Events

In honor of International Women’s Day, the Worker Wellbeing Lab is holding an open lab event. We are honored that Dr. Ivona Hideg will join to talk about Benevolent Sexism and the Gender Gap in Startup Evaluation. Everyone is welcome to join!

Zoom link here: https://cgu.zoom.us/j/81516871056

Dr. Ivona Hideg
Benevolent Sexism and the Gender Gap in Startup Evaluation
Abstract: Women-led startups are evaluated less favorably than men-led startups, but the reasons for this require further investigation. Drawing on ambivalent sexism theory, we predict that evaluators’ benevolent sexist attitudes (which refer to a sense of affection, idealization, and protectiveness toward women) undermines gender equity in startup evaluation. We initially expected benevolent sexism to be negatively related to evaluations of women-led startups. Surprisingly, we found that benevolent sexism is unrelated to evaluations of women-led startups but is positively related to those of men-led startups. We replicate this pattern of findings where men-led startups are advantaged in two additional studies. Our work shows that benevolent sexism is subtly undermining gender equality in startup evaluation by giving a leg up to men while ostensibly not influencing women.