Perceptions of Women's Power as a Function of Position Within an Organization

Abstract

In the present study the authors investigated how people perceive women as a function of position within an organization. Introductory psychology students (N = 456) were given 1 of 6 vignettes depicting people in various occupations, along with an adjective checklist adapted from the Bem Sex Role Inventory (S. L. Bem, 1974). The students indicated on a Likert-type scale the adjectives they believed described the character in the paragraph they received. They were also given a power style scale by T R. Hinkin and C. A. Schriesheim (1989) and were asked to rate the vignette characters' ability to use each different style (e.g., reward, expertise, referent, legitimate, coercive). The students rated women in high positions as more masculine than men and women in low positions and as masculine as men in high positions. There was little difference in power styles as a function of either the sex or the position level of the vignette character.