Research Article Can an Angry Woman Get Ahead? Status Conferral, Gender, and Expression of Emotion in the

ABSTRACT—Three studies examined the relationships among anger, gender, and status conferral. As in prior research, men who expressed anger in a professional context were conferred higher status than men who expressed sad-ness. However, both male and female evaluators conferred lower status on angry female professionals than on angry male professionals. This was the case regardless of the actual occupational rank of the target, such that both a female trainee and a female CEOwere given lower status if they expressed anger than if they did not. Whereas wom-en’s emotional reactions were attributed to internal char-acteristics (e.g., ‘‘she is an angry person,’ ’ ‘‘she is out of control’’), men’s emotional reactions were attributed to external circumstances. Providing an external attribution for the target person’s anger eliminated the gender bias