Role Models
A paper co-authored by UCSB Professor Sarah Thébaud explores how a managerial role can become gender-stereotyped and the effect that has on the authority of both male and female managers. Thébaud is collaborating with TMP professors Kyle Lewis and Renee Rottner on a research grant.
Using a unique set of data from a microfinance bank in Central America, Sarah Thébaud, an assistant professor of sociology, and Laura Doering of McGill University in Montreal, found that clients quickly treated previously gender-ambiguous roles as if they were male- or female-typed, and gave more authority to the managers who filled the role when they associated the job with men rather than women.
By Jim Logan, The UCSB Current