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IZOLDA TAKÁCS: THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
there is a risk that whomen, particularly due to their use of language, suffer
discrimination during admission talks. As a result, the issue also has an eco¬
nomic aspect, as these organisations may potentially lose those who are ob¬
jectively the best for the position. Ihis could be the case because most HR
managers do not know the language differences between men and women, the
language use of applicants is thus often measured in male “norms”, and dif¬
ferences are usually interpreted as weaknesses (see also “white solipsism”!*).
However, if they were already aware of the gender-based differences in language
use, they might be able to avoid rejecting those who are professionally the most
suitable candidates for that job and could significantly increase the competi¬
tiveness of an organisation.” This further justifies the argument that merit
trails behind only after the matter of sex (even if the stereotype is indirectly
present). Beata Nagy’s research also underpins the results of social psycholog¬
ical studies that women becoming leaders in higher numbers is not so much
based on individual abilities as it is on social conditions.!!?
The judgment of performance, therefore, often differs by the two sexes. This
is further substantiated by the so-called “Goldberg paradigm” named after
Philip Goldberg’s 1968 experiment. During this, two groups of students had
to evaluate the same essays, the only difference being that the first group was
told the author was a man, while it has been presented as a work of a woman
to the second. The result has shown that the deeply rooted gender prejudices
we are discussing ultimately blurred the objectivity of the evaluator. Except
for the traditional women’s topics, texts with a female author were evaluated
worse than the ones with a male author, despite being in fact the same." The
results, therefore, basically show that work attributed to women is rated more
negatively than that attributed to men.""
Nóra Séllei, in her work Professzornők a Debreceni Egyetemen (Women
Professors at the University of Debrecen], presented research done at Yale
University in 2015, which showed that
116 As mentioned before, Williams speaks about the concept of “white solipsism” by Adrienne
Rich (1979), the notion that white experience is the norm, the mean, the model of all other
groups. If others differ from the white norm, they are considered to be “exceptions” (Williams:
The Glass Escalator, Revisited).
17 Dietz: Frauen und Männer.
48 Nagy, B.: Nők a vezetésben, in Nagy, I. - Pongräcz, T. — Toth, I. Gy. (eds.): Szerepvaltozasok.
Jelentés a nők és férfiak helyzetéről 2005, Budapest, Tárki, Ifjúsági, Családügyi, Szociális és
Esélyegyenlőségi Minisztérium, 2005, 44-56.
1 Cf. MacNell, L. - Driscoll, A. - Hunt, A. N.: What's in a Name: Exposing Gender Bias in
Student Ratings of Teaching. Innovative Higher Education, 40(4), 2014, 291-303.
20 See J. K. Swim, E. Borgida, G. Maruyama, D.G. Myers, 1989; M. E. Heilman, 1983; V. Nieva
—B. A.Gutek, 1980, quoted by Burgess, D. — Borgida, E.: Who Women are, who women should
be. Descriptive and Prescriptive Gender Stereotyping in Sex Discrimination, Psychology,
Public Policy, and Law, 1999, 5(3), 671.
+ 48 e