Events

Prof. Lisa Leslie
Professor of Management and Organizations
Stern School of Business
New York University

Gender stereotypes dictate that women both are and are expected to be high in communality (warm, compassionate, and friendly), but low in agency (not competent, ambitious, or assertive). Abundant evidence documents that stereotypes of low agency have a negative effect on women’s work outcomes. Less attention has been paid to stereotypes of high communality, and specifically the possibility that managing communal stereotypes creates a burden for women that limits their career outcomes. Drawing from theory on impression management, we propose that the need to conform to stereotypic expectations that their group is high in communality motivates women to engage in higher levels of ingratiation—an impression management strategy intended to convey warmth and likeability—relative to men. We furthermore propose that ingratiation operates as a job demand, with the result that it increases burnout and turnover. Our theorizing collectively suggests communal stereotypes are costly for women’s careers, in that they contribute to higher turnover rates among women than among men. We provide support for these ideas in three studies using a variety of different methods. Our theory and findings contribute to the literature by expanding understanding of how gender stereotypes constrain women’s work outcomes and providing new insight into the strategies women use to manage gender stereotypes and the associated career consequences.