Dueling schemata

Recent scholarship has shown that, despite the broad representation of women in the workplace, gender inequities in organizations remain widespread. Since gender schema embedded ways of thinking about men and women contribute to this phenomenon, addressing such mental models should be a part of gender equity initiatives. This paper provides data which indicate that some individuals hold, within themselves, quite contradictory schemas of men and of women. It then illustrates how individuals can use these internal inconsistencies to push through superficial understandings of gender to more complex ones. By facilitating this learning process, organizations can enhance their efforts toward gender equity and, more generally, toward positive environments of all backgrounds.