Plans for balancing work and family life: Do women pursuing nontraditional and traditional occupations differ?

Work-involvement plans of women pursuing training in three fields are compared. Three approaches to the connection between gender and work are reviewed: an occupational, a differential gender socialization, and a role conflict approach. Data from 173 female students in traditional (nursing) and nontraditional (engineering and veterinary medicine) fields are used. The work plans of women pursuing these traditional and nontraditional occupations were similar. A minority in each field expected to work full time when their children were of preschool age. We obtained modest support for the structural and differential gender socialization approaches, and substantial support for the role conflict approach. Plans to pursue nontraditional professions do not appear associated with plans for nontraditional family life.     

Is Mainstream Psychological Research “Womanless” and “Raceless”? An Updated Analysis

In the late 20th century, mainstream psychological research was accused of being “womanless” and “raceless” by excluding women and members of racial-ethnic minority groups and by interpreting their experiences as deviant from White male norms. The present article provides an updated analysis of the state of psychological research by examining research published in 2007 in eight prominent journals across four subdisciplines (N?=?255). Two types of data were examined: (1) gender and racial-ethnic representation at the levels of editor, senior author, and participant, and (2) the presence of biased assumptions in reporting tendencies. Representation was interpreted in relation to relevant baselines drawn from U.S. data. Women and members of racial-ethnic minority groups do not appear to be underrepresented as editors in mainstream psychology. However, women continue to be underrepresented as senior authors, and members of racial-ethnic minority groups continue to be underrepresented as research participants. Furthermore, studies using predominately male or White samples (vs. female or racial-ethnic minority samples) were less likely to indicate participant gender or race-ethnicity in the title and marginally less likely to provide a rationale for including participants of only one social group, consistent with the notion that reporting tendencies within mainstream psychological research continue to reflect assumptions that men and Whites are more typical members of the category “human” than are women and racial-ethnic minorities. These findings indicate that mainstream psychology has not yet reached social equity and that efforts to increase diversity and decrease subtle biases should continue to be supported and funded.     

Sex-role orientation and athletic administration

The Bem Sex Role Inventory was administered to 157 women and 163 men in athletic administration. The majority of male (89.5% to 94.1%) and female (85.7% to 91.0%) athletic directors (ADs) was either androgynous or masculine. The findings show that ADs display a higher level of androgyny than do business executives, and suggest that ADs may possess a greater degree of behavioral flexibility. The data indicate that differences in sex-role behaviors of female and male ADs do not justify the discrepant number of men in AD positions. The results also indicate that both female and male ADs have a stronger masculine than feminine perception of themselves, regardless of the competitive level (division) of their program.     

Experimental pain thresholds influenced by sex of experimenter

Thresholds for pressure pain were tested in 64 adult human subjects (age: M=22.0 yr., SD=7.5). The subjects were young adults drawn from a student population. They were divided into two groups of men and two groups of women, with 16 participants in each group. A female experimenter tested one group of men and a male experimenter tested the other group. The women were tested in a similar way by an experimenter of the same sex for one group and the opposite sex for the other group. The two experimenters were dressed in a manner that emphasised their gender roles. The men tested by a female experimenter showed a higher average pain threshold than the men tested by a male experimenter, but there was no difference in the average pain thresholds of the two groups of women.     

When do the stigmatized stigmatize? The ironic effects of being accountable to (perceived) majority group prejudice-expression norms

How do frequently stigmatized individuals feel about and respond to members of other potentially stigmatizable groups? Four studies demonstrated that perceptions of majority group norms regarding prejudice expression can shape how minority individuals respond to minority individuals from other groups. Study 1 revealed that Black and White men and women have somewhat different perceptions of Whites' norms regarding prejudice expression. Study 2 manipulated whether evaluations of Native American job candidates were to remain private or to be made public to unfamiliar Whites upon whom the evaluators were dependent: Black men used a strategy of publicly (but not privately) denigrating the minority target to conform to presumed prejudice-expression norms. Study 3, in which the authors explicitly manipulated prejudice-expression norms, and Study 4, in which they manipulated audience race, further supported the role of such norms in eliciting public discrimination against minority group members by other minority group members. The desire to avoid being targeted for discrimination, in conjunction with the perception that the majority endorses discrimination, appears to increase the likelihood that the often-stigmatized will stigmatize others.     

Traditional vs. nontraditional women and men's perceptions of the personalities and physiques of ideal women and men

Traditional and nontraditional women and men's perceptions of ideal people, in terms of both traits and physiques, were assessed using 80 male and 80 female Caucasian undergraduates as study participants. The data indicated that traditional women and men perceived the ideal male as mesomorphic and as having more instrumental than expressive traits. Nontraditional women and men also favored a mesomorphic physique for the ideal male, but they differed from traditionals in that they saw this mesomorphic male as being androgynous in regard to traits. Concerning the ideal female, traditional and nontraditional women and men preferred an androgynous physique, but they differed in their perceptions of the ideal personality for a woman. Traditional women and men perceived their ideal women as having more expressive than instrumental traits, whereas nontraditional women and men saw their ideal women as being androgynous in regard to traits. The results are discussed within the framework of Bem's gender schema and enculturated lens theories.     

Inferring sexual interest from behavioral cues: Effects of gender and sexually relevant attitudes

Research has found that men impute more sexual meaning to others' behavior than do women. However, little research has examined the possibility that men and women share perceptions of the sexual connotativeness of certain behaviors but diverge in their perceptions of other behaviors. In Study 1, 162 male and 186 female undergraduates, predominantly Caucasian, rated the degree to which each of 27 behaviors of male and female targets connoted a desire for sexual intercourse. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed that, whereas men perceived all but two of the female target behaviors more sexually than women, men and women differed in their perceptions of the sexual connotativeness of only about half of the male target behaviors. A factor analysis revealed three factors for both male and female target behaviors, reflecting mundane dating behaviors, romantic behaviors, and sexual behaviors. Relative to women, men perceived only the mundane dating behaviors more sexually, although regression analyses showed these effects to be moderated by subjects' attitudes toward women. Study 2 examined the extent to which sexually relevant attitudes (e.g., sex role stereotyping, adversarial sexual beliefs, and rape myth acceptance) moderate subjects' perceptions of the sexual connotativeness of the behaviors. Men, particularly those who endorsed traditional, sexually relevant attitudes, were more likely than women to impute sexual meaning to the behaviors. The implications of this for dating situations are discussed.The author wishes to thank Mark Leary and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this article.     

Gender Differences in U.S. College Students�� Fear for Others

This study examines U.S. college students?? fear of crime for others and uses the ??doing gender?? perspective to help explain gender differences. A sample of 931 college students (421 male students/510 female students and 605 White students/326 Black students) under the age of 30 from a Southeastern public university provided information on fear of crime, fear for others, and other variables often associated with fear of crime. When splitting the sample by gender, results suggest that both male and female college students fear for others, but do so in very different ways. While male students?? fear for others was associated with their personal characteristics (race, age and parental status) and whether they lived with an intimate, female students?? fear for others was most influenced by constrained behaviors and personal fear of crime. Additionally, when testing race specific models, there were not enough minority men to split the sample for men. However, when separating the sample by race for women only, the model generally did not work for non-White women, while the model worked well for White women. Overall, the results suggest that younger individuals?? fear of crime for others is gendered, associated with living status for men and personal fear for women and that racial differences among men and women should be examined in the future.     

Gender differences in beliefs about the causes of male and female sexual desire

Little is known about the beliefs men and women have about the causes of sexual desire, despite the interpersonal and individual significance of those beliefs. Participants in this study received a definition of sexual desire and answered a set of free-response questions exploring their beliefs about the causal antecedents of male and female sexual desire. The results indicated that more women than men view female (and male) sexual desire as caused by external factors. In addition, both men and women believe that male and female sexual desire have different causes: intraindividual and erotic environmental factors are believed to cause male sexual desire, but interpersonal and romantic environmental factors are believed to cause female sexual desire. Although both men and women view physical attractiveness and overall personality as sexually desirable male and female characteristics, women, but not men, view femininity as a sexually desirable female characteristic, and men, but not women, view social and financial power or status as a sexually desirable male attribute.     

Development of the emotional self-disclosure scale

The Emotional Self-Disclosure Scale (ESDS) was developed to assess how willing people are to discuss specific emotions with different disclosure recipients. Internal reliabilities (Cronbach's alpha) and test-retest were consistently high for each of the subscales on the ESDS for three specific disclosure recipients: female friends, male friends, and spouses/lovers. A final set of results indicated that women's and men's emotional disclosures varied as a function of their gender and the personal characteristics of the disclosure recipient. Although men and women reported a similar pattern of willingness to discuss their emotions with their male friends, additional results revealed that women were more willing than men to disclose information about their feelings of depression, anxiety, anger, and fear to their female friends and spouses/lovers. The implications of these findings for men's and women's emotional expressivity are discussed.Portions of this paper were presented at the 33rd annual meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 1987.     

Sexual Peak: Socially Shared Cognitions About Desire,Frequency, and Satisfaction in Men and Women

Is a man’s sexual peak earlier than a woman’s? Three studies were conducted to examine (a) whether the perception that men achieve their sexual peak at a younger age than do women is shared across individuals of different ages and sexes, (b) whether sexual peak is defined differently for men and women, and (c) whether differences between definitions contribute to differences in the age at which men and women are perceived to reach sexual peak. Study 1 suggested that participants believed that females reach their sexual peak at an older age than do males. Study 2 indicated that the defining feature of sexual peak for males was sexual desire and for females was sexual satisfaction. Study 3 suggested that predictions of male sexual peak coincided with participants’ predictions of male age of highest desire and frequency, but not satisfaction, and that female sexual peak coincided with participants' predictions of female age of highest satisfaction but not frequency or desire. Discussion focuses on potential reasons for differences between the perception of male and female sexuality, as well as the social and evolutionary importance of each of the dimensions of sexuality for both males and females.     

Gender Rules: Same- and Cross-Gender Friendships Norms

We examined the relationships between gender and attitudes towards same- and cross-gender friendship norms for a sample of 269 West Coast, U.S., college students. Participants evaluated violations of friendship norms described in vignettes in which the friend’s gender was experimentally manipulated. Women differentiated more between types of violations in their evaluations than did men. There also were several significant gender differences in approval of norm violations. As expected, women tended to have relatively high expectations of their friendships in situations involving trust and intimacy, likely resulting from the high value they placed on affiliation and emotional closeness. Women were more disapproving than men of a friend who canceled plans or failed to come to their defense publicly. Men and women judged a woman who betrayed a secret more harshly than a man. Generally, expectations for cross-gender, versus same-gender, friends were more similar than different; there were no significant cross-gender interactions, with one exception. Men were particularly less approving of a male, as compared to a female, friend who kissed them in a greeting. Furthermore, an overwhelming majority of respondents (81.6%) reported that men and women can be friends. A minority of women were cautious in their responses, with women (18.5%) more apt to reply “maybe,” than men (9.9%). Overall, these findings provided evidence that gender, rather than cross-gender, norms primarily influenced friendship evaluations, and demonstrated that even a subtle manipulation of gender can trigger gender stereotypes. They suggested, too, that women may hold their friends to stricter “rules” than men.     

Construction of gender roles in perceived scarce environments – Maintaining masculinity when shopping for fast fashion apparel

Gender refers to ways men and women socialize into the male and female roles that are commonly attributed to them. These roles are continuously (re)constructed within and through our daily activities. Prior literature suggests a need for more research in investigating how men and women construct their identity in various exchange situations and in various cultural settings. This paper explores the situational construction of male and female identities (especially the male one) when shopping for fashion products in environments with strategically created scarcity. The findings of this study suggest that, when shopping for fashion products in scarce environments, men and women tend to exhibit gendered behaviors that are considered more consistent with their traditional gender norms. We find that men, although concerned about their appearance, adhere to urgent buying behavior. This behavior helps men maintain some of their traditional masculine identity. In addition, they do not participate as frequently in the in‐store hoarding and in‐store hiding that are more frequently exhibited by women and that are more consistent with a feminine identity. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Breast Cancer in Men: A Need for Psychological Intervention

Male breast cancer is a serious issue that needs to be addressed more fully by the medical and public community. However, due to a lack of awareness and limited research on the topic, there is a general absence of knowledge concerning the psychological implications of this disease in men as well as a need for greater understanding of the medical diagnosis and treatment of male breast carcinoma. Similarly, there still remains a considerable gender difference between the awareness of female breast cancer and male breast cancer Although breast cancer in men makes up only 1% of all breast cancers reported in the United States, it is increasing in incidence. There are approximately 2000 new cases and approximately 450 deaths due to male breast cancer each year. Breast cancer diagnosis and treatment in men is very similar to that described in women, however, it has been shown that men are being diagnosed at a later stage of the disease than women.     

Climbing the corporate ladder: do female and male executives follow the same route?

This study compares the careers of matched samples of 69 female executives and 69 male executives by examining perceived barriers and facilitators of advancement, self-reported developmental experiences, and career histories. Consistent with tokenism theory, women reported greater barriers, such as lack of culture fit and being excluded from informal networks, and greater importance of having a good track record and developing relationships to facilitate advancement than did men. Career success, measured by organizational level and compensation, was positively related to breadth of experience and developmental assignments for both genders, but successful women were less likely than successful men to report that mentoring facilitated their advancement. Developmental experiences and career histories were similar for female and male executives, but men had more overseas assignments and women had more assignments with nonauthority relationships.     

Influence Attempts When Competing Views Are Gender-Related: Sex as Credibility

A study was conducted to examine the effect of sex of subject, sex of majority and minority influence source, and male or female relatedness of the issue on conformity, Male and female subjects indicated their agreement (or disagreement) with male and female related statements following an influence attempt by either four male or four female confederates. The sex of the majority opinion was juxtaposed with a minority opinion held by an opposite-sexed confederate. Two major findings were obtained. First, for male related issues, subjects conformed more when the majority influence source was male than when female. Likewise, on female-related issues, subjects conformed more when the majority influence source was female than when male. Second, male subjects conformed more than female subjects on the female related issues whereas on male related issues they tended to conform less. The theoretical and practical significance of these findings is discussed.     

Male Bar Drinkers' Perspective on Female Bar Drinkers

Five focus group discussions were conducted with 34 male bar drinkers to obtain their perception of the character and risks for aggression among women they observe in bars. The majority of the men were European American (61.8%), 29.4% were African American, and 8.8% were from other ethnic groups. Their impressions of women were based on appearance, type and speed of alcohol being consumed, and behavior. Every group suggested that women who dress in a sexually provocative manner or get drunk are more likely to be perceived as “loose” or sexually “easy” by men in general. These findings are consistent with stereotypes of women drinkers as sexually promiscuous and highlight the societal double standards for men and women who drink. The men described a woman calling attention to herself, being alone, out late, or having contact with many men in the bar as vulnerable. These findings are similar to those found during focus group discussions with women bar drinkers (K. A. Parks, B. A. Miller, R. L. Collins, & L. M. Zetes-Zanatta, 1998).     

IS SEXUAL ORIENTATION A MATTER OF CHOICE?

Ninety women in lesbian and heterosexual couples were compared on relationship values, views of same-gender and cross-gender intimate relationships, and perceived choice of sexual orientation. Both groups reported similar values, levels of self-esteem, and capacity for intimacy. The majority in both groups described their relationships with women as more emotionally and intellectually intimate than those with men. A majority of women in lesbian couples (58%) and a third of women in heterosexual couples reported choosing the orientation of their current sexual relationship. Women with male partners did not perceive major differences between homosexual and heterosexual relationships, citing sexual attraction as the primary reason they chose a male partner. In contrast, many women with female partners characterized lesbian relationships as more intimate and equal, and less gender-role stereotyped, frequently citing these characteristics, along with sexual attraction, as reasons for their relationship preference.     

Sexual harassment of university students

The sexual harassment of junior, senior, and graduate student women and men by male and female professors, graduate assistants, and staff was investigated to determine students' personal experiences in the classroom, outside the classroom, and in job-related settings. Usable survey responses were returned by 393 students, and incidents were detailed by 38 women and 9 men who noted their responses to the harassment and its effects. Attitudes toward and acceptance of sexually harassing behaviors were measured by a 10-item Tolerance for Sexual Harassment Inventory (TSHI). The frequency of initiation of sexual behaviors was also assessed. More women than men reported being sexually harassed. Male and female perceptions of classroom behaviors were in agreement for most items. Men and women differed significantly on the TSHI, with men more tolerant of sexual harassment than women, and highly significant age differences were found, indicating a greater acceptance of sexual harassment by younger students. There was little difference between male and female students in the frequency of their initiating sexual behaviors. The TSHI was assessed; reliability coefficients and a factor analysis are presented.This research was supported by a grant from the College of Arts and Sciences. We are grateful to Betty Jones and Joan Bentley for their secretarial assistance.