Attitudes toward women managers: The influence of social dominance orientation and power distance on men in college

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine how men's perceptions of power distance (PD) and levels of social dominance orientation (SDO) interact to influence perceptions of women as managers in egalitarian and non‐egalitarian countries.

Design/methodology/approach

A team of multinational researchers distributed questionnaires composed of previously validated scales measuring SDO, PD and Attitude toward Women as Managers to US and Kuwaiti men in college. The study hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression.

Findings

It was discovered that high levels of SDO in college men was negatively related to a favorable attitude toward women as managers in both the US and Kuwait. It was also found that perceptions of PD moderated the relationship between SDO and attitudes toward women as managers in Kuwait, but not in the USA. In addition, the interaction between PD and SDO was weaker in cultures that are more egalitarian as compared to those considered to be non‐egalitarian. The findings also suggested within‐group variance in terms of PD (i.e. Kuwait).

Originality/value

To the authors' knowledge, they are the first to empirically support the idea that PD interacts with SDO in influencing attitudes toward women managers in a comparison of countries with different levels of gender egalitarianism.

Citation

Simmons, A.L., Duffy, J.A. and Alfraih, H.S. (2012), "Attitudes toward women managers: The influence of social dominance orientation and power distance on men in college", Gender in Management, Vol. 27 No. 7, pp. 482-498. https://doi.org/10.1108/17542411211273469