WOMEN AND ACHIEVEMENT: THE ROLE OF SEX STEREOTYPES IN THEORY, REALITY, AND PSYCHIC STRUCTURE.
Item
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Title
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WOMEN AND ACHIEVEMENT: THE ROLE OF SEX STEREOTYPES IN THEORY, REALITY, AND PSYCHIC STRUCTURE.
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Identifier
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AAI8801735
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identifier
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8801735
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Creator
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MARGOLIS, FAYE R.
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Contributor
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Herbert Nechin
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Date
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1987
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Clinical
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Abstract
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This theoretical investigation seeks to clarify women's under-representation and achievement conflicts in traditionally male-dominated professions; despite extensive previous research, little consensus emerges about the critical issues, appropriate modes of inquiry, and interpretation of results, although women have often been portrayed as lacking both an interest in achievement and the psychological independence needed to succeed.;Central to organizing our understanding of this problem are the sex stereotypes that often arbitrarily define the behavior appropriate for each sex. These stereotypes strongly influence the major psychological theories about woman, the social realities facing women who seek careers, and the identity and self esteem of people who seek to transcend them.;If sex stereotypes have deterred women from actualizing their potential because achievement was felt to conflict with femininity, they have also limited men's capacity for intimacy, which is perceived as unmasculine. Women may appear more conflicted than men in seeking to overcome their stereotyped role, especially in the pursuit of careers, but this is largely because men have little incentive to assume generally devalued "feminine" attributes. Thus, women's underachievement, so often portrayed as a flaw in their character, is better reformulated in terms of sex stereotypes, a dynamic common to both sexes.;These sex stereotypes originate during the oedipal phase, when gender identity is consolidated not only by identification with the same sex parent, but also by psychologically traumatic restrictions on behavior perceived as gender-inappropriate. As these influences filter through the moral realism of the child's preoperational mind, sex stereotypes become structuralized in the personality and highly resistant to change. In psychoanalytic terms, the stereotypes enter into the formation of the ego ideal, assuming a rigid moral meaning for the superego, no matter how much the mature ego, under the impact of legislation or education, may later endorse equal opportunity and flexible gender roles.;The way gender identity is consolidated at the oedipal period creates a narcissistic inability to love and accept in oneself behavior outside the stereotype, with each sex perceiving such behavior as "bad" and alien. As a result, both men and women have limited success integrating "masculine" and "feminine" attributes.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Psychology
