The More Positive Evaluation of Men Than Women on the Gender-Stereotyped Traits

The favorability of men's and women's personalities was compared using the socially desirable characteristics typically associated with each sex (stereotypic traits) as well as those that are associated with the opposite sex (cross-stereotypic traits). The stereotypic traits are the male's masculinity and the female's femininity; the cross-stereotypic traits are the female's masculinity and the male's femininity. An average score was computed for both sexes on the stereotypic and cross-stereotypic traits. As predicted, there was an over-all evaluation bias that favored men. In addition, the stereotypic traits for each sex were rated higher than the cross-stereotypic traits. These effects were stable across different rating conditions—whether one or two persons were rated and whether the stimulus person was described as married or no information was given concerning marital status. The implication of these results for sex as a status characteristic was discussed.