Perfection bias in the workplace: psychosocial antecedents and consequences of gender stereotypical expectations against women

Despite the significant progress made in the Labour Market over the last decades, a very high discrepancy emerges in women's employment compared to men. Why is this the case? A very important explanation comes from social stereotypes. Research pointed out that usually, gender stereotypes depict women as more nurturing, empathic, and emotional but less competent – than men. These expectations towards men and women might prevent women from being considered suitable for certain positions. Furthermore, recent evidence showed that, in the workplace, women are evaluated along multiple dimensions. In other words, while men are primarily evaluated on competence, women are evaluated on multiple characteristics (i.e., competence, sociability, and morality). Hence, women need to fulfil more requirements than men to be selected or promoted for a role. This phenomenon has been called perfection bias since findings hint at the fact that women need to fulfil expectations of perfection to be considered suitable in the workplace. But are these expectations identifiable at an implicit level? And being evaluated on multiple dimensions have positive or negative consequences? The research reported in this dissertation tried to answer this question by pursuing a threefold goal. First, we tested whether the multiple expectations placed on women are detectable at an implicit level. To do so, Study 1 (N = 108) explored people's automatic cognitive associations concerning stereotypical characteristics that pertain to the masculine and feminine domains. Second, we developed a tool that should capture the awareness of women about the multiple expectations placed on them in the workplace (Studies 2-4, N = 981) and their impact on women's well-being (Study 5, N = 335). Third, Study 6 (N = 163) investigated the multiple expectations placed on women in an experimental setting corroborating the idea that women should be performative on multiple dimensions to be recruited.