In Search of Token Women in Academia

Women faculty in predominantly male departments at a large university were interviewed and responded to paper-and-pencil instruments in a test of Laws' analysis of the necessity for the „token women” adaptation to their marginality for success in academia. By multiple criteria, three clusters were identified: (a) token women, who accepted academia as a meritocracy, were aware of little sex discrimination and belonged to no feminist group; (b) non-token women, who disagreed with academia as a meritocracy and were aware of sex discrimination; and (c) women with mixed or moderate orientations. (Membership in feminist groups was found in the latter two clusters.) Women in the three clusters did not differ significantly by academic rank or marital status and only marginally by age and longevity in academia. As predicted, however, they did differ by tenure status. Contrary to Laws' analysis, token women were not more likely to have had a sponsor, which was significantly related only to rank. Women in the three clusters were equally accurate in recognizing male-female status discrepancies. Their differing definitions of sex discrimination were revealed in differential bias when choosing among alternatives of indeterminate correctness. Token women minimized such discrepancies, in line with beliefs attributing them to women, rather than the system. Others maximized such discrepancies.
The university faculty has traditionally been a man's world, except in those fast-disappearing enclaves considered „women's fields” (e.g., home economics). Today, faculty women are tallied on affirmative action reports in columns for persons with „minority characteristics.”     

Exploring the relationship between children's knowledge of text message abbreviations and school literacy outcomes

This paper presents a study of 88 British 10–12‐year‐old children's knowledge of text message (SMS) abbreviations (‘textisms’) and how it relates to their school literacy attainment. As a measure of textism knowledge, the children were asked to compose text messages they might write if they were in each of a set of scenarios. Their text messages were coded for types of text abbreviations (textisms) used, and the ratio of textisms to total words was calculated to indicate density of textism use. The children also completed a short questionnaire about their mobile phone use. The ratio of textisms to total words used was positively associated with word reading, vocabulary, and phonological awareness measures. Moreover, the children's textism use predicted word reading ability after controlling for individual differences in age, short‐term memory, vocabulary, phonological awareness and how long they had owned a mobile phone. The nature of the contribution that textism knowledge makes to children's word reading attainment is discussed in terms of the notion of increased exposure to print, and Crystal's (2006a) notion of ludic language use.     

The Importance of Being Emergent: A Theoretical Exploration of Impression Formation in Novel Social Category Conjunctions

Social category conjunction is a form of multiple categorization involving the combination of two simultaneously salient constituent categories to form a complex category (e.g., female soldier). Research has reliably demonstrated that perceivers often apply emergent traits when forming impressions of novel incongruent social category conjunctions, that is, traits not associated with the simple constituent categories (e.g., Kunda, Miller, & Claire, 1990 ). However, the theoretical literature modeling the mechanisms underlying impression formation in novel social category conjunctions is less well established and inconsistent. In this article, we critically evaluate the current state of empirical research and theory on novel social category conjunction, with particular reference to emergent traits, aiming to provide a more coherent framework for future research and theory. In addition, we seek to emphasize the wider importance of emergent traits, by drawing out links between research and theory on social category conjunctions with broader perspectives of impression formation.