Feminization of management leads to backlash against agentic applicants: Lack of social skills, not gender, determines low hireability judgments in a student sample

Effects of an applicant’s sex on the ascription of task competence, social skills, and hireability are of theoretical as well as practical concern. In two influential series of studies with American college students, Rudman and Glick (1999, 2001) showed a backlash effect: When social skills were included in job descriptions (“feminized job descriptions”), female, but not male applicants displaying agentic behaviour were rated low in social skills and considered less hireable than their male counterparts. We tested the generality of this backlash effect in a replication with German students. In four experiments a total of 555 participants listened to telephone interviews with alleged applicants. Female and male applicants were rated very similarly with respect to task competence, social skills, and hireability. Feminizing job descriptions resulted in lower hireability ratings of both female and male agentic applicants. These findings held across different conditions (the manner in which applicants spoke, different business areas, subjective and objective rating scales, applicants’ parental status, and amount of information received about applicants). Our findings show that both female and male applicants are punished for overly agentic behaviour if social skills are required in a job description.