Confronting social dominance ideology: how professional women manage career stereotypes in male-dominated occupations

Abstract

Purpose: Using social dominance theory as a conceptual lens, this study explores how female managers and professionals strive to defy the perceived career stereotypes in traditionally male-dominated occupations.

Design/methodology/approach: The dataset comprises 30 interviews with female bank managers and senior engineers in Nigeria – a non-Western location and work group – a sample that is considered under-researched.

Findings: The qualitative analysis identifies how the interviewed women adopted three strategies in managing gender and career stereotypes, with some expressing concerns of experiencing emotional dissonance as they contend with occupational segregation based on gender.

Research limitations/implications: The extent to which the findings can be generalised may be constrained by the study’s limited sample size. Nevertheless, the findings shed light on the underlying importance of disclosing how working women exert themselves in navigating the social dominance ideology in Nigeria that is notable for extreme gender role differentiation. This often results in an intensification of the efforts made by female professionals in confronting the endemic nature of male chauvinism in Nigerian organisations.

Originality/value: Research on gender and career constraints has, in the main, restricted our understanding of the barriers that Nigerian women face in their careers as a result of the masculine hegemony perpetuated by social dominance. The present study aims to challenge, however, proponents of social dominance by unveiling the mitigating strategies that women living in an inegalitarian society adopt to confront occupational male-group ascendency.