Defense Attorneys and the Impact of Gender and Age on Perceived Competency

Do gender and age stereotypes influence the way we perceive attorneys? After reading a passage featuring a defense attorney questioning a witness, participants (N=89) rated the attorney’s effectiveness and competence. Attorney gender and age, manipulated via an attached photograph, did not affect those ratings. However, attorney gender and age interacted for ratings of perceived guilt of the defendant, an indirect measure of effectiveness, with greater age benefitting the female but not the male attorney.In the workplace, men often have been seen as more competent than women, especially in professions that have historically been male dominated (e.g., doctors, lawyers). Women entering these professions may be perceived to be less able to do the job, even though they have obtained the necessary training, and this may lead to workplace discrimination (Leskinen et al., 2015)