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Original Article

The Effect of Priming Gender Roles on Women’s Implicit Gender Beliefs and Career Aspirations

Published Online:August 11, 2010https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000027

Abstract

We investigated the effect of priming gender roles on women’s implicit gender stereotypes, implicit leadership self-concept, and interest in masculine and feminine careers. Women primed with traditional gender roles (e.g., a male surgeon and a female nurse) showed increased automatic gender stereotypes relative to controls; this effect mediated their reduced interest in masculine occupations. By contrast, exposure to nontraditional roles (e.g., a female surgeon and a male nurse) decreased women’s leadership self-concept and lowered their interest in masculine occupations, suggesting that female vanguards (i.e., successful women in male-dominated careers) can provoke upward comparison threat, rather than inspire self-empowerment. Thus, priming either traditional or nontraditional gender roles can threaten progress toward gender equality, albeit through different mechanisms (stereotypes or self-concept, respectively).

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