"Think Follower, Think Female”: Need for Cognitive Closure, Followership, and the Mediation of Congruity between Follower Prototype and Gender Stereotypes

Gender inequalities toward women can threaten well-being in the workplace, reducing social inclusiveness. This empirical study addressed the causes of such disparities by considering the biased stereotypical association between women and followership and the individual’s epistemic motivation towards the stability of knowledge (i.e., need for cognitive closure; NCC). Based on the Role Congruity Theory and implicit theories of followership, a correlational study was conducted on a sample of male and female Italian workers recruited through direct social media platforms (N = 339; 51% women; Mage = 35.37, SDage = 11.37; 73.1% private sector workers; 26.9% public sector workers) to address the role of the NCC in endorsing the stereotyped association of women and followership. We hypothesised the NCC to be associated with evaluating women as better followers than men. We also expected the low incongruity between followership's prototype and gender bias, as expressed in terms of women's high communality, to mediate this effect. The results showed that individuals' high NCC led to higher ratings of women's efficacy as followers. The low incongruity between the follower prototype and gender biases mediated this effect. Besides highlighting the detrimental path leading to biased associations between women and subordinate positions in the workplace, a phenomenon that reduces equality in the workplace, this study can also inform on the strategies that might be implemented to increase inclusiveness and reduce social disparities toward women in the workplace.