GENDER STEREOTYPES - PERCEPTION OR RATIONALIZATION

It is proposed that gender stereotypes arise to rationalize the distribution of the sexes into social roles. Ss read descriptions of members of two fictional categories, one having 80% "city workers" and 20% "child raisers," the other with the percentages reversed. They later made personality ratings of each category and of the category subgroups occupying each role. Ss formed role-based category stereotypes that affected their ratings even when targets' roles were specified. Stronger stereotypes arose when the categories were biologically defined or when Ss attempted to explain the category-role correlation. The basic effect was replicated using roles that are not differentially linked to familiar human groups. The findings are interpreted as showing that stereotypes can arise solely in response to a sexual division of labor and serve to rationalize this division by attributing to the sexes intrinsic personality differences.