Gender-Role Attitudes 83Gender-role Stereotypes of Older
People. Gender stereotype research of-
ten focuses on younger adults, typically col-
lege students. Stereotypes of older women
and men may differ. Depiction of men and
women in the media suggests that we have
more negative views of older women than
older men, at least when it comes to physi-
cal appearance. A meta-analysis of the rela-
tion of age to gender stereotypes showed
that younger adults are rated more favor-
ably than older adults but that the effect of
age differs for men and women (Kite et al.,
2005). Increased age was more strongly as-
sociated with negative evaluations of women
than men. However, age was also related to
the perception of a decline in competence,
and this relation was stronger for men than
women. Because competence is such an in-
tegral part of the male gender role, it is in-
teresting that people perceive men to decline
more than women on this dimension.Gender-role Stereotypes of People Who
Vary in Ethnicity or Culture. People’s
gender-role stereotypes partly depend on the
ethnic group to which the person belongs, al-
though there is not a lot of research on this
issue. In a study of college students (mostly
Caucasian) conducted 15 years ago, percep-
tions of Anglo American, African American,
Asian American, and Mexican American
women and men were examined (Niemann
et al., 1994). The most frequently generated
descriptors for each racial group are shown
in Table 3.5.
We can see that race certainly influences
the content of female and male stereotypes.
Anglo and African American males as well
as African American females are described as
athletic, whereas Asian American and Mexi-
can American males are not. Anglo and Af-
rican American men are described as tall, butAsian American and Mexican American men
and women are described as short. Sociable
is an attribute used to describe all groups of
women except Asian American, but sociable
also is used to describe Anglo and African
American men. Caring is an attribute shared
by all four groups of women, but also Anglo
American and Asian American men.
We can also find contradictory features
within a given gender-role stereotype, which
likely reflect individual differences in percep-
tions. Mexican American women are viewed
as attractive yet overweight. Anglo American
men are viewed as hard workers yet ambi-
tionless. African American women and men
and Mexican American women and men are
viewed as antagonistic yet pleasant.
There are several stereotypes of African
American women that pervade our culture,
one of which is the matriarch who is aggres-
sive, dominant, and a threat to men’s mascu-
linity, and one of which is the jezebel, which
is the sexually promiscuous woman. One
study examined whether African American
men endorsed these negative stereotypes or
held a positive perception of African Ameri-
can women (Gillum, 2007). When asked
about each stereotype, nearly half of the men
indicated some endorsement of the jezebel
stereotype, 71% indicated some endorsement
of the matriarch stereotype, but 94% en-
dorsed some positive perceptions of African
American women. Men without a college
education and men who had no committed
relationships were more likely to endorse the
jezebel stereotype.
Gender stereotypes of men and women
in Eastern cultures, such as China, differ from
those in Western cultures in a number of ways.
Communal traits that are typically viewed as
feminine traits in Western cultures are part
of both male and female stereotypes in China
(Yu & Xie, 2008). Whereas the traditionalM03_HELG0185_04_SE_C03.indd 83 6/21/11 12:22 PM