Seeing is believing: Exposure to counterstereotypic women leaders and its effect on the malleability of automatic gender stereotyping

Two studies tested the conditions under which social environments can undermine automatic gender stereotypic beliefs expressed by women. Study 1, a laboratory experiment, manipulated exposure to biographical information about famous female leaders. Study 2, a year-long field study, took advantage of pre-existing differences in the proportion of women occupying leadership positions (e.g., female professors) in two naturally occurring environments—a women’s college and a coeducational college. Together, these studies investigated: (a) whether exposure to women in leadership positions can temporarily undermine women’s automatic gender stereotypic beliefs, and (b) whether this effect is mediated by the frequency with which female leaders are encountered. Results revealed first that when women were in social contexts that exposed them to female leaders, they were less likely to express automatic stereotypic beliefs about their ingroup (Studies 1 and 2). Second, Study 2 showed that the long-term effect of social environments (women’s college vs. coed college) on automatic gender stereotyping was mediated by the frequency of exposure to women leaders (i.e., female faculty). Third, some academic environments (e.g., classes in male-dominated disciplines like science and math) produced an increase in automatic stereotypic beliefs among students at the coed college but not at the women’s college—importantly, this effect was mediated by the sex of the course instructors. Together, these findings underscore the power of local environments in shaping women’s nonconscious beliefs about their ingroup.     

Women's and men's willingness to self-disclose to therapists and friends: The moderating influence of instrumental,expressive, masculine,and feminine topics

The present study used the Masculine and Feminine Self-Disclosure Scale to investigate women's and men's willingness to self-disclose about the instrumental, expressive, masculine, and feminine aspects of themselves to four target persons: female and male therapists and friends. The data revealed that women's and men's willingness to self-disclose to therapists and friends was tempered by the gender of the target person and the particular “masculine” and “feminine” content of the disclosure topic. Men were more willing than women to discuss the global masculine aspects of themselves with a male friend. In contrast, women were more willing than men to discuss (1) their expressive behaviors with both female and male friends and (2) their global feminity with female and male therapists and friends. The discussion emphasizes gender role phenomena as an important dimension of women's and men's willingness to disclose personal information about their masculinity and femininity to therapists and friends.     

Sexual harassment of women professors by students: Exploring the dynamics of power,authority, and gender in a university setting

Although much research on sexual harassment within the academy has been concerned with how prevalent this problem is, it continues to be very narrow in its scope by focusing almost entirely on the abuse directed toward subordinates. This study explores the sexual harassment of women professors by students to gain insight into how widespread the problem is, and to understand better how both gender and status define an individual's vulnerability to sexual harassment. Survey data from 208 female instructors employed at a major university revealed that women professors experience a variety of behaviors, mostly from male students, which range from sexist comments to sexual assault. Furthermore, most professors perceive such behaviors to be sexual harassment, despite the professor's formal power. Generally, women professors are able to deal effectively with these situations, usually by confronting the individual directly or trying to avoid the student, at least in relatively minor instances of sexual harassment.     

Nontraditional gender roles and the sexual experiences of heterosexual college students

The purposes of this study of heterosexual college students were (1) to specify gender differences and similarities in sexual beliefs and experiences, (2) to determine the prevalence of women enacting traditional male roles in dating and sexual interactions, and (3) to examine the relationship between women's enactment of traditional male roles and their sexual experiences. Findings for this predominantly Caucasian sample indicated that there were no significant gender differences in age of first intercourse, frequency of intercourse, oral sex participation, prevalence of coitus and anal sex, rating of how often sex partners satisfied their sex needs and desires, and reactions to recent intercourse. Although less than men's frequencies, sizable proportions of women acknowledged they had multiple sex partners and sex without emotional involvement. Support for an increased proportion of females engaging in the traditional male roles of initiating sexual involvement and dates and paying date expenses was also found. Findings also suggested that there are no simple patterns between women's sexual experience and nontraditional roles but that this association depends on the specific role as well as the status and quality of a woman's current sexual relationship. Findings were discussed in terms of their potential to contribute to women's sexual decisions.     

Business Students' Perceptions of Best University Professors: Does Gender Role Matter?

This study investigated the relationship between the gender and gender-role of students and their “best” university professors. Two hundred and ninety two business students in 2 universities in Atlantic Canada rated their best professors and themselves using Bem's Sex Role Inventory. Male business students were more likely than females to choose a male as their best professor, and female business students were more likely than males to choose a female as their best professor. The study also indicates that a student's own gender and gender role are significantly related to those of his/her best professor. Male professors with low femininity scores (but not necessarily high masculinity scores), and female professors who are gender-neutral (i.e., androgynous or undifferentiated) were more often chosen by students as their best professors. In general, masculinity seems to be valued more by older, part-time students with greater work experience. Implications of these findings for university teachers are discussed.     

Closeness between female college students and their professors: A novel assessment technique

An empirical investigation was conducted using a technique developed by Adler to assess how close female college students felt toward their professors. The sample included mostly white college women enrolled in a psychology of women course. The women felt closer to their female professors than to their male professors. The findings have pedagogical implications.We would like to thank Susan Eckstein, Maria Narvaez, Kathleen Peets, Ann Pufall, Sue Rosenberg Zalk, and two anonymous reviewers for their help.     

How provoking! what makes men and women angry?

This study looked at differences in anger-provoking behaviors and in verbal insults as a function of the gender of the aggressor and the target of the provocation. Responses of 416 college students revealed that males were more likely to consider a female exhibiting physical aggression or a male hurting another person as anger-provoking, whereas females were more likely to mention condescending or insensitive behaviors from either sex, verbal aggression from a female, and physical aggression from a male. Physical aggression and hurting another provoked more anger when they came from a male, whereas dishonesty from a female evoked more anger. Females also felt that insensitive and condescending behaviors were worse when they came from a male. Most of the verbal insults were sexual in nature, with few sex of subject differences. However, it was considered worse for women to be called promiscuous; for men to be called sexually inadequate, worthless, or cowardly; for women to call men an obscene name; and for people to be called homosexual by a same sex speaker. These results are consistent both with previous research and with traditional gender role beliefs suggesting that women are more upset by condescending behaviors and that women's promiscuity, as well as men's aggression toward women, hurting another, sexual inadequacy, and cowardice, are viewed particularly negatively. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

A Psychometric Evaluation of the Sex-Role Egalitarianism Scale with African Americans

The purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Sex-Role Egalitarianism Scale—KK (King & King, 1990) in a sample of 171 African American college students. Examination of the Cronbach alpha reliability coefficients suggested that the SRES—KK is a reliable measure of gender role attitudes for African Americans. The construct validity of the instrument was assessed and supported by an examination of differences between men's and women's scores. The results of the study support the use of the SRES-KK with African American samples. Implications and future directions for research are discussed.     

Values Preferences by Gender for Nontraditional College Students Between 1992 and 1982

This study compared gender trends for self-reported work values of 384 nontraditional college students in 1982 and 335 different nontraditional college students in 1992. Results measured by D. Nevill and D. E. Super's (1989) Values Scale indicated that female values preferences moved toward Altruism and Variety and away from Autonomy and Advancement. Male values preferences remained relatively constant, except for a significant drop in Aesthetics. The most important finding was that there were many more similarities than differences in men's and women's values preferences for both 1982 and 1992. The top 3 rankings for both years were identical: Economic Security, Achievement, and Ability Utilization.     

Perceptions of success and life satisfaction: a gender examination in Taiwan

Gender socialization creates an expectation that men should achieve success (regardless of how it is defined), so men are under greater pressure than women when encountering successful persons and, accordingly, experience lower life satisfaction. Two experiments were conducted in Taiwan to test the proposed effects on life satisfaction. Study 1 showed that 149 students were more likely to infer successful targets as male than female. A path model demonstrated that feeling less powerful against ideal same‐sex persons predicted men's (but not women's) lower life satisfaction after they read about successful targets. Study 2 (106 students) showed that reading about successful targets had differential effects for men and women. Implications regarding culture, gender, and life satisfaction were discussed.     

Evaluation Bias in the Business Classroom: Evidence Relating to the Effects of Previous Experiences

We found that teaching evaluations were assigned as a function of the professors' gender and students' previous experience with a female professor. Based on the professor's style of organization, enthusiasm, credibility, and effectiveness, and students' willingness to take a course with the professor, students assigned higher evaluations to male professors than female professors. Previous experience with a female faculty member was found to be a relevant variable influencing perceived credibility, organization, and effectiveness evaluations. The findings imply that exposure to women in positions of responsibility may reduce stereotypical attitudes regarding women's ability to function in gender-atypical roles.     

The vagaries of sex bias: Conditions regulating the undervaluation,equivaluation, and overvaluation of female job applicants

The present study sought to identify the conditions under which women are undervalued, equally valued, and overvalued relative to men when seeking nontraditional jobs. An experiment was conducted in which 241 college students reviewed the work sample of a male or female applicant for a job that was either extremely male or moderately male in sextype. In addition, the applicant was depicted as either unequivocally high in performance ability or no information about his/her performance ability was provided. As expected, results indicated that unless information of high-performance ability was provided, women's competence and likely career success were undervalued relative to men's. Also as predicted, when given high-ability information, women seeking the moderately sextyped job or the extremely sextyped job were equally valued or overvalued, respectively. Gender-related work effectiveness characterizations closely paralleled these evaluations, lending support to the idea that sex stereotypes and the cognitive distortion they promote mediate not only gender consistent but also gender contrast biases in the evaluation of women. Implications of these results, both conceptual and practical, are discussed.     

On Gender Specificity of Person Characteristics in Personnel Advertisements: A Study Among Future Applicants

This research is an examination of how person characteristics mentioned in personnel advertisements influence the judgments of male and female students with regard to their subjective eligibility for, and the attractiveness of, a particular vacancy. The first study showed that many frequently mentioned person characteristics in personnel advertisements applied differently to men and women, but that female characteristics were more in demand than male characteristics. The second study examined to what degree male and female participants felt that they themselves possessed male and female characteristics; results showed that the men were more confident about the degree to which they possessed male and female characteristics than the women were. The third study examined how the type of person characteristics mentioned in personnel advertisements influenced men's and women's judgments regarding their eligibility for and the attractiveness of a particular position. The men found all positions about equally attractive, whereas the women found “male” positions considerably less attractive. Implications of the study are discussed.     

Gender,experimenter gender and medium of report influence the content of autobiographical memory report

In this study, we examined the role of context in autobiographical memory narratives, specifically as it pertains to gender among emerging adults. Male and female participants reported stressful events in their lives in the presence of an experimenter, and were randomly assigned either to report events verbally or type them, and to report in the presence of a male or female experimenter. Narratives were coded for factual and interpretive content. Results revealed that men verbally reporting to women reported longer narratives than all other groups. Women's narrative length did not vary by medium of report or conversational partner, but women used proportionally fewer internal state phrases when verbally reporting to men than when reporting to women. Women also used proportionally fewer evaluative statements in verbal reports than in typed narratives. Of these important interactions among context, gender, and experimenter gender, some findings, such as men's longer narratives and women's reduced internal states, were counter to expectations. These findings highlight the importance of methodological influences in autobiographical memory studies, in regard to both the context generated by experimental methods, and how gender differences are understood.     

The impact of parental discipline on the image of God

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of parental discipline on men's and women's image of God – specially the degree to which they report perceiving God as loving, forgiving, trustworthy, and available. It compares the four major different parenting styles – authoritative, authoritarian, permissive/indulgent, and neglectful/rejecting – that people received during childhood on their perceptions of God when they are in college. Based on questionnaires completed by undergraduate students at a state university in Utah, this study found that parental discipline styles are related to individuals’ images of God to some extent. The results of a logistic regression show that parental discipline styles have differential impacts on the image of God between male and female respondents. For men, the image of God is significantly related to the parenting styles they received during their childhood, whereas for women, the relationship is not significant. Implications are discussed.     

Focusing on gender similarities increases female students’ motivation to participate in STEM

Recent analyses highlight women's opting out of STEM fields as an important contributing factor to the gender gap in science. Therefore, it is important to identify the factors influencing women's motivation to participate in STEM. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the focus on differences between male and female students in STEM, even when those differences are irrelevant to the competence dimension, would decrease the motivation of women to engage in STEM. On the other hand, a belief in gender similarities would increase their motivation to get involved in STEM. We conducted three experiments among female students in STEM majors, in which we manipulated the focus on gender differences versus similarities. The results, which replicated across three studies, showed that when female students focused on similarities between men and women, they were more motivated to engage in STEM‐related activities than when they focused on gender differences. Additionally, we tested whether the gender stereotypes and a perception of gender discrimination mediated that effect but the results of these analyses were inconsistent across studies. Overall, the findings suggest that messaging directed at women in STEM, which highlights similarities between men and women could encourage them to engage in STEM but deactivation of gender stereotypes does not necessarily account for these effects.