The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Gender-Role Attitudes 79

to know that both passages refer to the same

person—the person depicted in Figure 3.5,

the First Lady of the United States, Michelle

Obama. Gender-role stereotypes probably

led you to picture the first person as a man

and the second person as a woman.

What Is a Gender-Role Stereotype?

A stereotype is a schema or a set of beliefs

about a certain group of people.Gender-

role stereotypesare the features we assign to

women and men in our society, features not

assigned due to biological sex but due to the

social roles that men and women hold. Thus I

refer to these stereotypes as gender-role stereo-

types rather than sex stereotypes. One reason

that it may not have occurred to you that the

descriptions in the previous paragraph were of

toward men, whereas men score higher than women

on benevolent sexism toward men.

■ Homophobia and transphobia reflect negative attitudes

toward LGBT persons. These negative feelings are

particularly potent for LGBT youth. When negative atti-

tudes are translated into heterosexual hassles and pos-

sibly hate crimes, results include poor grades in school,

missed school, psychological distress, alcohol and drug

problems, and increased risk of suicide.

Cognitive Component: Gender-Role Stereotyping

The following is a description of a famous

person:

This powerful figure is an Ivy-league trained

lawyer, often referred to as the enforcer—

because the person can get the job done.

This person is principled, candid, and opin-

ionated. This person was the mentor to the

future United States president.

Who do you think this person is? Can you

picture the person? Now read the next de-

scription of a famous person:

This parent of two children put the spouse’s

career first, worked at a nonprofit orga-

nization training leaders, and is said to be

very protective of family. This person has a

personal trainer and a stylist.

Who do you think this person is? Can you

picture the person? Does this description

bring to mind a different image than the first

one? Are the traits described in the second

passage incompatible with those described

in the first passage? You might be surprised

FIGURE 3.5 First Lady of the United States,

Michelle Obama.

Source: dreamstime.com

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