptions of open boundaries would make women less willing to engage in ingroup support and collective action compared to women primed with perceptions of closed group boundaries (Studies 2-3). Finally, I tested the hypothesis that well-established SIT role model interventions would spontaneously prime open boundaries, leading to better performance in a SIT context, but less ingroup support and collective action (Study 4). ☐ Results from study 1 revealed that in a SIT context, female participants in the open boundaries condition performed marginally better than female participants in the closed boundaries condition. Study 2 extended on study 1 by replicating the performance effects, while also showing perceptions of closed group boundaries increased female STEM majors’ willingness to engage in ingroup support and collective action. Interestingly, study 3 revealed that in a business leadership context, the group boundaries manipulation had no effect on performance and the opposite effect on ingroup support/collective action tendencies, as female business majors in the closed group boundaries condition were less likely to engage in collective action. Finally, study 4 showed that a role model intervention had little impact on perceptions of group boundaries, performance or collective action on a sample of women. The implications for perceptions of group boundaries on individual and group-level behavior in STEM and leadership contexts are discussed.
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Keywords
Collective action, Gender Bias, Group boundaries, Ingroup support, Social identity threat, Status threat