Motivated to penalize: women's strategic rejection of successful women.
Two studies tested the hypothesis that females penalize women who succeed in male gender-typed jobs to salvage their own self-views regarding competence. The authors proposed that women are motivated to penalize successful women (i.e., characterize them as unlikable and interpersonally hostile) to minimize the self-evaluative consequences of social comparison with a highly successful female target. Results supported the hypothesis. Whereas both male and female participants penalized successful women, blocking this penalization reduced female--but not male--participants' self-ratings of competence (Study 1). Moreover, positive feedback provided to female participants about their potential to succeed (Study 2) weakened negative reactions to successful women without costs to subsequent self-ratings of competence. These results suggest that the interpersonal derogation of successful women by other women functions as a self-protective strategy against threatening upward social comparisons.
Parks-Stamm
Elizabeth J
EJ
Psychology Department, New York University, NY 10003, USA. ejp234@nyu.edu
Heilman
Madeline E
ME
Hearns
Krystle A
KA
D000124:Achievement; D001290:Attitude; D002322:Career Mobility; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009519:New York City; D011287:Prejudice; D012649:Self Concept; D014481:United States; D014495:Universities