GLIMS Journal of Management Review and Transformation

Impression Management by Women: Reconceptualising Attitude Towards Gender Stereotypes (ATGS)

Rajeswari Banerjee¹, Keerthi Sagadevan¹, Nidhi Kumari² and Kumarsawan Shakya¹

First Published 27 Mar 2023. https://doi.org/10.1177/jmrt.231151276

Article Information

Volume 2, Issue 1 March 2023

Corresponding Author:

Rajeswari Banerjee, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), Bengaluru, Karnataka 560076, India.
Email: rajeswariwins@gmail.com

¹Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), Bengaluru, Karnataka India

²Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur (IITJ), Ratanada, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-Commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed.

Abstract

This article tries to extend the Framework for Impression Management by Women in India (FIMWI) by refining the conceptualisation of attitude towards gender stereotypes (ATGS). We try to explore the possible attitudes of women to gender stereotypes using the combinations of high or low accepting and challenging ATGS. Using these combinations, we identify four possible categories of responses to gender stereotypes, namely ‘High Accepting, High Challenging’ (HAHC), ‘Low Accepting, High Challenging’ (LAHC), ‘High Accepting, Low Challenging’ (HALC) and ‘Low Accepting, Low Challenging’ (LALC). Using the social identity theory, we explore the ways in which the ATGS would perhaps influence the choice of impression management tactics with in-group and out-group members. We further identify the potential impression management tactics that would be implemented by women in each of these categories. We propose that hard impression management techniques would be used for out-group members by women having the HAHC combination. They would use soft impression management techniques for in-group members. Hard impression management techniques would be used by women having the LAHC combination with in-group as well as out-group. Soft impression management techniques would be used by women having the HALC combination with in-group as well as out-group. Soft impression management techniques would be used by the women having LALC combination. Future research possibilities are suggested; practical implications are also discussed.

Keywords

attitude towards gender stereotypes (ATGS), impression management, social identity theory, ingratiation, intimidation, supplication, coalition, blocking

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