How gender discrimination influences social ties among women

Abstract

In this PhD, we examine how experiences with sexism affect women’s social relationships with other women. We assess the role played by tolerance of sexism in the workplace, including perceptions of tolerance of sexism at the peer-, manager-, and policy-level. Chapter 1 provides a review of the literature on devaluated group members’ responses to stigma on their relationship with other members of their groups and highlight the role of context on the effect of stigma on interpersonal relationships. Chapter 2 reports secondary analyses of existing data to examine the how tolerance of gender devaluation (sexualised harassment and non-sexualised sexism) moderates the impact of sexism on women’s psychological wellbeing. Chapter 3 reports a series of studies with working women, focusing on the effects of perceived peer, leader, and policy tolerance of sexism on women’s affiliation with female co-workers. Chapter 4 describes a pilot study and a laboratory experiment where we orthogonally manipulated exposure to sexism and peer tolerance of sexism. Our results show some inconsistencies but overall support the idea that organizational tolerance of gender devaluation plays an important role in women’s wellbeing and social responses to sexism. We summarize and integrate the findings across the three empirical chapters and discuss implications of theory and practice in Chapter 5.