The Qualities of Leadership: How Male Medical Students Evaluate Their Female Peers

Abstract

The Bales Group Space Questionnaire, which measures perceptions of dominance, friendliness, and orientation toward task accomplishment, was given to the members of six-person anatomy dissection groups containing one, two, or three women. The medical students were asked to characterize themselves and other group members once at the start of the term and again at its conclusion. Male medical students ranked women relatively low on dominance, regardless of the number of women in a group, both at the start and at the end of the term. Women were ranked as neither highly friendly nor highly unfriendly. There was no effect of time or of group composition on ratings offriendliness. Group composition did affect male perception of women's task orientation. In groups with one woman, women were ranked relatively low on task orientation. In groups with more than one woman, women were equally distributed along the ranks in task orientation. The results suggest that males tend to stereotype women's behavior and exclude them from leadership positions.