Women's activated self-representations influence their stereotyping and prejudice toward other traditional and nontraditional women

Abstract

This study investigated women's stereotyping and evaluation processes for other women related to their own activated self-representations for categories of homemaker and career women. We predicted that when selfrepresentation as a traditional woman was activated, participants would evaluate traditional women more positively and nontraditional women more negatively than when self-representation as a nontraditional woman was activated. When self-representation as a traditional woman was activated, participants would regard traditional women as more feminine and nontraditional women as more masculine. Fifty-three female college students were asked to imagine their future selves as a career woman or a homemaker and rate their difficulty in imagining this. Next, they were presented with a fictitious profile of a career woman or a homemaker and asked to rate this woman. The results supported the hypotheses for those who imagined their future selves clearly. The importance of the relative perspectives of women's prejudice toward other women was discussed.