Gender Ideologies and Workplace Diversity Policies: Are Voluntary Women’s Quotas and Mentoring Programmes Associated with Employees’ Gender Ideologies?

Following policy feedback theory, this article argues that normative policy feedback mechanisms also operate at the workplace level, where employees are expected to adapt their beliefs to the specific policy context in which they are embedded. Specifically, it considers employees’ gender ideologies and their association with two prominent workplace-level diversity policies: voluntary women’s quotas and mentoring programmes. Partial proportional odds models are estimated employing a unique German linked employer–employee dataset (2018/19) incorporating 2445 employees and 82 workplaces. Findings indicate that voluntary women’s quotas implemented in workplaces are associated with more egalitarian gender ideologies among employees. This clear pattern was not detected for mentoring programmes. No gender differences were discovered, suggesting that normative policy feedback effects in the workplace are present equally among women and men. In conclusion, the findings indicate that policy feedback mechanisms operate not only at the national but also at the workplace level.