GENDER ROLES AND WOMEN'S ACHIEVEMENT-RELATED DECISIONS

Occupational sex segregation continues to exist and the occupational career paths of women and men continue to differ. This article proposes a model to explain these persistent, gender–role linked trends, summarizes evidence to support the proposed mediating psychological mechanisms, and discusses the social experiences that shape gender differences on these mediators. In addition, the article reviews the economic and psychological costs often associated with the traditional female choices and proposes interventions aimed at achieving a more gender–fair social system that does not devalue traditionally female domains. The proposed model links occupational choices to expectations for success and subjective task value, which, in turn, are linked to gender–role socialization, self schemas, and anticipated role and task demands. The importance of subjective task value is stressed, as is the need to study women's achievement–related choices from the women's perspective.     

STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF GENDER STEREOTYPES: EFFECTS OF SOMATIC APPEARANCE AND TRAIT INFORMATION

Two components of gender stereotypes were examined in order to determine their influence on judgments of gender–related characteristics. Male and female subjects were presented with photographs of female stimulus persons who differed in somatic appearance and were given information about traits. Subjects were asked to estimate the probability that the stimulus person possessed other gender–related traits and engaged in gender–related behaviors. Results provide support for a multiple–component construction of stereotypes, with physical appearance being the most potent component. An unfavorable image of low attractive women was also indicated.     

A META-ANALYSIS ON THE MALLEABILITY OF AUTOMATIC GENDER STEREOTYPES

This meta-analytic review examined the efficacy of interventions aimed at reducing automatic gender stereotypes. Such interventions included attentional distraction, salience of within-category heterogeneity, and stereotype suppression. A small but significant main effect ( g  = .32) suggests that these interventions are successful but that their scope is limited. The intervention main effect was moderated by publication status, sample nationality, and intervention type. The meta-analytic findings suggest several issues worthy of further investigation, such as whether (a) other categories of intervention not yet identified or tested could be more effective, (b) suppression necessarily produces ironic effects in automatic stereotyping, (c) various indirect measures are differentially sensitive to stereotype change, and (d) automatic stereotypes about men differ in their malleability from those about women.     

MINIMIZING THE PERVASIVENESS OF WOMEN'S PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION

Given the Rejection-Identification Model ( Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999 ), which shows that perceiving discrimination to be pervasive is a negative experience, it was suggested that there would be conditions under which women would instead minimize the pervasiveness of discrimination. Study 1 ( N = 91) showed that when women envisioned themselves in a situation of academic discrimination, they defined it as pervasive, but when they experienced a similar laboratory simulation of academic discrimination, its pervasiveness was minimized. Study 2 ( N = 159) showed that women who envisioned themselves experiencing discrimination minimized its pervasiveness more so than women reading about discrimination happening to someone else. Further, mediation analysis showed that minimizing the pervasiveness enhanced positive affect about personal discrimination. Implications for minimizing on both an individual and social level are discussed.     

面孔再认能力性别差异的实验研究

采用“学习—再认”范式,以有或无外部特征的不同性别面孔照片为材料,研究面孔记忆的性别差异,结果表明：（1）有外部特征时,女性被试对不同性别面孔的记忆成绩均好于男性被试;无外部特征时,女性被试与男性被试的记忆成绩不存在性别差异;（2）比起男性照片,女性可记忆更多的女性照片,表明女性在面孔记忆中存在自我性别偏见;男性也是可记忆更多的女性照片,存在反向的性别偏向;（3）无论被试性别和照片性别,均是有外部特征的面孔照片的记忆效果更好;有外部特征的情况下,女性的自我性别偏见更明显。     

MORE THAN NUMBERS: INDIVIDUAL AND CONTEXTUAL FACTORS IN HOW GENDER DIVERSITY AFFECTS WOMEN'S WELL-BEING

This study examined factors related to workplace gender diversity in a sample of 87 college-educated White women. Specifically, we investigated the moderating effects of one individual difference variable (sensitivity to sexism) and one contextual variable (perceptions of the workplace climate) in the relationship between the gender composition at the hierarchical level above the woman and her well-being (job satisfaction and general health). Results indicated that more negative well-being was associated with having more women working at the level above when women worked in a perceived negative climate whereas more positive well-being was associated with having more women working at the level above when women worked in a perceived positive climate. For general health, these findings were stronger for women who were also sensitive to sexism. Implications for research on gender diversity in work organizations are discussed.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FEMININE GENDER ROLE STRESS, BODY IMAGE, AND EATING DISORDERS

The Feminine Gender Role Stress (FGRS) scale was used in two studies to determine whether eating disorders could be linked to the cognitive tendency among women to appraise specific situations as highly stressful because of rigid adherence to the traditional feminine gender role. Study 1 showed the FGRS scale could distinguish eating disorders from other psychiatric disorders in an inpatient setting and from normal college women. This suggests that women who have eating disorders report higher than usual levels of stress as a result of rigid adherence to the traditional feminine gender role. Study 2 looked at cardiovascular reactivity to a feminine (i.e., body image threat) and a control stressor and determined the FGRS scale could predict which women are threatened by feminine stressors. Results from these studies suggest feminine gender role stress may be the missing link between cultural values of femininity and vulnerability for eating disorders.     

GENDER AND ETHNOCULTURAL COMPARISONS IN STYLES OF LOVE

Ethnocultural background and gender were investigated as correlates of love styles in an ethnically diverse sample of university students in Toronto. Women viewed love as more friendship oriented, more pragmatic, but less permissive than did men, findings consistent with previous research with American college students. Ethnocultural differences or Gender x Ethnocultural Background interactions were also found. In line with an expected contrast between Asian and Western cultural traditions regarding love, Chinese and other Asian respondents of both sexes were more friendship oriented in their love relationships than were respondents of Anglo-Celtic or European ethnocultural backgrounds. Expectations of greater gender role differentiation among Asians were partly supported by finding that women from Asian ethnocultural backgrounds other than Chinese were less likely to view love as a game than were either their female or male counterparts. Women from Asian ethnocultural backgrounds other than Chinese also expressed a more altruistic view of love than did Anglo-Celtic women.     

MASCULINE BIAS IN THE ATTRIBUTION OF PERSONHOOD

Silveira (1980) noted that not just masculine generics, but also neutral terms, have masculine connotations; she called this the "people = male" bias. Her hypothesis takes two forms: people = male, a male is more likely seen as a person than is a female; and male = people, a person is more likely believed to be male than female. A total of 108 female and 91 male college students participated in three studies. Study 1 tested male = people. Participants referring back to a female or male protagonist as a woman/man or as a person were significantly more likely to refer to the male with a nongender-specific term. Studies 2 and 3 tested people = male. In Study 2, reanalysis of data from Hamilton and Henley (1982) showed that hearing unbiased generics promoted male-biased mental imagery in men. In Study 3, participants'imagined "typical person" was significantly more likely to be male than female.     

A THEORY OF PRODUCTIVE ACTIVITY: THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG SELF-CONCEPT, GENDER, SEX ROLE STEREOTYPES, AND WORK-EMERGENT TRAITS

A theoretical framework is presented that focuses on the division of labor by gender to account for both sex role stereotypes and the correspondence between these stereotypes and the self-concepts of women and men. According to this framework, the self-images of adults are largely constituted by attributes generated by their productive activity. These attributes, referred to as work-emergent traits, are consequences of working within particular social and physical conditions of production because they help individuals to perform work tasks and to regulate their emotional responses to the Stressors attendant upon their work roles. Because of sexual segregation in the work force, certain traits have been generalized to all women and to all men, appearing as sex role stereotypes. Although the sexual division of labor is the root cause of stereotypical beliefs regarding the attributes of women and men, the beliefs themselves also sustain the division of labor. Suggestive pilot data, which provide initial substantiation for this theoretical perspective, are briefly discussed.     

THE EFFECTS OF PERCEIVED JOB AVAILABILITY FOR WOMEN ON COLLEGE WOMEN'S ATTITUDES TOWARD PRESTIGIOUS MALE-DOMINATED OCCUPATIONS

This study investigated the effects of perceived job availability for women and sex role orientation on college women's evaluations of highly prestigious male-dominated occupations. In a mixed design, feminine, androgynous, and masculine women (as determined by the Personal Attributes Questionnaire) evaluated two professions described as providing good opportunities for women, two described as providing average opportunities, and two described as providing poor opportunities. Subjects were most likely to want to pursue occupations with good job availability for women and to expect the most intellectual stimulation and approval from others as a result of pursuing these occupations. In addition, sex role orientation was related to expectations concerning intellectual stimulation and approval from others but did not interact with level of job opportunity on any of the dependent measures.     

园中蝶：《石头记》中的理想国和女性

《桃花源记》系公元5世纪中国诗人陶潜（365～427）之作,是中国文学中描绘理想完美境界的最著名的作品。中国人的想象对它如此神驰心往,以至于桃花源的名字几乎已成为理想国本身的代名词。这篇作品由两部分组成：一篇用散文形式写的序和一首诗。二者均讲述了桃花源被发现和消失的故事。不过,或许是由于那篇散文具有更加实实在在的感染力吧,当中国人想到理想国时,更会马上想起它。     

GENDER AND TASK IN THE DETERMINATION OF SPATIAL COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE

A variety of sex differences in spatial cognitive performance have been documented. However, factors other than those specifically related to gender and cognition per se, such as the perceived spatial character of given tasks, may contribute to such differences. In the present experiments, spatial memory and mental image rotation tasks were presented to female and male adults. The task formats or instructions were varied to emphasize or deemphasize the spatial character of the tasks. Highly "spatial" instructions or format significantly depressed performance on spatial tasks for women but not for men. "Nonspatial" instructions or format, within which the spatial character of the task was not explicit, resulted in no significant differences between the performances of women and men on either type of task. These findings indicate that instructional or format effects relating to the purported "spatial" character of a given task may significantly influence the relative performance of women and men.     

A PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS ANALYSIS OF MALE AND FEMALE SEX TRAIT STEREOTYPES IN MALAYSIA

As part of a cross-cultural project, 100 Malaysian university students completed Gough and Heilbrun's (1965) Adjective Check List to assess existing stereotypes of males and females. After the construction of 100 item stereotypes for males and females the data were analyzed in terms of Murray's (1938) personality theory of psychological needs. Analysis revealed that the male “personality” reflected high needs in autonomy, aggression and exhibition, but low needs for deference and nurturance. By contrast, female needs were strong in succorance and abasement but weak in dominance. These results were contrasted with those of 21 other countries and findings discussed in terms of Malaysia's multi-racial composition and influence of traditional customs and religious beliefs.     

SEX-ROLE ORIENTATION, COPING STRATEGIES, AND SELF-EFFICACY OF WOMEN IN TRADITIONAL AND NON T RADITIONAL OCCUPATIONS

Examined women's sex-role orientation, coping strategies, self-efficacy, and stress in male- and female-dominated occupations. Results ( n =281) revealed that high-masculine women (measured by the Bern Sex Role Inventory), compared with low-masculine women, reported significantly lower scores on measures of anxiety and strain, with the exception of interpersonal strain. High-masculine women, compared with low-masculine women, reported greater problem- relative to emotion-focused coping and higher self-efficacy. Low-feminine women in nontraditional occupations reported higher self-efficacy and greater problem-focused coping compared with low-feminine women in traditional occupations. The relation between masculinity and strain was nonsignificant when the variance due to self-efficacy was partialed out, suggesting that the rela tionship between sex role and strain may be mediated by personal efficacy.     

GENDER AND WORK HISTORY IN THE PLACEMENT AND PERCEPTIONS OF ELDER COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS

This study explored factors that determine the types of volunteer jobs older adults are placed in, as well as factors that define the meaning of their roles. With a sample of 169 elder community volunteers (mean age, 73 years), we investigated the patterns of job perceptions of women and men in two types of volunteer positions: jobs that involved leadership and jobs that did not. A two-way MANOVA with gender and leadership as independent variables revealed that there was a significant interaction effect. When men are leaders, their sense of interpersonal feedback is higher than when they are non-leaders, but their sense of influence and autonomy is lower. Women in leadership jobs feel more influential and autonomous than their peers in non-leadership jobs. Subsequent analyses probing differences in job placement suggested that work history was a significant predictor of leadership jobs for men, but not for women. Correspondingly, men with prestigious preretirement work histories perceived their volunteer roles as less influential than men who had been in lower status jobs before retirement. Work history was not a predictor of job perception for women. These placement and perception issues are discussed within the context of an historical perspective on paid work, with special emphasis on gender.     

负性事件引发情绪反应的性别特点及神经机制

选取45名大学本科生为被试,记录被试观看内容不同的刺激材料时主观情绪体验成绩,同时采集了心率变异性(HRV)的频域指标,探讨内容不同的负性事件引发情绪反应的性别特点及外周神经机制.结果:在主观报告上,女性所诱发的负性情绪显著高于男性.社会事件的情绪材料所引发的负性情绪显著高于家庭事件的情绪材料.在生理指标上,女性在负性事件中引起的LF/HF显著高于男性.因此,负性事件后男性和女性情绪反应在主观应激强度和生理反应模式上差异显著.