ABSTRACT
Issues with regard to blacks include the perceived extent of discrimination and preferential treatment, overall opportunity for women, and the fairness of preferential treatment. Issues specific to women include attitudes of sex-role traditionalism and support for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The chapter analyzes the determinants of beliefs and attitudes to test predictions that self-interest, the dominant ideology, and intergroup affect will be influential. It compares the results for women and for blacks and discusses the factors that may contribute to both similarities and differences in public views on blacks and women. Available data on beliefs and attitudes about women's opportunity are largely limited to assessments of support for the ERA and of sex-role traditionalism. General perspective and findings on views of blacks' opportunity suggest that three factors may influence beliefs and attitudes about women's opportunity: self-interest, general stratification beliefs, and other beliefs and attitudes based in personal experiences or intergroup affect.
