Sex bias in the evaluation of performance in the scientific,artistic, and literary professions: A review

This article reviews published research on sex differential evaluation of art objects, articles, essays, and poetry that use the Goldberg paradigm in which the sex identification of the stimulus person is varied while the object to be evaluated is kept identical. Sex biases appear to be more limited in scope and more complex in nature than has at first been suspected. The occurrence of antifemale bias appears to depend upon characteristics of the stimulus object or person, characteristics of the judges and the judgment situation, and the way in which judgments are provided. However, none of the studies used professional judges, or provided realistic judgment procedures and contexts. Therefore the question of the external validity of the studies remains open.This study was performed as part of a doctoral dissertation concerning creative achievement of female and male visual artists. Portions of this paper were reported in a presentation at the First European Congress of Psychology, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, July 1989.I would like to express my appreciation to Lisette van Ardenne, Wim K. B. Hofstee, Wim B. G. Liebrand, Peter F. Lourens, Mariette Meester, and Iteke J. Weeda for their comments on earlier drafts of this article.