No abstract

Primarily middle-class, White college students (n = 484) read a brief description of a stay-at-home or employed mother or father, estimated how often the target performed several parenting behaviors, and rated her/him on communion and parenting effectiveness. Results showed that respondents estimated more parenting behaviors for mothers than fathers in both roles, gave stay-at-home mothers and fathers similar trait ratings, and viewed employed mothers as lower in communion and parenting effectiveness than fathers. The behavioral findings indicate that social role does not override the effect of gender on trait judgments. It is likely that the observed null and counterstereotypical effects of gender are due to the operation of shifting standards of judgment that reflect within-gender expectations.Research on gender stereotypes has shown that attributes believed to be representative of women reflect a concern about the welfare of others, whereas those seen as typical of men are characterized by a desire for task completion and goal attainment (e.g., Spence & Buckner, 2000). Alice Eagly and her colleagues (e.g., Eagly, Wood, & Diekman, 2000) propose that these stereotypes stem from the long-term association of women with the domestic role and men with the provider role. According to their social role theory, the homemaker role, particularly its strong emphasis on childrearing, involves numerous caregiving behaviors, whereas the provider role demands instrumental activities. The differential role-related behaviors involved in the domestic and worker roles then give rise to different correspondent inferences about the internal dispositions of individuals in these roles. The greater involvement of women than men in domestic behaviors leads to the perception that women are especially communal, that is, concerned about the welfare of others. Correspondingly, men's longer history of workforce participation gives rise to the view that they are especially agentic or task-oriented.

No abstract

We look at some of the ways in which feminist theorists and researchers apply new insights to established topics in psychology, as they explore the landscape of the unknown and unspoken in the lives of girls and women. The articles in this special issue present research and reflections by a group of feminist scholars, some of us from the editorial board of the Psychology of Women Quarterly and others from the larger academic community. Each contributor, selecting from a personal interest or expertise, reconceptualizes a topical area of psychology with the intent of reframing our understanding of its meaning, its impact on women's functioning, and/or its application to feminist research and theory. To provide a background, we review a sample of contributions of feminist thought to the contemporary revolution in science. We then ask the question: In what ways have feminist perspectives and scholarship transformed psychology in the particular areas addressed by these authors?

No abstract