Working Women and the Cycle of Defeat: Sex-Specific Responses and Their Emotional and Behavioral Consequences.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to determine the general validity of the final stages of a theoretical model describing the psychosocial dynamics of sex discrimination in work groups. Subjects included 112 male and 104 female Navy enlisted personnel, who were given 16 hypothetical situations describing both punishing and rewarding responses to masculine and feminine behaviors. For each situation, subjects were asked a series of questions concerning their behavioral and emotional responses and the predicted probability that the situation might arise again in the future. The data provided some support for the general human dynamics in the model. It also showed that women and men differed in their behavioral responses to the punitive situations, and in their emotional responses to the punitive situations involving masculine behaviors. Although general analyses revealed no sex differences in the predicted probabilities for the same situations recurring, more specific analyses suggested that males were more likely, in response to punitive situations, to report a maintenance or increase in the use of both feminine and masculine behaviors. Results are interpreted in terms of the model and previous research findings concerning the model. (Author)