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The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of psychological androgyny, a construct that represents a combination of masculinity and femininity, in explaining changes in descriptions of a good manager over time.

Samples of the same two populations were surveyed at four different points in time spanning four decades (N = 1,818).

Good-manager descriptions became increasingly similar in masculinity and femininity over time, or increasingly androgynous according to the balance conceptualization of androgyny. However, both good-manager masculinity and good-manager femininity declined over time, with masculinity declining to a greater extent, which accounted for the greater similarity in these scores. As a result, according to the high masculinity/high femininity conceptualization of androgyny, good-manager descriptions actually became decreasingly androgynous and more “undifferentiated”. Overall, the trend in leader prototypes over time was toward less emphasis on traits associated with members of either sex.

Limitations of two alternative methods of analyses and the survey instrument are acknowledged. What constituted a good manager may have depended on the context. Further scholarly attention to the concept of an undifferentiated leadership style is recommended.

People may be moving beyond leader prototypes based on the simple application of gender stereotypes. Changes in leader prototypes over the past four decades may contribute to enhancements in women’s societal status.

Leader prototypes may disadvantage women less than in the past.

Results suggest that the role of androgyny in leader prototypes is declining according to the high masculinity/high femininity conceptualization.

This research aims to examine the impact of brand design elements (logo shape, brand name, type font and color) on brand masculinity and femininity perceptions, consumer preferences and brand equity.

This research empirically tests the relation between brand design elements, brand masculinity and femininity and brand preferences/equity in four studies involving fictitious and real brands.

Brand design elements consistently influenced brand masculinity and femininity perceptions. These, in turn, significantly related to consumer preferences and brand equity. Brand masculinity and femininity perceptions successfully predicted brand equity above and beyond other brand personality dimensions.

Although this research used a wide range of brand design elements, the interactive effects of various design elements warrant further research.

This research demonstrates how markers of masculinity and femininity that are discussed in the evolutionary psychology literature can be applied to the brand design of new and existing brands.

This research considers the impact of multiple brand design elements (logo shape, brand name, type font and color) and involves a wide range of brands and product categories.

This paper examines to what extent consonants in brand names influence consumers’ perceptions of feminine and masculine brand personality.

Four experiments empirically test the influence of consonants on feminine and masculine brand personality. The experiments involve different sets of new brand names, variations regarding the consonants tested (the stops k and t, the fricatives f and s), as well as different locations of the focal consonant in the brand name.

Consonants influence consumers’ brand perceptions: brand masculinity is enhanced by stops (rather than fricatives), and brand femininity is enhanced by fricatives (rather than stops). Consonants specifically affect feminine and masculine brand personality, but not other brand personality dimensions. Consumers’ responses to brand names and resulting brand gender perceptions (i.e. likelihood to recommend) were moderated by salience of masculinity or femininity as a desirable brand attribute.

This research has implications for brand name selection: consonants are effective in creating a specifically masculine or a feminine brand personality.

This research is the first to specifically link consonants and feminine/masculine brand personality. By specifically examining consonants, this research extends the marketing literature on sound symbolism that is characterized by a focus on vowels effects. This research is also the first to address whether the position of the focal phoneme in the brand name matters.

The purpose of this paper was to attempt to understand the effects of gender, masculinity-femininity and social support from three sources (supervisor, co-worker and family) on the quality of work life (QWL) of an employee. In addition, the paper tried to explore the moderating effects of gender and social support in the relationship between masculinity-femininity and QWL. Relevant background variables such as age, marital status, parental status and sector have been included as control variables in the study.

Data were collected from a sample of 307 bank employees in India (208 males and 99 females) working in private and public sector banks using the purposive sampling technique. Prior permission was obtained from the relevant authorities. To test the hypotheses, t-tests and hierarchical regression analyses were performed. In addition, the Baron and Kenny (1986) approach was used to test the moderating effects of gender and social support in the relationship between masculinity-femininity and QWL.

Masculinity-femininity was not found to be significant predictor of QWL, while gender emerged as a significant predictor of QWL. Also, gender moderated the relationship between masculinity-femininity and QWL. All three sources of social support significantly predicted QWL. Results of t-test showed that female employees experienced better QWL than male employees. Furthermore, supervisory category employees and parent employees reported significantly better QWL than non-supervisory and non-parent employees.

The key implication for organisations is that employees with both masculine and feminine tendencies are required to strike a balance between goal orientation and people orientation within the company. Also, employees should understand that their gender as well as their individual orientations towards masculinity or femininity will affect the dynamics of any interaction. Hence, being aware of the tendencies that are typical of their gender role orientations both while dealing with themselves as well as while dealing with customers, colleagues or supervisors would help in improving the quality of their work, as well as their QWL, especially in customer service professions.

This is one of the few studies that have tried to answer the “why” part of gender differences in QWL. In addition, this study contributes to an understanding of the relative importance of different sources of social support in improving an employee's QWL. Finally, this is the first study to understand the relationship between masculinity-femininity, social support, gender and QWL in the Indian context, where the overall cultural orientation towards gender roles is currently changing.

This paper aims to examine the interplay among forms of entrepreneurship and the gendered entrepreneurial divide. Using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and the World Values Survey (WVS), the authors investigate the likelihood that females will venture in the commercial entrepreneurial ventures versus social entrepreneurial ventures. The authors draw on the theoretical concept of hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity to explain gender variance in the organizational forms of commercial and social entrepreneurship. Specifically, the authors investigate whether pursuing an opportunity in a society that highly values ideologies of hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity impacts the probability of venturing in either of these kinds of organizations.

To test the hypotheses, the authors use GEM data from 2009 (n = 14,399) for nascent entrepreneurs and baby businesses owners in 55 counties. They also use the WVS to measure the ideologies of hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity at the country level. The authors estimate a logistic multilevel model to identify the drivers of social venturing over commercial venturing. Data are nested by countries, and the authors allow random intercepts by countries with a variance components covariance structure.

The findings demonstrate that there is a divide in entrepreneurial activity, as women entrepreneurs are more likely to start social ventures than commercial ventures. They also find that hegemonic masculinity decreases the incidence of social entrepreneurship, whereas emphasized femininity increases the incidence of social entrepreneurship. Moreover, the authors find evidence that women in societies with a strong view on hegemonic masculinity are less likely to pursue social organizational forms than male entrepreneurs are. Furthermore, in societies with strong views of emphasized femininity, the probability increases that female founders will pursue social organizational forms. The findings highlight the considerable impact of the gender ideologies on entrepreneurship.

Although the authors use the terms “gender” and “sex” in this paper interchangeably, they recognize that these two terms are not equivalent. For the purposes of this manuscript, the authors use a gender analysis approach activity based on biological sex to investigate empirical differences in entrepreneurial. The findings suggest that women ultimately, and unintentionally, are consenting to the practices and norms that reiterate the masculinity of entrepreneurship. In this way, the patriarchal ideologies of hegemonic masculinity and masculinization of entrepreneurship ultimately leave women unable to fully take up the identity of “woman” alongside that of “entrepreneur”. Future research can build upon our findings by applying a more nuanced view of gender via constructivist approaches.

The findings empirically demonstrate the gendered nature of entrepreneurial activity, leading to specific stereotypical female social organizational forms and male commercial organizational forms. Furthermore, the authors are able to provide theoretical explanations based on hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity to understand why social entrepreneurship appeals to women.

This study aims to examine factors that may explain the status of women in management by exploring the linkages between leader anti-prototypes and prototypes to gender stereotypes.

Samples from two populations described either a “bad manager” (representing leader anti-prototypes) or a “good manager” (representing leader prototypes) on two instruments that assessed masculinity and femininity.

On each instrument, masculinity was endorsed more than femininity in both leader prototypes and anti-prototypes. Both masculinity and femininity were endorsed more in leader prototypes than leader anti-prototypes but only when the purpose of the instrument was disguised rather than transparent.

Limitations of a single data collection method, the nature of the samples and a newly designed scale for purposes of the study are acknowledged. Further attention to the linkages of leader anti-prototypes and prototypes to gender stereotypes and the outcomes of these linkages is recommended.

Individuals who make managerial selection and promotion decisions may devote more attention to the presence or absence of masculine traits in candidates than to the presence or absence of feminine traits, thereby leading to female candidates being passed over and male candidates receiving greater scrutiny in determining who gets ahead.

The study suggests cognitive mechanisms that may influence the status of women in management.

The study incorporates leader anti-prototypes and leader prototypes to explain the low status of women in management.

Research emphasizes the motivations underlying and potential harmful consequences of social media use, but there is little understanding of stigmas faced by individual social media users, particularly as they pertain to gender. The purpose of this study is to examine a unique stereotype related to men’s social media use.

Four experiments examine judgments of men based on how often they post on social media (frequently vs infrequently).

The authors find that posting frequently (vs infrequently) affects the perceived gender of men but not women. This frequent-posting femininity stereotype is explained by perceived neediness and holds regardless of whether posts are about others (vs the self) or whether posts are shared by influencers (vs ordinary users).

Future research should examine other stereotypes of social media users – including those pertaining to gender – and ways to mitigate such negative attributions. Researchers should examine how the frequent-posting femininity stereotype and other social media use stereotypes affect social media consumption and consumer well-being.

Managers should adjust consumer engagement strategies and restructure platforms to address the unique stigmas facing different consumer groups.

Providing insights into the dark side of social media, the authors investigate a unique domain – stereotypes about individual social media users. The findings of this study uncover an emasculating stigma against men who post often on social media, which may discourage men from online participation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine perceptions of the “Ideal President” (IP) and presidential candidates in the 2016 US presidential election in relation to gender stereotypes and leader prototypes.

In all, 378 business students assessed perceptions of either the IP or a particular candidate on measures of masculinity and femininity. Androgyny (balance of masculinity and femininity) and hypermasculinity (extremely high masculinity) scores were calculated from these measures.

The IP was perceived as higher in masculinity than femininity, but less similar to the male (Donald Trump) than the female (Hillary Clinton) candidate. IP perceptions were more androgynous than in the 2008 US presidential election. Respondents’ political preferences were related to their IP perceptions on hypermasculinity, which in turn were consistent with perceptions of their preferred candidate.

Trump’s high hypermasculinity scores may explain why he won the electoral college vote, whereas Clinton’s being perceived as more similar to the IP, and IP perceptions’ becoming more androgynous over time, may explain why she won the popular vote.

The study extends the literature on the linkages between gender stereotypes and leader prototypes in two respects. Contrary to the general assumption of a shared leader prototype, it demonstrates the existence of different leader prototypes according to political preference. The hypermasculinity construct, which was introduced to interpret leader prototypes in light of Trump’s candidacy and election, represents a valuable addition to the literature with potentially greater explanatory power than masculinity in some situations.

This paper aims to investigate the effects of sex, attractiveness, and sex role of helping behavior in a simulated work situation.

A 2 × 2×2 randomized experimental design was used, in which 81 participants worked on cooperative task building models. Male or female participants were asked for help from a female confederate who was either high or low in attractiveness and high or low in femininity.

A three‐way interaction indicated that male participants provided equal levels of help across femininity and attractiveness conditions, but female participants provided more help to low attractive‐high feminine confederates than to high attractive‐high feminine confederates.

The external validity of the study may be limited, due to sample and experimental setting. Care should also be used in generalizing to situations in which the participants have longer‐term relationships.

Differences in helping related to sex, sex role orientation, and attractiveness do occur, and may be related to social roles and expectations. This may help predict patterns of helping in work settings.

The study demonstrated that sex role orientation can be experimentally manipulated, and that this does combine with other variables to influence helping behaviors. It also indicated that attractiveness effects are not as consistent as may be expected.

Influence tactics are prevalent in the workplace and are linked to crucial outcomes such as career success and helping behaviours. The authors argue that sex role identity affects women’s choice of influence tactics in the workplace, but they only receive positive performance ratings when their behaviours are congruent with gender role expectation. Furthermore, the authors hypothesize that these relationships may be moderated by occupational continuance commitment. Results suggest that femininity is negatively related to the use of influence tactics overall, and this relationship is moderated by occupational continuance commitment.

In all, 657 women working in the construction industry were surveyed for their continuance occupational commitment and sex role identity and 465 supervisors whose responses are linked with the subordinates are surveyed for the women’s influence tactics and performance ratings.

Results suggested that femininity was negatively related to the use of influence tactics overall, and this relationship was moderated by occupational continuance commitment. Results also showed that women’s use of influence tactics was only positively received in terms of performance ratings when the influence tactic was congruent with gender role expectations.

The results of this current study suggest that not all women are equally likely to use influence tactics and not all tactics result in positive perceptions of performance. Feminine women in general refrain from using influence tactics unless they are driven to stay in a given occupation, but they only receive positive results when their behaviours are congruent with society’s gender role expectations.

Past research has mostly focused on broad differences between males and females, and this study has shown that there are more nuanced differences that can more accurately describe the effects of gender disposition (i.e. sex role identity) on influence tactics. It also emphasizes the importance of occupational commitment as a boundary condition, which influences women to step out of their gender roles even though they may be penalized with lower performance ratings.