2007 Headlines

Is Hiring a Woman Risky Business?

Download the video (mp4) file

Download the audio (mp3) file

Play Windows Media version

January 9, 2007 | Ithaca, NY - All hiring decisions represent a risk. Will the candidate make a positive impact on the organization and produce results? Will he or she fit with the organization? Hiring decisions are riskier the more senior the position is in the organization because the stakes are higher. A new paper written by Susan Cabrera, a Ph.D. student in Management & Organizations, and Melissa Thomas-Hunt, an assistant professor of Management & Organizations, both at the Johnson School at Cornell University, offers a theoretical model to explain why so few women are making it to the ranks of senior management, in particular exploring how what may appear to be inconsequential gender biases in hiring and promotion decisions can accumulate across careers to create glaring differences in the number of men and women in leadership positions.

Drawing upon a substantial body of empirical research, they argue that in hiring decisions:

At a given objective level of competence, men will be deemed more competent than women. As the result of pervasive gender stereotypes, women are given fewer opportunities than men to demonstrate their abilities; their actual performance is evaluated less favorably then men's; they are held to a higher standard for proving their competence such that the same level of competence that proves ability for a man may not prove ability for a woman; and their success is more likely to be attributed to unstable or external factors such as luck and ease of task.
Women will be perceived as less congruent with industry/job type, subordinates and decision makers than men in male-dominated industries, resulting in a lower assessment of fit.
Female candidates will be perceived as less committed to their work than male candidates.
Because of the gender bias in evaluations of competence, congruence and commitment, men will often be deemed more credible than women. While there are avenues for women to overcome this credibility problem, such as by receiving support from a high-status organizational sponsor or having previously occupied a position comparable to the one being sought, women are less likely to have access to powerful social networks and less likely to hold positions of seniority.
The combined effect of even small doubts about women's competence, congruence, commitment, and credibility often results in conclusions that women are simply less qualified, causing female candidates to be perceived as riskier hires than male candidates, and in turn, making them less likely to be hired than male candidates.

To view a copy of the paper or to speak with Susan Cabrera and Melissa Thomas-Hunt about this research, please contact:

Deirdre Snyder
Public Relations Officer
The Johnson School at Cornell University
Email: dgs37@cornell.edu
Phone: 607.255.3494
Cell: 607.592.2188