The widespread diversity norms have produced mixed results in closing the gender gap in workplaces, partly due to resistance from men, who make up dominant groups. We suggest a new mechanism of resistance: key decision-makers in dominant groups intentionally promote women without elite backgrounds to reduce threats to their own gender status superiority. However, such discrimination decreases when the decision makers themselves have an elite background or when they confront increased performance pressure. We test these hypotheses in the Chinese government by examining the promotion of female county officials from 2001 to 2013. We address alternative explanations, such as unobserved qualities of women and benevolent sexism. We contribute to the diversity literature by presenting a new mechanism and conditions for the dominant Groups' resistance.
Chen Shuo