Disparity between implicit work-relevant associations and real-world cognitions

In many parts of the world, including Australia, there is still significant disparity in the wages of women, and gay men and women, compared to heterosexual men. Based on previous research, the conceptualisation of professionalism and professional success is consistent with stereotypically masculine attributes (e.g., dominance), which seems to play an important role in maintaining a range of gender and sexual orientation-based workplace inequality, creating barriers to workplace success for women and gay men. This socially important issue motivates the current study which explored explicit and implicit gender and sexual orientation-based attitudes and work-related associations (e.g., skill) in relation to wage gap estimates. Participants were 116 members of the general public (50.9% women), recruited by undergraduate student researchers. Low levels of explicit sexism and antigay attitudes were found. A complex pattern of differences were found in the estimated salaries for heterosexual men and women, and gay men for the same roles. Implicit associations revealed the typical implicit positivity to women, as well as strong implicit negativity towards gay male targets. The implications of these findings as a basis for workplace inequality are discussed.