Violating Prescriptive Stereotypes on Job Resumes: A Self-Presentational Perspective

Abstract

The authors investigate the earliest stage of the job-screening process—the resume, which represents an applicant’s initial self-presentation efforts, and examine whether women are evaluated more negatively on hiring-related decisions when their resume communicates an identity that violates gender stereotypic prescriptions. This question is important because resumes determine whether an applicant is interviewed and because, in general, women suffer negative sanctions when their behavior violates stereotypic prescriptions.The results show that when women’s resumes violated these prescriptions, men evaluated them more negatively, with women’s perceived social skills mediating the applicant gender—evaluation relationship. These findings provide the first evidence showing that gender biases emerge at the earliest phase of the job-seeking process, that is, when a woman’s resume projects an identity-image that violates gender stereotypes.