Promotion focus is valued in men more than in women

In this research, we test the hypothesis that promotion-focused eagerness does not yield the same evaluative benefits in the workplace for women as it does for men. Regulatory focus theory suggests that promotion-focused eagerness potentially casts a person in a favorable light in the eyes of superiors. Nevertheless, we propose that promotion-focused eagerness violates the prescriptive gender-stereotypical expectations that people have of women. The gender deviance (i.e., not acting in line with gender expectations) that occurs when a woman is promotion-focused causes this woman to pay a “gender tax” that a promotion-focused man does not pay. First, we conducted two experiments wherein managers (N = 127) or students (N = 236) evaluated qualified fictional job applicants: in both experiments, compared with an identical male applicant, the promotion-focused female job applicant was valued less, as evidenced by a lower starting salary offer. Second, in a dyadic study (N = 474 dyads), male employees' promotion focus was positively associated with their manager's evaluations of them, whereas female employees' promotion focus was not. Our results show that promotion-focused women are not valued as positively as their male counterparts.