A new study suggests that men are more likely to be seen as creative thinkers when compared to women. The findings offer evidence on why men are more likely to get promoted, even if their female counterparts are showing equal skill.
Gender bias in the workplace is an ongoing issue. For instance, female workers are still paid lower than their male counterparts and only four percent of the chief executive officers at Fortune 500 companies are women, according to Bloomberg.
New research published in the Sept. 28 issue of the Psychological Science included different studies to determine whether gender bias in creativity really exists.
The first study, conducted online, involved 80 participants who were asked to read a passage describing either divergent thinking (the ability to think outside the box) or convergent thinking (the ability to connect the dots).
The majority of the respondents chose convergent thinking and masculine traits, such as decisiveness, competitiveness, risk-taking, ambition and daring. Only a few selected cooperation, understanding and support to others which are considered as feminine traits.
The second study had 169 participants who read about an architect or a fashion designer. When asked to describe the person's work, most of the participants believed that the male architect's house designs were more creative compared to the work of the female architect even if the designs were the same.
The bias was not observed in fashion designing.
For the third study, the researchers asked supervisors to evaluate the performance of their female and male subordinates who were enrolled in an MBA program. The supervisors were asked who among the 100 men and 34 women displayed innovative thinking. The analysis showed that the male employees were perceived to be more innovative than their female counterparts.
For the last study, 125 participants were asked to describe whether a male or female manager's strategic plan was more or less risky and whether such move displays creativity. As predicted, the risky plan of the male manager was considered by most to be more creative than the female manager.
"Our research shows that beliefs about what it takes to 'think creatively' overlap substantially with the unique content of male stereotypes, creating systematic bias in the way that men and women's creativity is evaluated," Devon Proudfoot, study lead author from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, said in a news release.
"This result suggests that gender bias in creativity judgments may affect tangible economic outcomes for men and women in the workplace," he added.
