Authoritarians and social dominators view career women markedly different (but only if they fail)

Abstract

In three studies (N1 = 160, N2 = 100, N3 = 135), the effects of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) on the social judgment of working women (i.e., perceived warmth and competence) were examined. In each study, type of job (traditional vs. nontraditional job background) as well as the job-related success (Studies 1a and 1b) or political success (Study 2) of women was manipulated. Across studies, we found that RWA and SDO affected liking for a target who violated shared expectations (woman with a nontraditional job background without job-related/political success) in contrasting ways—with RWA predicting increased liking and SDO predicting decreased liking. Perceptions of stereotypic targets (e.g., the woman with a traditional job background without success, the woman with a nontraditional job background with success) were not consistently related to ideological attitudes. Theoretic implications as well as consequences for working women are discussed.