>
>
> Still, psychologists specializing in gender bias say that many
> studies have shown how strong a force gender stereotyping is.
>
> In one particularly telling strain of research, called the Goldberg
> paradigm, two sets of participants are asked to comment on something,
> perhaps a resume or a speech or a work scenario in which a boss
> speaks with an employee. To one audience, the person involved is
> described as a woman, in the other he is a man. Time and again, male
> participants (and, in some cases, women as well) judge the resume
> more harshly if it is a woman's, or say the speech was strident if
> given by a woman but assertive if given by a man, or that the female
> boss was pushy while the male boss was concerned.
>
> 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.
>
> Amy Cuddy, a psychologist at Northwestern, suggests that the
> durability of gender stereotypes stems in part from the fact that
> most people have far more exposure to people of the opposite gender
> than to people of different races. As a result, they feel more
> entitled to their attitudes about gender.
>
All those studies really make me feel uncomfortable about being a woman on a very personal level, then again, they do explain a lot of the experiences I personally went through lately. I wonder if there are any studies which are concerned about the stereotypes []women] have of men...? And how deeply I am affected in my behavior towards them...? Especially, I am shocked about this:
>"That's what Hillary Clinton is up against," argues Eagly. "She's had
>to show her toughness, then people turn around and say she's too cold."
It happens so often that some sort of quality is asked for but if implemented is seen as the exact thing that should not have been done. I too feel that a woman - in these days - will not stand a real chance against a man and still be liked. In Germany, the female Chancellor is seen as un-feminine, hard [for behaving according to what is expected of a leader] or bad at being decisive [for being a woman].
Just goes to show that you can't have all. Not yet.
Cass