Watching the Glass Ceiling: An Investigation of Financial Presentation Modality and Gender Bias

• In Event: Effects of Position, Promotion, and Gender

Abstract

We investigate how presentation modality (text vs. video) and executive gender influence the perceptions of a modestly-positive financial review. As predicted by Expectation States Theory (Ridgeway and Bourg 2004), after reviewing identical quantitative information, research participants with investment experience believed company management was more competent when information was delivered by a male CEO (via video) relative to the beliefs of participants who received identical information from a female CEO (via video) or from a ‘genderless’ transcript. Beliefs about management’s competence did not fully mediate expectations about future company performance: having an audible/visible male CEO was significantly associated with enhanced expectations of future company performance after controlling for perceived CEO competence. When we restricted our analysis to a relatively ‘masculine’ company, future company performance expectations were at their lowest point when a female CEO delivered information (lower than both male-video-CEO and the genderless-text-transcript-CEO). Ridgeway (2011) questions how gender inequality can persist in the modern world. Our findings offer a potential partial explanation.

Authors

• Cristina Bailey, University of New Hampshire

• Steve Buchheit, University of Alabama

• Kevin Kim, University of Memphis