What do 18 female CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies and
President Obama have in common? They are examples of social hierarchy reversal –
instances of members of low-status social groups ascending to high-status
positions.
Dr. Robert W. Livingston, social psychologist at the Kellogg
School of Management at Northwestern University, investigates the dynamics of social
hierarchy reversal at the intersection of race and gender. He combined the
results of five of his published papers in one captivating talk.
When do individuals defy social hierarchy? Here are top three
findings from Dr. Livingston that fascinated me most.
The Teddy Bear Effect
Black men who attain high-power positions are most likely to
display competence, credentials, diligence and…disarming mechanisms. Some of
these are behaviors like smiling, displaying erudition and dressing conservatively.
Other disarming mechanisms are physical attributes, like a lighter skin tone or
babyfaceness. Yes, babyfaceness! Dr. Livingston found that the Black CEO’s were more babyfaced than their
white counterparts. He also found that babyfaceness correlated with success in
terms of salary and company revenue for Black male CEO’s, but not for their
White counterparts.
Essentially, to succeed, Black men had to appear warmer, less
threatening and less dominant in addition to being exceedingly competent,
credentialed and diligent. This is not limited to the business world – Dr.
Livingston investigated and found similar requirements in the political realm,
and even in professional sports!
Agency Penalty
Agency Penalty
When women act tough and take control they are punished for
it, while men are not. Alice Eagly and
Steven Karau published
the first study on this subject in the early 1990’s and since then the body of
research has grown, all of it demonstrating a social ‘agency penalty’ for women
who act assertive, angry or self-promoting, because doing so violates prescriptive
stereotypes that a woman should be warm and docile. It is astounding and
outrageous that all of this research only included White women!
If White women and Black men are both punished for acting
dominant and displaying agency… what about Black women? Do they face even
tougher penalties or do the race and gender ‘cancel each other out’? Dr.
Livingston ran a number of experiments to try and get at this question. One included
a bio and picture of a senior executive with a scenario in which the executive
dealt with an under-performing employee. The phrases the person used in dealing
with the employee either demonstrated agency (i.e. “I demand”) or a communal orientation (i.e. “I encourage you ”). Respondents evaluated the executive as a leader along multiple dimensions.
Lo and
behold, tough White female bosses and tough Black male bosses were not
well-received, but both White male and Black female bosses got away with the toughness.
The One Black Female CEO
The One Black Female CEO
The audience was skeptical on the last point. Really? Black women are not penalized for showing agency and toughness? Then why is the outspoken Ursula Burns of Xerox, the only Black female
CEO of a Fortune 500 company?
Dr. Livingston had asked this question too, though most he
could say is that the effects of race combined with gender are complex. His most recent work suggests that there is actually a higher penalty to Black women for failure. He suggested that both getting a ‘free pass’ on agentic behavior and experiencing
‘double jeopardy’ for mistakes is caused by being marginalized but not stigmatized.
While stigmatized groups, like Black men or White women are marked,
targeted and prominent, marginalized groups are invisible, ignored and
irrelevant. Also a bleak picture.
It was clear from all the unanswered questions and the
audience reactions that race is not being explored nearly enough in
conversations about gender. Truly, it is time to stop saying “gender” and meaning
White middle-class women. Today’s conversation was an enlightening beginning of
a new WAPPP series focused on the intersection of race and gender, and while I
would prefer being neither marginalized nor stigmatized, I look forward to learning
more.
Anya Malkov is an MPP2 at the Harvard Kennedy School, a WAPPP Cultural Bridge Fellow, and an alumna of From Harvard Square to the Oval Office.
Great article! I wish I was still at HKS to attend more of these events/discussions. My fellow female African-American classmates and I used to get together for dinner once a month to discuss or experiences on such topics and fears for what we would experience post-HKS. Thanks for continuing to keep us alums informed!
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