Despite well-intentioned gender diversity initiatives aimed at addressing gender imbalances by ensuring minimal female representation in predominantly male groups, such tokenism often exacerbates discrimination and social isolation for these women, potentially leading to absenteeism. Research suggests that the benefits of diversity are realized only when the ratio of women to men reaches a critical threshold that allows for genuine integration and participation. However, this threshold remains uncertain. We integrate tokenism theory with social identity and status characteristics theories to investigate the effects of gender ratios within organizational teams on individual absenteeism. Specifically, we theorize a U-shaped relationship between gender dissimilarity and absenteeism for women, but not for men. Study 1, with a one-year cross-lagged design, encompassing 10,332 blue-collar workers in 1064 teams, supports the U-shaped relationship for women, while the relationship for men was non-significant. In Study 2, we use an experimental design with a sample of 370 female blue-collar workers to explore two potential mechanisms that may together explain the U-shaped gender dissimilarity effect for women. We test whether the gender composition of the work group affects both women’s likelihood of reporting unpleasant experiences and the group’s norms regarding absence. We draw theoretical and practical implications from these findings.

中文翻译：

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太少还是太多？探索性别差异与员工缺勤之间的联系


尽管性别多元化倡议的出发点是善意的，旨在通过确保在男性占主导地位的群体中最低限度地代表女性来解决性别失衡问题，但这种象征主义往往会加剧这些女性的歧视和社会孤立，可能导致旷工。研究表明，只有当女性与男性的比例达到允许真正融合和参与的关键阈值时，多样性的好处才能实现。然而，这个阈值仍然不确定。我们将标记主义理论与社会身份和地位特征理论相结合，以研究组织团队内部性别比例对个人缺勤的影响。具体来说，我们从理论上解释了女性的性别差异和旷工之间的 U 形关系，但男性则不是。研究 1 采用为期一年的交叉滞后设计，包括 10,332 个团队的 1064 名蓝领工人，支持女性的 U 型关系，而男性的关系不显著。在研究 2 中，我们使用了 370 名女性蓝领工人样本的实验设计来探索两种可能共同解释女性 U 形性别差异效应的潜在机制。我们测试了工作组的性别构成是否影响女性报告不愉快经历的可能性以及小组关于缺勤的规范。我们从这些发现中得出理论和实践意义。