186 Chapter 6is to compensate for the threat to the fe-
male gender role that achievement poses by
adopting extremely feminine appearance
and behavior. Another option is for a woman
to master both roles: the role of high achiever
and of traditional female wife and mother.
Thus high-achievement women may spend
enormous amounts of energy both at work
and at home to demonstrate that achieve-
ment does not conflict with or undermine
femininity. One area of research that has
addressed how women reconcile a need for
achievement with a need to adhere to the fe-
male gender role is the fear of achievement
or fear of success literature.Fear of Achievement
Historical Literature. In the early 1970s,
one explanation of why women did not reach
high levels of achievement was that they suf-
fered from a “fear of success.” Matina Horner
(1972) noted that competence, independence,
and intellectual achievement were inconsistent
with the norms for femininity but consistent
with the norms for masculinity. Thus women
faced a dilemma when achieving. Women
might withdraw from achievement behavior
because they are concerned with the threat
that achievement poses to their gender role.
Horner (1972) defined thefear of success
as the association of negative consequences
with achievement. For women, the negative
consequences were feeling unfeminine and
experiencing social rejection. A woman who
believes graduating at the top of the class will
lead people to dislike, tease, or avoid her may
have a fear of success, whereas a woman who
believes graduating at the top of the class
will bring respect from peers and parents
does not have a fear of success (Figure 6.2).
In order to have a fear of success, however,
the individual must also believe achievementthemes of achievement. People who scored
high in achievement motivation were found
to persist longer at tasks and to reach higher
levels of achievement. Those people were men.
Achievement motivation did not predict these
same outcomes in women. Some people sug-
gested that women did not have as great a
desire or need for achievement as men.
There were several problems with this
conclusion. First, the domains of achieve-
ment studied (or depicted by the TAT cards)
may have been more relevant to men than
women, especially in the 1950s and 1960s. For
example, viewing a TAT card that depicted
two scientists in a laboratory may not have
aroused the achievement motive in women
because few women worked in science labora-
tories at the time. Women may not have been
able to see themselves as scientists in a labora-
tory, or women may not have had any desire
to be scientists in a laboratory. One factor that
determines whether someone pursues success
in an area is the value the person attaches to
success in that area. Women, especially in the
1950s, may not have valued achievement in
the sciences.
Another difficulty with the study of
achievement motivation in women is that
the characteristics that defined the motive
(assertiveness, independence, competitive-
ness) conflicted with the characteristics of
the female gender role. Thus another reason
women did not fit into the theory of achieve-
ment motivation is that women recognized
that achievement-related behavior would be
inconsistent with their gender role.
What did women do, and what do
women do, when they have a high need for
achievement but believe achievement con-
flicts with their gender role? One response
is to conceal achievements. Female students
may tell their peers they scored lower on an
exam than they really did. Another responseM06_HELG0185_04_SE_C06.indd 186 6/21/11 8:10 AM