Sweet poison: how benevolent sexism hinders Chinese female employees' career growth.

As societal civility and education levels improve, the social status of females continues to rise, and the topic of gender equality has received increasing attention. However, female employees' career growth is likely to be hindered by benevolent sexism. Therefore, actively exploring the mechanisms through which benevolent sexism affects female employees' career growth is one of the urgent issues in the field of human resource management. This study employed Mplus 8.0 to analyze the data from 496 questionnaires, and the following findings were obtained: (1) Benevolent sexism has a negative correlation with the career growth of female employees. (2) Organization-based self-esteem mediates the relationship between benevolent sexism and female employees' career growth. Specifically, benevolent sexism has a negative correlation with organization-based self-esteem, while organization-based self-esteem has a positive correlation with female employees' career growth. (3) Career compromise mediates the relationship between benevolent sexism and female employees' career growth. Specifically, benevolent sexism has a positive correlation with career compromise, and career compromise has a negative correlation with female employees' career growth. (4) Personal tradition moderates the relationship between benevolent sexism and female employees' career growth. More specifically, when employees have a stronger sense of personal tradition, the negative correlation between benevolent sexism and career growth becomes even more pronounced. The relevant findings not only enrich the theoretical system of human resource management but also provide useful references for various organizations to enhance the effectiveness of human resource utilization and promote the career growth of female employees.