Views from Above the Glass Ceiling: Does the Academic Environment Influence Women Professors’ Careers and Experiences?

Using data from 188 female full professors from all 14 Dutch universities this study examines whether skewed sex ratios in the environment and the absence of a women-friendly environment are related to their career path experiences and to their perception of the general ease of women’s obtaining a professorship. Results from multi-level analyses show a positive relationship between the perception of women-friendly environment and both the experience of their own career path, and the perceived ease with which other women could become a full professor. Moreover results show that the higher the percentage of women professors in the academic field the stronger the relationship between perception of women friendliness and the experienced ease with which they became a full professor.     

Widening the Gender Gap: Teenage Magazines for Girls and Boys

The socialization of teenage girls throughmagazines aimed at this specific group is a well-studiedphenomenon. In general, magazines for teenage girls arevery gender stereotypic. The appearance of a publication for teenage boys allowed us to study whetherthis magazine is also gender stereotypic or whether manyfeatures are simply age specific. Six issues each of agirls' and a boys' magazine from the Netherlands were analyzed. The content of the issues andlanguage use in the introductory sections of articles onsex and relationships were studied. Results showed thatthe global content of the magazines is similar: both pay attention to physical appearance andrelationships with the opposite sex, although todifferent degrees. However, the specific content of theitems is often gender stereotypic. The language use in the two types of magazines is alsodifferent, with the girls' magazine using more emotionwords and the boys' magazine using more cool, toughwords.     

Sex stereotypes and responses to juvenile delinquency

On the basis of our current knowledge of sex stereotypes and their influence on judgments about women and men, two conflicting hypotheses about reactions to delinquent behavior by men and women, or by boys and girls, can be put forward. First, because crime is mainly masculine, responsibility for criminal behavior will be more strongly attributed to a boy's nature than to a girl's, thereby leading to more severe punishment for boys. Second, deviations from a stereotype lead to negative evaluations, and thus should lead to harsher punishment for girls. The first study described, based on a field experiment with 709 adolescent and 403 adult subjects, was conducted to determine whether different sanctions were applied to boys and girls who engaged in identical delinquent behavior. The results show that for boys, more severe punishment was preferred for aggressive behavior, and for girls, more punishment for noncriminal delinquent behavior. In a second study (N=43), it was hypothesized that these differences in sanctioning corresponded with the degree of perceived masculinity of the delinquent behavior. This hypothesis was confirmed. A model shows how sex stereotypes about delinquent behavior lead to sex-related difference in attributions, which in turn lead to differences in punishment.     

Minority stress and mental health among Dutch LGBs: examination of differences between sex and sexual orientation

Minority stress is often cited as an explanation for greater mental health problems among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals than heterosexual individuals. However, studies focusing on sex or sexual orientation differences in level of minority stress and its impact on mental health are scarce, even more so outside the United States. Performing secondary analyses on the data of a Dutch population study on sexual health, the present study examines the robustness of the minority stress model by explaining mental health problems among men and women with mostly or only same-sex sexual attraction, and men and women who are equally attracted to same-sex and opposite-sex partners in the "gay-friendly" Netherlands (N = 389; 118 gay men, 40 bisexual men, 184 lesbian women, and 54 bisexual women). Results showed that minority stress is also related to mental health of Dutch LGBs. Participants with a higher level of internalized homonegativity and those who more often encountered negative reactions from other people on their same-sex sexual attraction reported more mental health problems. Such negative reactions from others, however, had a stronger link with mental health among lesbian/gay than among bisexual participants. Openness about one's sexual orientation was related to better mental health among sexual minority women, but not among their male counterparts. Suggestions for future research, implications for counseling, and other societal interventions are discussed.     

Gender Typing of the Successful Manager—A Stereotype Reconsidered

The feminization of management is a recurring theme in both popular and scientific management literature. However, several studies have shown that successful managers are generally attributed predominantly masculine characterics. In this study, gender typing of the manager role was studied in a sample of 143 management students (74 men, 69 women) in the Netherlands. As was hypothesized, on a checklist with masculine, feminine, and gender-neutral traits, masculine characteristics were rated as more applicable to successful managers than feminine characteristics, but gender-neutral characteristics were rated even more applicable. Analysis of the wording used to describe a successful manager on an open-ended question showed that participants used either gender-neutral words or (generic) “he.” This finding indicates that the successful manager is still imagined as a man, even though on a checklist this manager seems to possess predominantly gender-neutral traits. It is concluded that more methodological variety is needed in the study of gender typing of successful managers.     

Bad but bold: Ambivalent attitudes toward men predict gender inequality in 16 nations

A 16-nation study involving 8,360 participants revealed that hostile and benevolent attitudes toward men, assessed by the Ambivalence Toward Men Inventory (P. Click & S.T. Fiske, 1999), were (a) reliably measured across cultures, (b) positively correlated (for men and women, within samples and across nations) with each other and with hostile and benevolent sexism toward women (Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, P. Click & S.T. Fiske, 1996), and (c) negatively correlated with gender equality in cross-national comparisons. Stereotype measures indicated that men were viewed as having less positively valenced but more powerful traits than women. The authors argue that hostile as well as benevolent attitudes toward men reflect and support gender inequality by characterizing men as being designed for dominance.     

Understanding how engagement in a self‐managed shelter contributes to empowerment

Participant empowerment is a foundational goal of self‐organised homeless care. We aim to understand how a self‐organised setting contributes to participants' empowerment. The data we analysed (56 interviews, both open and semi‐structured) were generated in a longitudinal participatory case study into Je Eigen Stek (Your own place, JES), a low‐cost shelter for people experiencing homelessness in the Netherlands. JES participants experienced the freedom of choice and influence on their living environment. JES' fluid structure allowed participants to adapt the program to their desires and needs, though participants were sometimes negative about having to live together. Most participants preferred JES over regular shelters. Unlike empowerment literature, participants mostly emphasised freedom of choice over capacity development. JES offered opportunities for social and organisational engagement, through which participants developed roles, skills and self‐image. However, a limited number of participants developed leadership roles through self‐management. Literature suggests setting aspects to be either enabling or entrapping. We found some aspects (e.g., size, freedom of choice) could be entrapping or enabling, depending on personal factors. Our analysis revealed individual freedom of choice, balancing freedom of choice with support, offering opportunities for engagement and maintaining fluidity in program management as core aspects of how JES contributed to participants' empowerment.     

Reducing work-family conflict through different sources of social support

The present study examines the relationship between four sources of social support (i.e., spouse, relatives and friends, supervisor, and colleagues) and time and strain-based work-to-family and family-to-work conflict among 444 dual-earners. Gender differences with respect to the relationship between social support and work-family conflict were examined as well. The relationship between the sources of support and work-family conflict was tested using multiple regression analyses. Results showed that women reported more strain-based work-to-family conflict than men. Social support from spouse and from colleagues were related to family-to-work conflict, while none of the sources of social support were related to work-to-family conflict. Social support from supervisor and from colleagues were related differently to work-to-family conflict (time-based) and family-to-work conflict (strain-based) for men than for women. We conclude that social support is especially important in reducing family-to-work conflict.     

Infrastructure flexibility created by standardized gateways: The cases of XML and the ISO container

This article addresses the problem of entrenchment in large technical systems. It explores in what manner standardization could be used as a means to inscribe flexibility into infrastructures and focuses in particular on the role of standardized gateway technologies. Two cases are examined: the Extensible Markup Language (XML) for structured information exchange and the intermodal freight container, also known as the ISO container. The cases indicate that flexibility is a transient characteristic of gateway standards. Where standards do not meet the needs of subsystems and changed circumstances, competing gateways emerge. Flexibility, entrenchment and competition are part of a cyclic movement in gateway evolution. You can read more about her in the Foreword.