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Sonya Mishra was reading through a list of the most powerful people in business when she came across a troubling pattern.
Most of the men on the list, like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckberberg, were defined by their roles building businesses and accumulating vast wealth, Sonya Mishra, an assistant professor of management at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, tells Fortune. But the women on the list were mostly celebrities, and even though they had their own businesses, they were known primarily for their work in other fields like sports or entertainment.
“I started thinking about why it is that women are reaching these high status positions, but not breaking into these high power positions,” says Mishra. “And that’s when I started to wonder what role men play in this trend.”
The results of those questions will be published in a forthcoming edition of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, in a study which found that while men see women’s status gains as positive, they perceive their power gains as negative and a threat to their own command.
To study gender dynamics, Mishra showed a group of more than 500 people two separate fictitious Wall Street Journal articles, accompanied by an image of a woman’s silhouette. Some participants were assigned to read an article about women achieving equity by accumulating more power, with the headline “Achieving gender equality in power: Women gaining control over valuable resources, so they control the same amount of valuable resources as men.” Others were given a story about women gaining power through status, with the headline: “Achieving gender equality in status: Women gaining in respect and admiration in the eyes of others, so they are equally as respected as men.” After reading the article, participants indicated the extent to which the news impacted their gender group on a scale.
Women largely rated both articles as equally beneficial to their group, and didn’t differentiate much between either power or status being more important. The general feeling was “a win is a win,” says Mishra.
But men reacted very differently. When they read about women gaining control over resources, they were much more likely to say it was a negative thing, and harmful to men. And although their feelings about the status article were not as favorable as women, they still had mostly positive feelings about it.
“When they see a woman gaining power, they think something is being taken away from them—as if a man has to be dethroned for a woman to gain power,” says Mishra. “And they don’t feel this way about status.”
Mishra is careful to note that not all men feel this way. But she adds that it’s something that business leaders should be aware of when it comes to their own workplace culture, and to make sure that women aren’t being held back.
“Men operate on a framework focused on gain, and some can be extremely sensitive to what they could be losing out on in the workplace,” she says.
To avoid this, Mishra advises companies audit their processes around promotion, and make sure they’re always thinking about ways to even the playing field between women and men when it comes to access to different opportunities. They should also look out for potential bias pitfalls, like performance reviews; women are often judged on their personalities, while men are judged on their work product.
But above all, companies should be transparent about who rises to the top, why, and make sure that everyone at the company understands what the standards are.
“Explaining this can actually help men stop seeing harm from women gaining power.”
Brit Morse
brit.morse@fortune.com
Around the Table
A round-up of the most important HR headlines.
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Watercooler
Everything you need to know from Fortune.
No more job hopping. Employees are no longer seeing bigger payouts from switching companies, another reason why workers are deciding to stay put right now. —Morning Brew
Taking accountability. Workplace expert Adam Grant says it’s not up to women to close the gender pay gap at their companies; it’s up to their employers. —Sara Braun
Boardroom burnout. The current economic landscape, full of political tension and rapid change, is leading many board members to leave their posts. —Lila McLellan
