The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Achievement 189

but over time women are more likely to switch

from these fields to gynecology and obstetrics,

areas more compatible with the female role

(Gjerberg, 2002).

What are women’s reasons for switch-

ing out of traditionally masculine pursuits? In

a study of female twelfth graders who aimed

to pursue traditionally masculine fields but

switched to neutral or feminine fields seven

years later, three reasons were prominent.

First, women desired a job with greater flex-

ibility; second, women were unhappy with

the high time demands of jobs in traditionally

shouldn’t have won that prize, I should have

won” and everybody’s gonna be mad at me

because um, I won and they didn’t.

Myra: Is there any situation that you

could think of where you won an honor that

you were deserving of and felt good about?

Jane: If other people won also.

Other studies show that high levels of

achievement have negative consequences for

girls’ self-image. In one study, achievement

in math and science predicted an increase

in social self-image (i.e., feeling accepted by

others) from sixth to seventh grade for both

boys and girls, but predicted an increase in

social self-image from seventh to eighth

grade for boys only (Roberts & Petersen,

1992). Girls’ social self-image improved most

if they received B’s in math rather than C’s or

even A’s. These results especially applied to

girls who indicated they valued being popu-

lar in school more than they valued getting

good grades. Thus the authors concluded

that girls feel more accepted if they are not at

the top of their math class, especially if they

are socially oriented. Conduct Do Gender 6.1

using Horner’s (1972) projective method and

some objective questions to see if the fear of

achievement holds at your school.

Leaving Traditionally Masculine Pur-

suits. One facet of the historical literature

on women’s fear of success is that high-

achievement women switch from traditionally

masculine pursuits to traditionally feminine

ones. In a nationally representative study of

eighth graders who aspired to have careers in

science and engineering, more females than

males changed their minds over the next

six years (Mau, 2003). Six years later, 22%

of males had pursued careers in these areas

compared to 12% of females. Among medical

school students, women are as likely as men to

start careers in internal medicine and surgery,

DO GENDER 6.1

Do Women Fear

Achievement, and

Do Men Fear Affiliation?

Try out Horner’s projective test. Ask a group

of students to write a story in response to

the following sentence: “________ is at the

top of her (his) class in medical school.”

You choose the name. You might

try a name that can be perceived as either

male or female, such as Pat. Or, you might

have half of participants respond to a male

target and half to a female target. After par-

ticipants have completed the story, have

them respond to a few objective items that

could measure fear of success, as discussed

in the text.

Decide how you want to code the sto-

ries. Do you want to code violent imagery,

negative imagery, or threat? Be sure to have

clear operational definitions of anything that

you code. Ideally, you would find another

coder and evaluate the stories indepen-

dently. Make sure the stories are anonymous

with respect to sex when you rate them.

Are there sex differences in fears of

success on the projective measure? On the

objective measure? How do the objective

and projective measures compare?

M06_HELG0185_04_SE_C06.indd 189 6/21/11 8:10 AM