The Effect of Priming Gender Roles on Women’s Implicit Gender Beliefs and Career Aspirations

Abstract

We investigated the effect of priming gender roles on women’s implicit gender stereotypes, implicit leadership self-concept, and interest in masculine and feminine careers. Women primed with traditional gender roles (e.g., a male surgeon and a female nurse) showed increased automatic gender stereotypes relative to controls; this effect mediated their reduced interest in masculine occupations. By contrast, exposure to nontraditional roles (e.g., a female surgeon and a male nurse) decreased women’s leadership self-concept and lowered their interest in masculine occupations, suggesting that female vanguards (i.e., successful women in male-dominated careers) can provoke upward comparison threat, rather than inspire self-empowerment. Thus, priming either traditional or nontraditional gender roles can threaten progress toward gender equality, albeit through different mechanisms (stereotypes or self-concept, respectively).