A study on opt-out choices and how it is framing gender differences in the decision to compete for promotion

Abstract

This master thesis aims to investigate how an opt-out choice may frame genders. By making a vignette with four scenarios I will research how the society, more specifically, how the respondents view men and women when they are put in different scenarios where they must compete against the opposite gender.

At the end of this paper, I aim to make the readers get an insight and understanding of how the society view the different genders when it comes to opt-in and opt-out choices in work related competition.

Expected findings are that women who chooses to compete for a promotion, even though a colleague and friend seems to want the position very much, will be viewed in a negative way by the observants. This is because I believe that women are viewed as people who should not compete actively against a friend. However, I expect to find that men who actively competes against a woman might be viewed a less mean person because society expect men to compete as it is proven that men are more competitive in their nature.