Fear of Backlash Moderates Female Senior Executives' Communion (but Not Agency) as Compared to Female Lecturers

Abstract

Today, many women work in occupational roles that had once been dominated by men (e.g., senior business executives). However, expectations on senior executives to be agentic (e.g., assertive, dominant) may conflict with prescriptive stereotypes about women to be communal (e.g., helpful, warm). According to this double-bind dilemma, female senior executives get criticized for lacking either agency or communion as both dimensions can be perceived as posing a tradeoff. We hypothesize that female senior executives report higher levels of agency and lower levels of communion than women in a more neutral role (e.g., lecturers) due to the perceived requirements of these occupational roles. In Study 1, N = 212 students rated adjectives on their desirability for men vs. women in Chinese society. They rated agentic characteristics as more desirable for men and communal characteristics as more desirable for women. Studies 2 and 3 used this material. Study 2 randomly assigned N = 207 female students to the role of a senior executive vs. lecturer. Study 3 was conducted with N = 202 female role occupants (96 senior executives, 106 lecturers). As expected, female senior executives reported higher levels of agency and lower levels of communion than female lecturers in both studies. Some women may be particularly aware of the above-mentioned double-bind dilemma and may be more worried about the potential backlash than others. They may attempt to reconcile occupational demands (i.e., higher agency, lower communion) with prescriptive gender stereotypes (i.e., lower agency, higher communion). We, therefore, explored whether fear of backlash attenuates the effect of the type of role of women (senior executives vs. lecturers) on agency and communion. Indeed, we found that senior executives who were particularly worried about backlash reported almost as much communion as lecturers did. In contrast, senior executives consistently reported higher levels of agency than lecturers regardless of their fear of backlash. The present study documents prescriptive gender stereotypes in China, how women differ as a function of their occupational roles, and how fear of backlash may motivate female senior executives to reconcile having high levels of both agency and communion.

Keywords: agency; communion; fear of backlash; female senior executive; moderation effect.

Figure 1

The path of hypotheses and research questions in the theoretical model. The “+” represents positive relationship and effect and “–” represents negative relationship and effect.

Figure 2

Self-reported agency and communion at work for female senior executives and female lecturers in Study 2 under imagination research paradigm. Error bars represent the SE of the mean. ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01. N = 207 women (N_Executive= 104, N_Lecturer = 103).

Figure 3

Simple slope analysis for moderation effect of fear of backlash on the relationship between the role type of women and self-reported agency and communion in Study 2 under imagination research paradigm. N = 207 women (N_Executive= 104, N_Lecturer = 103).

Figure 4

Standardized regression coefficient for moderation effect of fear of backlash between role types and self-reported agency and communion in Study 2. Role type was recoded as 1 = senior executive, 0 = lecturer. The “+” sign represents positive relationship and effect and —represents negative relationship and effect. All values of variables are Z-standardized. **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. N = 207 women.

Figure 5

Self-reported agency and communion at work for female senior executives and women lecturers in Study 3. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean. ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01. N = 202 women (N_Executive= 96, N_Lecturer = 106).

Figure 6

Simple slope analysis for moderation effect of fear of backlash on the relationship between the role type of women and self-reported agency and communion in Study 3. N = 202 women (N _Executive= 96, N _Lecturer = 106).

Figure 7

Standardized regression coefficient for moderation effect of fear of backlash between role types and self-reported agency and communion in Study 3. Role type recoded as 1 = senior executive, 0 = lecturer. The “+” represents positive relationship and effect and —represents negative relationship and effect. *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001. N = 202 women.