Gender Bias in Perceptions of Military Leaders: Hostile Sexism Moderates Men’s Evaluations of Faces

Abstract

In this study, we examined the role of dispositional sexism in male service academy cadets' evaluations of military leadership potential for sexually dimorphic male and female faces, with a particular focus on the impact of hostile sexism. Male cadets (N = 224) rated eight pairs of masculinized and feminized faces on 14 characteristics relevant to Army leadership and completed a measure of hostile and benevolent sexism. We tested a 2 (sex of face: male, female) × 2 (gender of face: masculine, feminine) × 2 (type of sexism: hostile, benevolent) × 2 (level of sexism: low, high) mixed model ANOVA with the first two variables as within subjects and the last two variables as between subjects and using composite leadership potential ratings as the dependent variable. Results indicated a significant three-way interaction between sex of face, gender of face, and levels of hostile (but not benevolent) sexism, whereby participants with elevated levels of antipathy towards women reported the least positive perceptions of military leadership potential for women with masculine facial features. These findings underscore the importance of addressing hostile sexism in military training and leadership development programs to promote equality and inclusion.