The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

16 Chapter 1

would have less meaningful conversations.

Some aspects of life were considered to have

mixed effects. Women said having to work

would be a negative, but this would be off-

set by more opportunities for advancement.

On the positive side, women said they would

be taken more seriously as men, but on the

negative side, this meant more would be ex-

pected of them. Men note primarily nega-

tives in their hypothetical transformations

to women: becoming more nervous, self-

conscious, and concerned about appearance;

worrying about men coming on to them;

and worrying about walking alone at night.

One advantage men note was similar to the

disadvantage women noted: As women, the

men said they would have more friends and

be more sociable. Conduct your own experi-

ment on this issue with Do Gender 1.3.

The similarities and differences in the

treatment and behavior of men and women

appear in numerous chapters throughout this

book. The important point to keep in mind

is whether a sex difference in behavior is due

to something inherent about being female or

male or to something about status.

contender for president of the United States

supported by a major political party, Hillary

Clinton (see Figure 1.5). In 1984, Geraldine

Ferraro became the first female vice presiden-

tial nominee to appear on the ballot, which

was then followed by Sarah Palin in 2009.

Another way to examine status is to

ask people to imagine what it would be

like to wake up one day as the other sex. In

my psychology of gender courses, I often

ask students to write essays on this ques-

tion. Women and men identify positives

and negatives in considering the transfor-

mation. Women note several advantages:

They would be less afraid, more adventur-

ous, and more independent; but also note

several disadvantages: They would have

more difficulty receiving support, and they

FIGURE 1.5 In 2008, Hillary Clinton became

the first serious female candidate for President of

the United States.

DO GENDER 1.3

Life as the Other Sex

Select an age group. Ask 10 males and 10

females to answer the following question:

“Imagine that you woke up tomorrow and

were the other sex. Go through your entire

day and describe how your life would be

different.”

Read through the stories and iden-

tify themes. Construct a frequency distri-

bution of those themes.

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