Sex-role stereotyping in the United States: Is it changing?

A checklist composed of 66 adjectives was used to measure sex-role stereotypes of college and senior high school students (15- to 21-year-olds) in the University of Kansas area. Three hypotheses were tested: (a) Traditional ways of describing men and women will be very much in evidence, and a strong agreement between the sexes concerning these attributes will exist. (b) Females will stereotype sex roles to a lesser degree than males. (c) Females will value feminine characteristics more positively than masculine characteristics, but males as usual will value masculine characteristics more positively than feminine characteristics. All the hypotheses were supported with a single exception: Male subjects did not differentially value masculine and feminine characteristics.     

The Impact of Social Roles on Stereotypes of Gay Men

Past research demonstrates that heterosexuals perceive gay men to have traditionally feminine characteristics. Guided by Social Role Theory (Eagly, 1987), we predicted that this stereotype would differ depending on a gay man’s specific social role. To test this idea, participants rated five gay targets (father, single man, hairdresser, truck driver, typical gay man) on stereotypically masculine (e.g., ambitious, leader) and feminine (e.g., affectionate, sensitive) personality attributes. Gay men in traditionally masculine roles (truck driver, single man) were rated as less feminine than gay men in traditionally feminine roles (hairdresser, parent). In addition, gay men in feminine roles were perceived as more similar to the typical gay man than were those in masculine roles. Suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Mental-rotation performance in middle and high-school age: influence of stimulus material,gender stereotype beliefs,and perceived ability of gendered activities

ABSTRACT

In psychometric mental-rotation tests, males mostly outperform females. The stimulus material and stereotype beliefs could partly be responsible for these differences. This was investigated in an experimental study administering traditional cube figures (C-MRT) and structurally similar pellet figures (P-MRT) to middle- and high-school aged children. 168 participants either solved the C-MRT or the P-MRT and filled out a questionnaire about their perceived ability of stereotypically masculine and feminine activities and about their gender stereotype beliefs. Overall, boys outperformed girls and all children who solved the C-MRT were better than those who solved the P-MRT. Only boys' mental-rotation performance increased with age while girls' perceived ability of stereotypically masculine activities decreased. A regression analysis identified children’s gender, their perceived ability of stereotypically masculine activities and their female gender stereotype beliefs as predictors of mental-rotation performance. Results are discussed with a focus on stereotype threat effects and gender differences in mental-rotation strategies.     

Sex-role orientation and fear of success: Clarifying an unclear relationship

Inconsistencies in research concerning the relationship between fear of success (FOS) and sex-role orientation may be due to the use of sex-role inventories considering masculinity and femininity as endpoints of a bipolar continuum. The Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1974), which treats masculinity and femininity as separate dimensions, was administered to 218 female undergraduates in addition to measures of FOS, achievement motivation, and performance. It was predicted that women who were androgynous (high feminine and high masculine) would evidence less FOS than women who were high masculine or high feminine. It was also predicted that women who embraced masculine characteristics (androgynous or sex-reversed) would be higher in both achievement motivation and performance than low masculine women. Both predictions were confirmed. Sex-reversed women were highest in FOS.This research was conducted with the support of a David Ross Grant from the Purdue Research Foundation to Dr. Kay Deaux and the author. Thanks are extended to William A. Fisher, Dr. Kay Deaux, and Dr. Elizabeth Farris for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article. All correspondence should be addressed to Brenda Major, Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo, 4230 Ridge Lea Road, Buffalo, New York 14226.     

Feminine sex role and depression in middle-aged women

The present study was designed to investigate the relationship of sex-role orientation and depression in middle-aged women. It was hypothesized that middle-aged females who were clinically depressed would score higher in feminine characteristics on the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) than similar women who were not depressed. The subjects were two groups of women between the ages of 35 and 50. The clinical group consisted of 15 women who were currently diagnosed as depressive and who were undergoing treatment for depression at three local mental health centers. The nonclinical group consisted of 24 women who were not currently seeking treatment for depression and who had never undergone psychiatric treatment or therapy. All subjects were administered the BSRI and Beck's Depression Inventory.Results supported the hypothesis that depression in middle-aged females is related to their degree of acceptance of the traditional feminine role. For all subjects, depression scores were positively correlated with femininity scores. It was concluded that the woman who subscribes to a traditional feminine role stereotype has a greater vulnerability to depression in her middle years.     

Encoding processes and sex-role preferences

Seven- and 10-year-old children were tested on memory and sex-role preference tasks. The memory task was the Wickens release from proactive inhibition paradigm in which short-term recall of words is tested on successive trials. On Trials 1–4, words were selected from one of two categories, either words with masculine or feminine connotations. On Trial 5, words were drawn from the second category. Sex-role preference was assessed by asking the child to select his favorite pictures from an array that included masculine and feminine items. Recall by boys at both ages increased following a shift between words with masculine or feminine connotations, suggesting that this dimension of a word's meaning was encoded in memory. Recall by girls who selected a feminine item as their favorite on the sex-role preference task increased following a category shift; recall by girls who chose a masculine item did not increase. These results are discussed in relation to previous research on the attributes of encoding in children's memory.     

The effect of gender stereotype activation on entrepreneurial intentions

In this study, the impact of implicit and explicit activation of gender stereotypes on men's and women's intentions to pursue a traditionally masculine career, such as entrepreneurship, was examined. On the basis of stereotype activation theory, it was hypothesized that men and women would confirm the gender stereotype about entrepreneurship when it was presented implicitly but disconfirm it when it was presented explicitly. Hypotheses were tested by randomly assigning 469 business students to one of 6 experimental conditions and then measuring their entrepreneurial intentions. Results supported the hypothesis when entrepreneurship was associated with stereotypically masculine characteristics but not when it was associated with traditionally feminine characteristics. Men also had higher entrepreneurial intention scores compared with women when no stereotypical information about entrepreneurship was presented, suggesting that underlying societal stereotypes associating entrepreneurship with masculine characteristics may influence people's intentions. However, men and women reported similar intentions when entrepreneurship was presented as gender neutral, suggesting that widely held gender stereotypes can be nullified. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Competence and confusion: How stereotype threat can make you a bad judge of your competence

Women tend to have competence doubts for masculine‐stereotyped domains (e.g., math), whereas men tend to think they can handle both feminine‐stereotyped and masculine‐stereotyped domains equally well. We suggest that perhaps women's more frequent experience with stereotype threat can partly explain why. Our results showed that when stereotype threat was primed in high school students (n = 244), there was no relationship between their performance on an academic test (the SweSAT) and their assessment of their performance (how well they did), whereas in a non‐stereotype threat condition, there was a medium‐sized relationship. The effect was similar for both men and women primed with stereotype threat. The results imply that stereotype threat undermines performance assessments.     

Masculinity—Femininity in children's self-concepts: The relationship to teachers' judgments of social adjustment and academic ability,classroom behaviors,and popularity

This study explored the response of peers and teachers to children who differed in the extent to which their self-concepts included traits which children view as masculine or feminine. It was hypothesized that teachers would judge relatively more masculine children to be inferior in (1) academic ability and (2) social adjustment compared to more feminine children, and that these relationships would be independent of IQ. Relationships between masculine—feminine self-concept and observable classroom behaviors were examined, particularly the impact of classroom behavior on teachers' evaluations of masucline versus feminine children. Finally, the relationship between masculine—feminine self-concept and popularity was studied. Subjects were 64 middle-class fourth and fifth graders. For boys, the hypotheses were supported for evaluations made by seven women teachers. Evaluations made by one man teacher did not support the hypotheses. Neither hypothesis was supported for girls. Among boys, relative masculinity was associated with a distinctive pattern of classroom behavior, and this statistically accounted for women teachers' negative evaluations of the more masculine boys. For boys, the relationship between popularity and masculine—feminine self-concept differed significantly between classroom settings; while for girls there were no significant relationships. Methodological issues, sex differences in the importance of sex-typing of self-concept, teacher sex differences, and implications for mental health are discussed.The author acknowledges the invaluable assistance of the following persons: Kevin McClearey assisted in the initial development of the observation procedure; Jessica Broitman and Dennis Quintana conducted the observations; Dennis Quintana assisted in developing the items for the masculine—feminine self-concept questionnaire; Ms. Judy Hermann, Principal, offered cooperation in the school setting; Drs. William Hodges and Donald Weatherley offered criticisms of an earlier version of this paper. An earlier, condensed version of this paper was presented at the meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Los Angeles, 1976.     

Influence of Gun Ownership on Social Inferences About Women and Men1

In the past gun ownership was primarily a male-only phenomenon. There has been, however, an increase among American women in gun purchasing largely for purposes of self-defense. In the first study we examined the consequences of women and men owning handguns, versus not doing so, for social perception. Given that gun ownership is stereotype inconsistent for women but not for men, such a violation of expectancies was expected to have a greater impact on inferences about women than men. Subjects believed that women who owned handguns would possess masculine physical characteristics, although they were not perceived as losing feminine body attributes per se. Women who owned guns tended to be perceived as less likely to occupy female stereotypic social roles, while men who owned a weapon were perceived as more likely to do so. Men who owned a handgun were perceived as less likely to possess socially desirable male stereotypic traits, although women with a handgun gained in this respect. In the second study where a community sample was employed, the main pattern of outcomes was replicated. Affective reactions toward male and female gun owners were similar, and less positive than for persons who do not own guns. Individuals with both positive and negative attitudes toward guns displayed the same pattern of inferences based on gun ownership and target gender. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for social judgment and stereotype use.     

Gender traits and identities in a "masculine" organization: the Israeli police force

Gender and occupational identities were examined within the Israeli police force, a stereotypically masculine organization. The principal hypothesis was that women in this organizational setting did not reject their gender identity. Rather, they self-attributed more traditionally masculine traits in addition to their feminine traits. This was especially so among women going through particularly intense occupational and organizational socialization needed for field jobs. The findings only partially confirmed the hypothesis. Most women in the sample considered themselves to be highly feminine, even though they self-attributed masculine traits. Although the women, like their male colleagues, ranked occupational identity higher than gender identity, their feminine identity (usually in contrast with the masculine organizational context) was not repressed and their gender identity was as strong as that of the men.     

Role theory and the female sex role

Women's sex-role perceptions and behavior were studied from the perspective of role theory, with an emphasis on examining the situational nature of female sex roles and the degree of consensus among women concerning female sex roles. The perceived appropriateness and expected outcome for sex-role characteristics and the actual enactment of masculine and feminine behaviors were examined for women in social and work situations. It was hypothesized that feminine behaviors prevail in social situations and masculine behaviors in work situations. This hypothesis was clearly supported for perceived appropriateness and actual behavior, but not for expected outcome. For this variable, the predicted pattern was found only in the social situation. It was also hypothesized that the degree of consensus across women is higher for feminine than for masculine characteristics, but this pattern was found only for perceived appropriateness and actual behavior in the social situation.This article is based on a dissertation submitted to the University of Florida in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a doctoral degree. Portions of this work were presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in September 1976. The author would like to express her appreciation to Lawrence J. Severy and Marvin E. Shaw for their advice throughout this study.     

Watching Aggressive, Attractive, Female Protagonists Shapes Gender Roles for Women Among Male and Female Undergraduate Viewers

The impact of exposure to media representations of aggressive, attractive, female protagonists on audiences?? gender role expectations for women was explored through a laboratory experiment with 122 undergraduates from a large university on the west coast of the United States. Participants viewed a segment of a major Hollywood motion picture that featured a female protagonist who was either highly attractive or less attractive and either highly aggressive or not aggressive. Viewing clips featuring a female protagonist who was both aggressive and stereotypically attractive led to greater endorsement of stereotypically feminine and stereotypically masculine gender role expectations for women. The effect on endorsement of stereotypically masculine expectations was partially mediated by the perception that the protagonist was a good role model for women. Although women endorsed both feminine and masculine gender role expectations for women more strongly than men, the effects of exposure to aggressive, attractive, female protagonists were similar for both male and female participants. Results are discussed in terms of gender stereotype activation and superwoman expectations for women.     

The role of gender and gender role similarity in readers' identification with story characters

This study tested the hypothesis that adult readers would identify with story characters who display a similar gender role orientation. Male and female readers rated their identification with male and female characters who acted in either a masculine or feminine manner in short story vignettes. The primary finding was an interaction between gender role of reader and gender role behavior of character: as predicted, androgynous and undifferentiated readers identified equally with both masculine and feminine characters, masculine readers identified more strongly with masculine characters than feminine characters, and feminine readers identified more strongly with feminine characters than masculine characters. Further, androgynous readers identified somewhat more strongly with both types of characters than undifferentiated readers. However, the predicted effect of gender similarity between reader and character did not exert a strong influence on the identification process. In addition, feminine subjects reported greater identification across all four stories than masculine and undifferentiated subjects. Finally, of three questionnaire measures of empathy tested, only Davis's (1983) Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Empathic Concern subscale) significantly predicted general level of identification; as expected, these scores were significantly correlated with femininity gender role scores.     

Gendered Mental Disorders: Masculine and Feminine Stereotypes About Mental Disorders and Their Relation to Stigma

Research indicates that stereotypes can intersect. For example, the intersection of stereotypes about gender and mental disorders could result in perceptions of gendered mental disorders. In the current research, Studies 1 and 2 showed that people view specific disorders as being masculine or feminine. The masculine stereotype included antisocial personality disorder, addictions, and paraphilias. The feminine stereotype included eating disorders, histrionic personality disorder, body dysmorphia, and orgasmic disorder. In both studies, the perception of disorders as masculine was positively correlated with stigma. Study 3 showed that the positive correlation between masculinity and stigma also occurred when examining specific symptoms rather than full mental disorders. The findings provide further evidence for the intersection of stereotypes and indicate a novel factor in the understanding of stigma.     

Effects of Gendered Language on Gender Stereotyping in Computer‐Mediated Communication: The Moderating Role of Depersonalization and Gender‐Role Orientation

This experiment examined what situational and dispositional features moderate the effects of linguistic gender cues on gender stereotyping in anonymous, text‐based computer‐mediated communication. Participants played a trivia game with an ostensible partner via computer, whose comments represented either prototypically masculine or feminine language styles. Consistent with the social identity model of deindividuation effects, those who did not exchange brief personal profiles with their partner (i.e., depersonalization) were more likely to infer their partner’s gender from the language cues than those who did. Depersonalization, however, facilitated stereotype‐consistent conformity behaviors only among gender‐typed individuals; that is, participants conformed more to their masculine‐ than feminine‐comment partners, and men were less conforming than were women, only when they were both gender‐typed and depersonalized.     

Reversing the Gender Gap in Negotiations: An Exploration of Stereotype Regeneration

We examine how gender stereotypes affect performance in mixed-gender negotiations. We extend recent work demonstrating that stereotype activation leads to a male advantage and a complementary female disadvantage at the bargaining table (Kray, Thompson, & Galinsky, 2001). In the present investigation, we regenerate the stereotype of effective negotiators by associating stereotypically feminine skills with negotiation success. In Experiment 1, women performed better in mixed-gender negotiations when stereotypically feminine traits were linked to successful negotiating, but not when gender-neutral traits were linked to negotiation success. Gender differences were mediated by the performance expectations and goals set by negotiators. In Experiment 2, we regenerated the stereotype of effective negotiators by linking stereotypically masculine or feminine traits with negotiation ineffectiveness. Women outperformed men in mixed-gender negotiations when stereotypically masculine traits were linked to poor negotiation performance, but men outperformed women when stereotypically feminine traits were linked to poor negotiation performance. Implications for stereotype threat theory and negotiations are discussed.