Intersectional Escape: Older Women Elude Prescriptive Stereotypes more than Older Men
Both older individuals and women are proscribed from engaging in power-related behaviors, with women proscribed from behaving agentically and older individuals expected to cede desirable resources through “Succession.” However, little is known about whether these overlapping agency prescriptions equally target men and women across the lifespan. Across several studies, my collaborators and I find that older men face the strongest prescription to behave less agentically and cede resources, whereas older women are comparatively spared. We show that agency prescriptions more strongly target older men, compared to older women and their younger counterparts, and examine social and economic consequences for agentic behavior in political, economic, and academic domains. We find older men garner more extreme (i.e., polarized) reactions, due to their greater perceived resource threat. I conclude by discussing theoretical implication for diversity research, and practical considerations for accommodating the fast-aging and increasingly gender-diverse workforce.