Evidence of female-favoring hiring preferences for assistant professorships suggests that universities can implement affirmative action programs successfully. However, research on the role of applicant gender and the actual use of affirmative action policies in hiring processes for high-level professorships remain scarce. A web-based experiment with 481 economic university members assessed whether evaluators perceived a female applicant as less qualified than a male applicant for an associate professorship position when the job advertisement highlighted the university’s commitment to affirmative action (gender-based preferential selection) but not when it solely highlighted its commitment to excellence (non-gender-based selection). Contrary to previous experimental findings that affirmative action would adversely affect female applicants, evaluators perceived the female applicant as more hirable and ranked her first for the job significantly more often than the male candidate. Furthermore, male evaluators had a stronger preference for the female candidate in the gender-based condition than in the non-gender-based condition and a stronger preference for the male candidate in the non-gender-based condition than in the gender-based condition. Overall, the results provide evidence that gender-based preferential selection policies can evoke their intended effect to bring highly qualified women to high-level professorships, especially when being evaluated by non-beneficiaries of these policies, such as men.

女性青睐助理教授职位的证据表明，大学可以成功实施平权行动计划。然而，关于申请人性别的作用和平权行动政策在高级教授招聘过程中的实际使用的研究仍然很少。一项针对 481 名经济大学成员的基于网络的实验评估了当招聘广告强调大学对平权行动（基于性别的优先选择）的承诺时，评估人员是否认为女性申请人比男性申请人更不合格它只强调了其对卓越的承诺（非基于性别的选择）。与之前的实验结果相反，平权行动会对女性申请人产生不利影响，评估人员认为女性申请人更容易被雇用，并且比男性候选人更频繁地将她列为该职位的第一名。此外，男性评估员在基于性别的条件下对女性候选人的偏好比在非基于性别的条件下更强，在非基于性别的条件下对男性候选人的偏好比基于性别的条件下更强. 总体而言，结果证明基于性别的优惠选择政策可以激发其预期效果，将高素质女性带到高级教授职位，尤其是在这些政策的非受益者（例如男性）进行评估时。男性评估员在基于性别的条件下比在非基于性别的条件下更偏爱女性候选人，在非基于性别的条件下比基于性别的条件下更偏爱男性候选人。总体而言，结果证明基于性别的优惠选择政策可以激发其预期效果，将高素质女性带到高级教授职位，尤其是在这些政策的非受益者（例如男性）进行评估时。男性评估员在基于性别的条件下比在非基于性别的条件下更偏爱女性候选人，在非基于性别的条件下比基于性别的条件下更偏爱男性候选人。总体而言，结果证明基于性别的优惠选择政策可以激发其预期效果，将高素质女性带到高级教授职位，尤其是在这些政策的非受益者（例如男性）进行评估时。