What’s in It for Me(n)? The Impact of Self-Interest on Men’s Support for Gender Inclusion Initiatives

<p>In the Post-#MeToo era, an increasing number of men are feeling discriminated against and threatened. To realize gender equality in the workplace, change efforts ought to encourage men to recognize their stake in the issue rather than highlighting their “contribution” to the problem or excluding them altogether. The present dissertation aims to investigate whether self-interest may be utilized to motivate men to support gender inclusion initiatives in the workplace. In Study 1 (N = 177), using an experimental design with a student sample, I tested whether framing a gender inclusion initiative as beneficial to self (as well as others) leads to more support from men compared to framing the initiative as beneficial to others only. I also examined the moderating effect of social dominance orientation (SDO) and the mediating effect of zero-sum gender beliefs (ZSGBs). In Study 2 (N = 267), I tested the moderating effect of champion gender with a 2 (Framing: Self-interest, No Self-interest) x 2 (Champion gender: Male, Female) factorial between- subject design with male, full-time, non-contingent workers, recruited on Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Together, the two studies revealed that a gender inclusion initiative framed as beneficial to men garnered more support than when it is framed as beneficial to women only and this effect was significantly moderated by SDO. However, the results demonstrated that having a male champion does not alleviate the negative impact SDO has on the relationship between self-interest and support for gender inclusion; this relationship was not mediated by ZSGBs either. Taken together, the findings of the current studies urge a paradigm shift from focusing on mitigating gender biases that affect women and direct attention to emphasizing the positive changes that can be brought by a more inclusive approach to gender equality in the workplace. I discuss relations of the findings to the literature on gender and diversity and management.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Psychology, PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Social Science, Politics, and Evaluation

Year dc:date.available

2020

Author dc:creator

• Lau, Wing yan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Jason Siegel
• Jeffrey Yip
• Miguel Unzueta

• gender inclusion
• men
• self-interest
• social dominance orientation
• zero-sum
• Organizational Behavior and Theory

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/688

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:cgu_etd-1710