2066: Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Leveraging Signals for Female Career Advancement in Creative Occupations (19255)

Despite research suggesting equal levels of creativity between genders, women frequently find themselves at lower career echelons compared to their male peers in creative occupations. Drawing on the signaling theory and gender stereotyping perspective, our research proposes a dual-process judgment model, positing that career progression is influenced by perceptions of general competence and creative potential within organizational management. We assert that by employing a combination of competence-related and creativity-related signals, female creative professionals can effectively counter prevailing negative stereotypes and bolster their career prospects. Through conducting an extensive survey of 14,467 creative professionals across China, we found that signals of competence, such as full-time employment and high visibility of domain-specific skills, along with creativity signals like association with culturally rich ethnic minorities and accolades for creative achievements, collectively mitigate the detrimental association between female gender and career success. These insights contribute significantly to the discourse on gender, creativity, and career advancement, offering actionable recommendations for individuals and organizations in the creative sectors to enhance perceptions and improve the career trajectories of women, thereby promoting a more equitable and diverse professional environment.

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