Employers Value Likable Women, High GPAs Don’t Matter Much: Study

COLUMBUS, OH — Women seeking their first jobs after college may have more success if they come off as “likeable” in job interviews, where their magna cum laude diplomas may not mean as much as they do for similarly qualified men applying for the same positions, a new study suggests.

Employers value traits like competence and commitment among male applicants, the Ohio State University study found, but not so much in women. They not only gravitate toward women who are moderate achievers who are described as sociable and outgoing, but regard high-achieving women with much more skepticism, researcher Natasha Quadlin found.

The study comes as #MeToo and other women’s movements bring awareness to issues they say have held women back in the workplace for years. Not only does likability count for more than high academic performance, very smart women who majored in math fields are three to four times less likely to even get an interview than men with identical academic credentials, Quadlin found in her research.

Quadlin, an assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State, surveyed 261 hiring managers for the study, which will be published in the April edition of the journal American Sociological Review.

“We like to think that we’ve progressed past gender inequality, but it’s still there,” Quadlin said in a statement. “The study suggests that women who didn't spend a lot of time on academics but are 'intelligent enough' have an advantage over women who excel in school.”

The researcher’s finding of a “particularly strong bias against female math majors” reinforces earlier studies that show women are underemployed in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — fields. Quadlin suggests that may be “because they’re violating gender norms in terms of what they’re supposed to be good at.”

High GPAs didn’t seem to be a hiring obstacle for women who are business and English majors, Quadlin said.

For the study, Quadlin created resumes for 2,106 hypothetical college graduates of both genders, but the employers advertising for entry-level positions didn’t know they weren't sorting through resumes from real people. Each “applicant” had a corresponding email address and phone numbers and was assigned a surname common in the geographic areas where the applications were submitted.

Some majored in math, an area traditionally thought of as male dominated; some in English, which skews female; and some in business, which is considered gender-neutral, according to a survey Quadlin conducted before distributing the applications.

Using an online employment database to find entry-level jobs that weren't specific to the applicants' majors, Quadlin sent sent applications for both a male and a female candidate. Cover letters, academic history and participation in gender-neutral extracurricular activities were similar in both applications.

Men and women got callbacks at about the same rate, but disparities began to show up when Quadlin compared all male applicants to women with GPAs in the A to A- range. Men got callbacks at the same rate, regardless of their GPA, but the callback rate dropped among women with high GPAs, she said.

The survey of hiring managers showed clear discrepancies in how men and women were perceived when their gender was the only thing that set them apart, Quadlin said.

The employers were asked to give feedback on how they would hire an employee based on the person’s resume alone. They also shared perceptions on individuals’ personality traits based on the contents of the resumes, including their GPAs.

"Men were more likely to get a call back if they were seen as having more competence and commitment, but only 'likability' seemed to benefit women," Quadlin said.

And likability, she added, is associated with moderate academic achievement.

The study didn't target high-paying, more prestigious jobs, and that could change the outcomes, Quadlin said.

The findings should send a signal to employers to consider biases they may not be aware of as they’re sorting through applications, she said.

"Most people probably aren't aware that they're making these kinds of gender-based decisions," she said.

The findings don’t mean that college-age women and others just entering the job market should aim for mediocrity. Rather, they should seek jobs at companies known to value women in the workforce.

"These are the people who will be advocates for you throughout your career— those who support you early on and appreciate your intelligence and hard work,” she said.

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