ABSTRACT
With the passage of legislation aimed at ensuring equitable treatment of women in work settings, it was hoped that stereotypic views of women would gradually dissipate and that occupational sex discrimination would become an ill of the past. Unfortunately, research aimed at assessing current perceptions of women suggests that such unbridled optimism is unwarranted. In one study (Heilman et al. 1989), male managers were given an inventory, composed of ninety-two attributes-many of which are required to handle managerial level jobs successfully-and asked to describe one of seven target groups: men (in general, managers, or successful managers), women (in general, managers, or successful managers), or successful middle managers. Results demonstrated that men in general were perceived to possess many of the attributes required of successful managers, whereas women in general were not. For example, men were seen as assertive, logical, and emotionally stable, whereas women were seen as passive, reserved, and sentimental. And, when depicted as managers, women still were characterized as less similar to successful managers than were men. It was only when depicted as successful managers that this gap in the perceptions of men and women was bridged. Yet, even successful women managers were seen as lacking in one critical attribute-leadership ability. These results provide clear evidence that the field of management is still seen as stereotypically male. However, there has been one significant change-women managers no longer perceive women as less well suited for management positions than men (Brenner et al. 1989). It is also worth noting that the views of today's students-tomorrow's business leaders-have not evolved all that much. A survey of undergraduate management students revealed that men were described similarly to successful managers, whereas women were not (Schein et al. 1989). This difference, however, held for male but not female respondents. And, a longitudinal study of MBA students from 1975 to 1983 found that males had negative attitudes, and females positive attitudes, toward women executives (Dubno 1985).
