The Effect of the Sexual Composition of a Group on Discrimination Against Women and Sex-Role Attitudes

This study examined discrimination against women and endorsement of sex-role attitudes as a function of sex composition of group and sex of subject. Undergraduates (116 female and 55 male) were placed in mixed-sex or all-women groups and administered a modification of the journal articles used by Goldberg (1968) and a Sex-Role Attitude Questionnaire developed by the author. Both females and males in the mixed-sex groups evaluated the female-authored articles less favorably than the identical male-authored articles. In contrast, subjects in the all-women groups did not show sex discrimination in their evaluations. Sex-typed appropriateness of the article topics was not an important variable mediating the devaluation of the female-authored articles. Female subjects in mixed-sex groups endorsed more profeminist ideas on the Sex-Role Attitude Questionnaire than did male subjects, and there was a nonsignificant trend for women in the all-women groups after reading female-authored articles to endorse more profeminist ideas than did the women in the mixed-sex groups or in the all-women groups after reading male-authored articles. Results suggest that participation in an all-women's group may elicit a more positive image of other women and contribute to more egalitarian perceptions and behaviors.