2.1  Gender and humour

Have you ever noticed a gendered pattern in workplace humour? As we've discussed, who you are and your identity can affect how you use and experience humour, and you won’t be surprised to hear that gender plays a significant role in this context.

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Three individuals (two women and a man) are seated around a table in what appears to be a casual meeting or discussion setting. One woman is gesturing and laughing with a pointed finger toward the man in the middle, indicating he is being made fun of. The other woman is also laughing. The man in the middle has a number of sticky labels on his face, his arms folded and a blank expression. It's difficult to tell if he is the butt of the joke or in on the joke.

In group settings, men tend to make more jokes, while women are more likely to laugh at jokes that are made by others (Kotthoff, 2022). You may recall we mentioned above how this is also a pattern with higher and lower status colleagues. When women want to be funny, they often make jokes to lighten the mood or come across as collegial. Men's humour, however, tends to be more challenging and direct (Taylor, Simpson and Hardy, 2022). The gendering of meetings closely relates to gender stereotypes of abilities and skills (Dhawan et al., 2021; Pétursdóttir, 2009). As we saw in previous units, while women are often perceived as naturally suited to communication and caring roles, men are more often associated with leadership and technical capabilities (Dhawan et al., 2021; Pétursdóttir, 2009). This can be explained by societal expectations for women and men – how they are supposed to behave and act with regard to their gender (Williamson, Taylor and Weeratunga, 2024).

When it comes to sexist humour, women generally find it to be more offensive than men do (Tabassum and Karakowsky, 2023). Unsurprisingly, individuals with sexist attitudes tend to see it as perfectly acceptable (Kotthoff, 2022).

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A woman seated at a counter near a large window, participating in a video call on a laptop. The laptop screen displays multiple participants arranged in a grid layout, indicating an online meeting or virtual discussion. The woman has a smile on her face indicating laughter and her hands held together in front of her.

Interestingly, even senior women in leadership roles use humour to downplay their own abilities and express their frustrations, just as more junior members of staff often will, as this strategy helps them navigate the often tricky waters of gender stereotypes (Kotthoff, 2022). This allows them to be the boss but still come across as feminine.

Another gendered aspect of leadership is that technical issues in online meetings tend to reflect more negatively on women than men. This is because gender stereotypes encourage us to think women will be less technically able (Dhawan et al., 2021). It also taps into the societal expectations we mentioned above that women are good at caring and communication, while men are better leaders with technical abilities (Dhawan et al., 2021; Pétursdóttir, 2009).