Watching the Glass Ceiling: An Investigation of Financial Presentation Modality and Gender Bias

We investigate how presentation modality (text vs. video) and executive gender influence evaluators’ perceptions of management competence and the future performance potential of that executive’s company. Consistent with recent labor market research (Shroeder and Epley 2015), seeing and hearing (rather than reading) identical information from a CEO improves the competence assessment of the CEO; however, this result is largely gender dependent. Male-delivered financial reports enhance participant views of CEO competence while female-delivered reports do not. In addition, male-led firms have expectations of enhanced future company performance that are only partially mediated by views of CEO competence. While we find modest evidence that the female competence disadvantage is associated with industry (because female CEO competence is marginally improved in a ‘feminine’ industry), we find no evidence that a female-led company enjoys enhanced expectations of future company performance.