Women in these studies are typically judged to be less capable than men with identical qualifications, but it's not impossible for them to be seen as competent. The problem is that if they're understood to
be capable, the majority of respondents also see them as less likable.
"The deal is that women generally fall into two alternatives: they are either seen as nice but stupid or smart but mean," says Susan Fiske, a psychology professor at Princeton who specializes in stereotyping.
And unlike racial bias, there's little evidence that these attitudes are softening.
According to Eagly of Northwestern, the problem isn't that women aren't traditionally understood as smart, but that they traditionally
aren't understood to be "assertive, competitive, take-charge" types. More than intelligence, she argues, this "agentic" quality is what we
look for in leaders, and, as both surveys and experimental studies have shown, we find it deeply discomfiting in women.
^^^^^ CB: Are Black women fitted into the womanly "stereotype" described here ?