Reactions to male and female success and failure in sex-linked occupations: impressions of personality, causal attributions, and perceived likelihood of different consequences.

Female subjects responded to three short verbal cues in which either a male or female character succeeded or failed in an examination qualifying the male (or female) for entry into an occupation. Three occupations were involved varying in masculine dominance (medicine, teaching, and nursing). In responding to each cue, subjects first rated the character in the cue on semantic differential scales to provide impressions of personality, then rated the importance of different possible causes of the outcome (causal attribution), and finally rated the likelihood that each of a set of possible consequences might follow the outcome. Results indicated a fairly pervasive tendency for the female subjects to upgrade successful males in relation to unsuccessful males but to downgrade successful females in relation to unsuccessful females. Results were discussed in relation to sex roles in society as they relate to permissible achievements for males and females.