Dividing positions within occupations into hierarchy enhancing roles, and hierarchy attenuating roles, Felicia Pratto and Lisa M. Stallworth of Stanford University, along with Jim Sidanius and Bret Siers of the University of California, define hierarchy enhancing roles as “roles that serve the interests of elite or already privileged groups”, and hierarchy attenuating roles …show more content…
Pratto, et. al. wanted to measure to what degree, if at all, the role of gender stereotypes affected the hiring process. Not to measure who got hired more, men or women, but who got selected more for hierarchy enhancing positions, and who got selected more for hierarchy attenuating positions, based on preconceived notions and gender stereotypes that women are better suited for hierarchy attenuating roles, and men are better suited for hierarchy enhancing roles. A study was designed with 4 fictional job applicants: 2 males and two females. One male and one female gave off indications of high levels of SDO, while the other male and other female gave off indications of low levels of SDO. Study participants were asked to hire one of the 4 “applicants” for each job description, where descriptions were created with clear indications of hierarchy enhancing attributes or hierarchy attenuating …show more content…
Furthermore, society views gender stereotypes as males having higher SDO and females having lower SDO, which directly impacts the hiring process in choosing male versus female applicants for specific job openings within the same occupation. In relation to the gender gap, hierarchy enhancing roles tend to have better pay and benefits, and looked upon with more prestige, while hierarchy attenuating roles see the opposite (Pratto, et al.,