Behind Closed Doors: The Uncommunal Feminine Stereotype

Many theories of gender inequality in the workplace rely on stereotypes that describe women as communal (e.g., warm and kind) and proscribe them from being agentic (e.g., competitive and assertive). In this talk, Frank Flynn will discuss his recent research paper highlighting the existence of an uncommunal feminine stereotype and explain how it can co-exist with its communal counterpart. Specifically, he and co-authors posit that women are believed to be more genial than men but also more duplicitous: behaving more communally in public and more uncommunally in private. This public-private distinction can reconcile conflicting stereotypes of women’s communality and account for aspects of inequality that agency and communal stereotypes cannot. Flynn and co-authors further posit that the “backlash” women receive for exhibiting agentic behavior may be a rebuke of their presumed uncommunality, and they outline how the uncommunal feminine stereotype serves to undermine women’s career success.

This virtual seminar series is part of the Women and Public Policy's weekly fall seminar: Women’s Leadership in Context: Gender, Power, and Identity Dynamics.

Frank Flynn is the Paul E. Holden Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. He received his PhD in organizational behavior from the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Flynn’s research focuses on three topics: (1) How employees can develop healthy patterns of cooperation; (2) How the negative impact of racial and gender stereotyping in the workplace can be mitigated; and (3) How people can emerge as leaders and assume positions of power in organizations. His work bridges the fields of management and social psychology, leading to scholarly as well as practical insights on organizational life.