Maintaining the system with tokenism: bolstering individual mobility beliefs and identification with a discriminatory...

Two experiments examined the effects of gender-based token hiring practices in organizational settings. In Expt 1, women were exposed to organizational hiring practices that were open, token, or closed. Token practices served to perpetuate inequality by maintaining individual mobility beliefs and organizational identification. In Expt 2, both men and women imagined working for a corporation that planned to implement open, token, or closed hiring practices. Although women reported experiencing negative emotions in the closed and token conditions compared to the open condition, token practices maintained positive perceptions of the organization and individual mobility beliefs compared to the closed condition. Men endorsed more individual mobility beliefs as well as positive emotions in the token and closed conditions compared to the open condition. Token practices distort perceptions of fairness in both women and men. For women, token practices make group boundaries seem more negotiable than they actually are, while for men token practices legitimize their group's dominance.