Gender Stereotypes Have Changed

1 American Psychologist Gender Stereotypes Have Changed : A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis of Public Opinion Polls From 1946 to 2018. Alice H. Eagly, Christa Nater, David I. Miller, Mich le Kaufmann, and Sabine Sczesny Online First Publication, July 18, 2019. CITATION. Eagly, A. H., Nater, C., Miller, D. I., Kaufmann, M., & Sczesny, S. (2019, July 18). Gender Stereotypes Have Changed : A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis of Public Opinion Polls From 1946 to 2018. American Psychologist. Advance online publication. American Psychologist 2019 American Psychological Association 2019, Vol. 1, No. 999, 000. 0003-066X/19/$ Gender Stereotypes Have Changed : A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis of Public Opinion Polls From 1946 to 2018. Alice H. Eagly Christa Nater Northwestern University University of Bern David I. Miller Mich le Kaufmann and Sabine Sczesny American Institutes for Research, Washington, University of Bern This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

2 This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This meta-analysis integrated 16 nationally representative public opinion polls on Gender Stereotypes (N 30,093 adults), extending from 1946 to 2018, a span of seven decades that brought considerable change in Gender relations, especially in women's roles. In polls inquiring about communion ( , affectionate, emotional), agency ( , ambitious, coura- geous), and competence ( , intelligent, creative), respondents indicated whether each trait is more true of women or men, or equally true of both. Women's relative advantage in communion increased over time, but men's relative advantage in agency showed no change. Belief in competence equality increased over time, along with belief in female superiority among those who indicated a sex difference in competence. Contemporary Gender Stereotypes thus convey substantial female advantage in communion and a smaller male advantage in agency but also Gender equality in competence along with some female advantage.

3 Interpre- tation emphasizes the origins of Gender Stereotypes in the social roles of women and men. Keywords: Gender Stereotypes , public opinion polls, communion, agency, competence Supplemental materials: Since the mid-20th century, dramatic change has taken unique data set that consists of assessments of Stereotypes in place in Gender relations in the United States, as illustrated nationally representative public opinion polls. by women's labor force participation rising from 32% in Gender Stereotypes are ubiquitous because the social cat- 1950 to 57% in 2018 and men's falling from 82% to 69% egory sex, which divides most humans into two groups ( Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017, 2018b). Women also based on their reproductive functions, is fundamental to now earn more bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees human cognition and social organization. Even young chil- than do men, unlike decades ago (Okahana & Zhou, 2018). dren recognize this grouping (Martin & Ruble, 2010).

4 They Given such shifts, consensual beliefs about the attributes of then begin to understand the meaning of these categories women and men that is, Gender Stereotypes should have through observation of the behaviors and events linked with Changed . Testing this proposition required assembling a each sex. Throughout their lives, individuals receive exten- sive information about women and men from direct obser- vation as well as indirect observation through social sharing and cultural representations. As a result, most people ac- X Alice H. Eagly, Department of Psychology, Northwestern Uni- quire some version of their culture's Gender Stereotypes . versity; X Christa Nater, Department of Psychology, University of Bern; The importance of stereotyping in theories of Gender X David I. Miller, American Institutes for Research, Washington, ; ( , Bem, 1993; Deaux & Major, 1987; Eagly & Wood, Mich le Kaufmann and X Sabine Sczesny, Department of Psychology, University of Bern.)

5 2012; Eccles, 1994; Ridgeway, 2011; Spence, 1993) has The research was supported in part by a grant (P0 BEP1_162210) from inspired much research. However, with few exceptions, this the Swiss National Science Foundation awarded to Christa Nater. research has consisted of small-scale studies of college Mich le Kaufmann is now at Growth from Knowledge (GfK), Nurem- undergraduates ( , Lueptow, Garovich-Szabo, & Luep- berg, Germany. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Alice H. tow, 2001) or other nonrepresentative samples ( , Haines, Eagly, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, 2029 Sheri- Deaux, & Lofaro, 2016; Prentice & Carranza, 2002). These dan Road, Evanston, IL 60208. E-mail: sampling limitations have compromised external validity, 1. 2 EAGLY, NATER, MILLER, KAUFMANN, AND SCZESNY. form of traits underlying individuals' behaviors (Prentice &. Miller, 2006). Although some people ascribe such trait essences to biology, others instead ascribe them to social- ization and social position in society (Rangel & Keller, 2011).

6 For example, in public opinion poll data (Pew Research Center, 2017), among the 87% of respondents who indicated that men and women are different rather than similar on how they express their feelings, 58% ascribed these differences mainly to society, and 42% to biol- ogy.. Origins of Gender Stereotype Content in This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. Social Roles According to social role theory (Eagly & Wood, 2012;. Koenig & Eagly, 2014), Gender Stereotypes stem from peo- ple's direct and indirect observations of women and men in their social roles. Role-constrained behavior provides cru- cial information because most behavior enacts roles. More- Alice H. Eagly over, people spontaneously infer individuals' social roles ( , student) from their behaviors ( , studied in the library), with downstream consequences of ascribing role- especially given the overrepresentation of college students consistent traits to them ( , hardworking; Chen, Banerji, from introductory psychology classes (Henry, 2008).)

7 Moons, & Sherman, 2014). When people observe members This project instead relied on public opinion polls that of a group ( , Gender , race) occupying certain roles more surveyed large, nationally representative samples. Specifi- often than members of other groups do, the behaviors usu- cally, between 1946 and 2018, several respected polling ally enacted within these roles influence the traits believed organizations surveyed adults' beliefs about the attri- to be typical of the group. To the extent that people in the butes of women and men. These data offer a valuable same society have similar observations, these beliefs be- opportunity to study Gender Stereotypes across a span of come shared cultural expectations. decades that brought fundamental changes in relationships Relevant to possible shifts in Gender Stereotypes , the between women and men. social roles of women and men have Changed since the mid-20th century (for causes, see Blau & Winkler, 2018).

8 Female and male labor force participation has converged Gender Stereotypes : Their Content and Origins considerably in the United States, as in many other nations Most research on the content of these Stereotypes has (Ortiz-Ospina & Tzvetkova, 2017). Nevertheless, a com- found two themes, which, following Bakan (1966), are mon arrangement is a neotraditional division of labor (Ger- typically labeled communion and agency ( , Diekman & son, 2017), whereby women perform the majority of the Eagly, 2000; Rucker, Galinsky, & Magee, 2018; Sczesny, domestic work and men have more continuous employment Nater, & Eagly, 2019; Williams & Best, 1990). Communion with longer hours and higher wages ( , Bianchi, Lesnard, orients people to others and their well-being ( , compas- Nazio, & Raley, 2014; Bureau of Labor Statistics, sionate, warm, expressive), whereas agency orients people 2018a). to the self and one's own mastery and goal attainment ( , As women entered the labor force in large numbers, ambitious, assertive, competitive).

9 Communion prevails in occupational sex segregation declined (Blau, Brummund, &. the female stereotype, and agency in the male stereotype. Liu, 2013). In particular, women entered many male- Notably, some researchers have emphasized competence dominated occupations that require higher education and ( , intelligent) rather than agency as fundamental to ste- offer relatively high prestige (Lippa, Preston, & Penner, reotyping, and these two qualities tend to be correlated 2014). Nevertheless, at least half of female and male (Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2008). Nonetheless, agency and employees would have to exchange jobs to produce a fully competence should show different trends, given that agency integrated labor force (Hegewisch & Hartmann, 2014). This is a much stronger theme than competence in the male segregation is patterned vertically and horizontally ( , stereotype (Sczesny et al., 2019). Lippa et al., 2014). Vertical segregation places more men Like other Stereotypes , Gender Stereotypes reflect essen- than women in positions with higher pay and authority, tialism, or the tendency to infer essences, often taking the whereas horizontal segregation concentrates women and Gender Stereotypes 3.

10 Ence to bureaucratic constraints such as performance eval- uations. Moreover, women's educational gains have fos- tered their entry into occupations with cognitive demands and prestige similar to men's occupations (Cortes & Pan, 2018; Lippa et al., 2014). Despite these substantial changes in employment and education and the egalitarian attitudinal shifts that have accompanied them ( , Donnelly et al., 2016), Gender Stereotypes would continue to follow from persisting occu- pational segregation as well as the uneven division of wage labor and domestic work between men and women (Gerson, 2017). Specifically, vertical segregation would further the This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. stereotype of men's agency because of the agency ascribed This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. to leadership and authority roles (Koenig, Eagly, Mitchell, & Ristikari, 2011).