Hiring Gender-Occupation Incongruent Applicants

Abstract

Gender-occupational stereotypes that recruiters harbor toward male and female applicants still exist. However, there might be individual differences in recruiters that account for more or less stereotyping when facing male and female applicants who do not correspond to attributes of the job opening (e.g., male-typical vs. female-typical job). In this study, we tested whether recruiters high on interpersonal sensitivity are more likely to hire gender-occupational incongruent applicants. Seventy-three participants in the role of a recruiter conducted a job interview with either a gender-occupational incongruent (woman applying for a male-typical job or man applying for a female-typical job) or a gender-occupational congruent applicant. Results showed that the likelihood of hiring a gender-occupation incongruent applicant increased the more the recruiter was interpersonally sensitive, whereas interpersonal sensitivity did not affect hiring decision regarding gender-occupation congruent applicants.