We investigated women's facial attractiveness and body shape as a function of menstrual cycle phase, with the expectation from previous research that both would be enhanced during the high fertile phase. To control for the effects of women's daily behaviors on their appearance and waistline, we visited 37 normally cycling women twice in their dorm, where we photographed and measured them at low and high fertile days of their cycle immediately upon their waking. Seventy-four judges from a separate institution chose, for each woman, the picture they thought was more attractive. We analyzed a subset of 20 women who, by forward counting, had a High Fertility visit between Days 10-13 and a Low Fertility visit between Days 20-23; and we also analyzed a subsample of 17 women who, by reverse counting, had a High Fertility visit on the days leading to ovulation and a Low Fertility visit one week after ovulation. In neither set of analyses were women's waistto-hip ratios lower nearer ovulation, and in neither set were women's high fertile pictures chosen at an above-chance rate by either male or female judges. We did not find evidence that facial attractiveness and waist-to-hip ratio are reliable physical cues of ovulatory status.

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Women in Western societies have made enormous gains in education and labor force involvement since the middle of the twentieth century. Various gender differences persist, however. For example, young men and women in the United States continue to differ in their plans for work and family, with women more likely than men to choose careers that will "work around" their family plans (Bridges, 1989). A social constructionist perspective suggests that such differences are the result of societal influences that reinforce traditional gender roles. An evolutionary perspective explains psychological sex differences in work and family priorities as a natural consequence of greater female investment in children over evolutionary history. In the current paper, we test competing predictions about how exposure to college -an environment that encourages gender egalitarianism and individual choice --might moderate the magnitude of male-female differences in work-family plans. We surveyed broad samples of freshmen and seniors enrolled in a public liberal arts university. Sex differences apparent in first-year students' educational aspirations were absent among seniors. However, men and women at both points in college differed sharply in their plans for working when they had young children at home. We discuss our findings in the context of broader concerns about women's status in the workforce.