We would like to invite you to a webinar by Dr Andrea Vial on ‘When Work Becomes a “Masculinity Contest”: Causes and Consequences’, as part of the series of seminars organized by the Social Psychology Research Lab (SPRL). It will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, March 6, from 10 AM to 11 AM, online, GST/UAE time (Join Zoom Meeting: https://lnkd.in/gvEfDZHA)
About the speaker (online): Dr. Vial is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at New York University Abu Dhabi and the director of the Social Roles and Beliefs Lab. She received her PhD in Social Psychology from Yale University in 2018. Before joining New York University Abu Dhabi, she was a Postdoctoral research associate at New York University (New York). Andrea takes an interdisciplinary approach drawing from social psychological, sociological, organizational, and developmental perspectives to investigate how gender stereotypes and beliefs about roles contribute to employment segregation and inequality on the basis of gender. She’s particularly interested in studying why people flock to gender-stereotypic roles, the barriers that they encounter when they don’t, and the conditions under which they can thrive in counter-stereotypic domains and occupations.
Abstract: "Some organizations (schools, academic departments, companies, etc.) are characterized by strong masculinity contest norms. In this talk, I will present correlational and experimental evidence from a series of studies that investigate why this is the case and illustrate some of the negative downstream effects of these masculine workplace norms. Drawing from social psychological perspectives on masculinity as precarious—hard won and easily lost—I will examine how placing an emphasis on stereotypically masculine traits as required to succeed (e.g., a focus on raw intellectual “brilliance” in some academic fields) turns work into a masculinity contest. I will then discuss how these masculine workplace norms lead people to approach interpersonal interactions instrumentally fostering a self-oriented mindset, increasing the tendency to objectify coworkers (i.e., to see them as means to an end), and reducing prosocial behavior at work. Finally, I will focus on ways that strong masculine workplace norms undermine gender diversity in organizations. In particular, I will share evidence that strong masculine workplace norms promote the devaluation of the female social identity, reduce women’s sense of belonging, and discourage their participation. Taken together, these studies highlight the importance of understanding and molding workplace norms to increase well-being and reduce gender inequality in academia (e.g., STEM fields) and beyond."
