Confronting social dominance ideology: how professional women manage career stereotypes in male-dominated occupations
| Date | 09 July 2024 |
| Pages | 913-933 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-04-2022-0161 |
| Published date | 09 July 2024 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Babatunde Akanji,Chima Mordi,Hakeem Adeniyi Ajonbadi |
Confronting social dominance
ideology: how professional women
manage career stereotypes
in male-dominated occupations
Babatunde Akanji
Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Nigeria
Chima Mordi
Brunel Business School, London, UK, and
Hakeem Adeniyi Ajonbadi
Department of Strategy, Management and Marketing, Birmingham City University,
Birmingham, UK
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
managinggender andcareer stereotypes,with someexpressing 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 perpetuatedby
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.
Keywords Female managers and professionals, Gender stereotypes in Nigeria, Social dominance in Nigeria
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
This article contributes to the scarce literature in the global South on the fight against gender
stereotyping at work especially in the banking and engineering professions in Nigeria.
Stereotype becomes thicker because Nigerian value system is based on a social dominance
ideology that elevates patriarchy which is often problematic for women working in presumed
male-dominated occupations in this context (Adisa et al., 2020). Social dominance proposition
is based on the notion that social groups are hierarchically positioned to reflect a universal
human susceptibility regarding the formation of group-based superiority, and that members
of the dominant group enjoys disproportionate or unequal share of positive social value than
other inferior groups (Akanji et al., 2021b). Generally, the realities of occupational gender
segregation that constrain women’s career development are known (Garc
ıa-Mainar et al.,
Employee
Relations: The
International
Journal
913
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 4 April 2022
Revised 29 May 2023
10 February 2024
2 June 2024
Accepted 3 June 2024
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 46 No. 4, 2024
pp. 913-933
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-04-2022-0161
2018). Little is known, however, about how women still progress their careers and manage
these stereotypical obstacles (Fernando, 2012). The present study focuses on the considerable
efforts that Nigerian professional women exert in managing male superiority, which has been
found to disadvantage their careers (Jaga, 2020).
In light of the opportunity that this gap in the literature presents, this study draws on
social dominance theory (SDT) to frame our arguments on how gendered group-based
inequalities cause career women to strive harder to dislodge social dominance mentality in
certain occupations identified as hyper-masculine jobs in Nigeria (Akanji et al., 2020).
Nigerian “male-typed jobs”are those that the population of men are overwhelmingly more
than their women counter parts. For instance, jobs such as automobile mecha nics,
engineering, construction, banking, commercial bus driving and ICT-related professions
are associated with men because of the high demand of time, effort and stereotypical
specifications required to fit into these occupations in Nigeria (Lawanson, 2008;Jimoh et al.,
2016). Adisa et al. (2020) argued that the unequal distribution of men and women among
different jobs in the financial and STEM sectors in Nigeria emerges from cultural
expectations requiring women to self-allocate to occupations that allows them to combine
work and family demands to avoid social sanctions. Despite the global efforts to strengthen
gender equality and inclusion, women still struggle with institutional prejudices that are
often the root cause of the underrepresentation of women in managerial and professional
positions (Grady, 2015). For instance, published data reveal that two-thirds of women in
managerial positions at Fortune 1000 US firms were below the top two or three steps of
leadership levels, since men are more likely than women to be considered for those positions
(Ng and Sears, 2017). Although reports on gender stereotypes at work have narrowed in
recent decades in the United States, females continue to be underrepresented in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) occupations (Wang and Deggo, 2018).
While significant research on the stereotypes impeding women’s career progression has
been extensively undertaken in Western nations (Grady, 2015;Galperin, 2019), little is known
from an African context such as Nigeria. This article argues that similar circumstances are
ubiquitous in Nigeria –a society with high patriarchal structures. Hence, the main
contribution of this paper is to show how women exert agency within a setting that is
stereotyped against them. In doing this, the present study presents research data from
Nigeria, a country that has been described as the giant of Africa (Adisa et al., 2020). The
reason why Nigeria has been chosen as the focus of the study is that masculine hegemony
pervades the Nigerian society (Okafor et al., 2011). This social practice is often demonstrated
in the heavily gendered division of labour beliefs suggesting women should be preoccupied
with housework and caregiving responsibilities. Hence, the prevalence of gender
stereotyping is the reason why Nigerian female managers and senior professionals
grapple to adopt personalised career management strategies to navigate the illusory gender-
role belief system of “think manager, think male”(Ganiyu et al., 2018).
Drawing on social dominance propositions, we see gender not as a static entity but as a
socially constituted and dynamically situated social practice operating in developing
societies, leading to the constant structuring of some occupations along gender lines (Carli
et al., 2016). In this way, the excessive and systemic nature of male privilege in STEM
occupations is considered to give disproportionate positive value and material returns to
women in similar careers (Schmader, 2023). Through this lens and based on interviews with
30 Nigerian women working in occupations that are traditionally seen as being male
dominated, the study data unveils how women manage occupational segregation by gender
(Phatara-on and Jaya, 2017). While more empirical evidence is needed to further explore these
issues, there is a lack of research on how women confront disadvantageous career situations.
Rather than merely repeating the existing debates on the barriers women face in their careers
based on the hyper-masculine nature of Nigerian organisations (Adisa et al., 2020), the present
ER
46,4
914
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