Gender stereotypes, language and performance

Della Giusta, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3959-4451, Jaworska, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7465-2245, Sevilla, A. and Razzu, G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2640-8314 (2026) Gender stereotypes, language and performance. European Economic Review, 184. 105271. ISSN 1873-572X doi: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2026.105271

Abstract/Summary

This paper examines how gender stereotypes about competence and language in performance evaluations influences the assessment of man and women employees. Using a unique dataset of reviews annotated by expert linguists, we identify instances of communal and agentive language used by women and men managers and find that agentive language benefits women more than men employees, with stronger effects for women who outperform. We find that women evaluators need to use more agentive language to effectively assess women compared to male evaluators confirming the gender and competence stereotype. Additionally, we also find suggestive evidence that agentive language used by women evaluators for men employees negatively affects their ratings while men evaluators can use gender incongruent language. These findings highlight the spillover effects of gendered language and suggest that women leaders may face backlash when using traditionally male-type language for men employees.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/127916
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.euroecorev.2026.105271
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Literature and Languages > English Language and Applied Linguistics Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Politics, Economics and International Relations > Economics
Publisher	Elsevier
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