Clinical bias against ?Activity? in women and implications for female self-concept

Gender bias and individualism: Responses to case vignettes among psychologists, professors, and students

“…In contrast, healthy women were seen in stereotypically feminine terms. Additionally, some recent studies have found similar sexist stereotypes continuing among psychotherapists (Bowman, 1982;Fowers, Applegate, Tredinnick, & Slusher, 1996;O'Malley & Richardson, 1985;Robertson & Fitzgerald, 1990). The results of other studies have not confirmed sex bias among therapists (Philips, 1985;Philips & Gilroy, 1985;Poole & Tapley, 1988).…”

“…After two decades of this consistent effort it could be assumed that psychologists are less sexist in their perceptions than those in the general public. Although some studies failed to find sex bias (Philips, 1985;Philips & Gilroy, 1985;Poole & Tapley, 1988), other research (Bowman, 1982;Fowers et al, 1996;Robertson & Fitzgerald, 1990) has suggested that a broad range of therapists continue to express sexist views of their clients. There is some reason to believe that the lack of results in some studies is due to obvious criterion measures and overly simplistic research designs (Bowman, 1982;Fowers et al, 1996;Poole & Tapley, 1988;Robertson & Fitzgerald, 1990).…”

Working with men in groups: A female therapist's perspective.

“…Schachtel (1986) has pointed out that women have been socially trained to respond to others in a way that often conflicts with the analytic (group leadership) stance. It is also known that therapists respond to a client's gender when making treatment plans (Bowman, 1982). Bearing this in mind, the group psychotherapist needs to monitor herself regularly to be sure that she is not helping men avoid group treatment and that she looks for and challenges stereotypical gender behaviors in her groups.…”

Influence of gender in family evaluations: A comparison of trained and untrained observer perceptions of matriarchal and patriarchal family interviews.

“…In a series of studies that investigated the effects of client sex and therapist attitudes toward women in treatment planning, Bowman (1982a, 1982b) found that therapists tended to negatively view activity in women. Teri (1982) found that client gender and sex role style significantly affected clinician ratings of client functioning.…”