Reactions of profeminist and antifeminist men to an expert woman

Thirty-two profeminist and 32 antifeminist men interacted with a woman who assertively maintained a position different from the subject. The woman was either an expert in the topic being discussed or an expert in an irrelevant area, and the topic of discussion was either traditionally masculine or feminine. The men's behavior was unaffected by their feminist beliefs, even when three distinct behaviors were combined to form a composite measure. As predicted, however, profeminist and antifeminist men did differ in their ratings of the women and the situation, with profeminists preferring a woman who was assertive on a masculine topic, and antifeminists preferring an assertive woman on a feminine topic. The data suggest that men who agree with profeminist beliefs are not merely responding in a socially desirable manner, although their beliefs are probably not sufficiently strong to result in distinctive overt behavior.The author wishes to thank Jeannie Cook and Diana Demong for serving as confederates, Krista Fuller and Jean Eucher for serving as experimenters, William Gaeddert and Mary Beth Howe for doing the content analyses, and Judy Krulewitz for her comments on earlier versions of this article.