Women in Positions of Authority: A Case Study of Changing Sex Roles

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to the study of women in positions of authority. By examining the dynamics of patriarchal relations, sex roles, and sex-role behavior among the staff of an American university in a stressed situation, it attempts to go beyond traditional sociological explanations of the way men and women behave in small groups. Most of the sociological literature on women in positions of authority focuses on the successful woman, all-female organizations, or women in traditional positions of authority.1 Work on women in small groups, where it exists, tends to ignore women as leaders in groups where there are male subordinates and the respective interactions with subordinates by men and women in the same positions of authority.2 Many re-