Of Caring Nurses and Assertive Police Officers: Social Role Information Overrides Gender Stereotypes in Linguistic Behavior

Abstract

<jats:p> Three studies demonstrated the expression of gender stereotypes in linguistic behavior. In Study 1, participants composed sentences describing a person by freely choosing from female- or male-dominated occupations, female or male pronouns, and communal or agentic traits. In Study 2a, participants chose traits to describe a person identified by a female- or male-dominated occupation and in Study 2b by a female or male pronoun and noun. In Study 3, participants chose traits for a person identified by both a female- or male-dominated occupation and a female or male pronoun. In general, participants chose more communal and fewer agentic traits for sentences containing a female- (vs. male-) dominated occupation and a female (vs. male) pronoun or noun. However, participants described women and men in the same occupation as similarly agentic or communal, demonstrating the primacy of role over sex information as predicted by social role theory. </jats:p>

The Vicious Cycle Linking Stereotypes and Social Roles

“…In Froehlich et al’s (2020) 10-nation study, participants judged that persons in male-dominated occupations possess agentic traits (e.g., assertive, competitive) and that persons in female-dominated occupations possess communal traits (e.g., kind, warm), regardless of their sex. This primacy of role information also emerged in experiments in which participants were more influenced by individuals’ male- or female-dominated occupations than by pronouns that defined their sex (e.g., “he,” “his” or “she,” “hers”; Gustafsson Sendén et al, 2020). These studies illustrate the power of roles to influence the stereotypes associated with social categories.…”

Are New Gender-Neutral Pronouns Difficult to Process in Reading? The Case of Hen in SWEDISH

“…For example, if most hairdressers are observed to be women, she is more often chosen to refer to a hairdresser of unknown gender. The importance of stereotype information for the selection of pronouns have been shown in language production studies (e.g., Hellinger and Bußmann, 2001;Gustafsson Sendén et al, 2017). This implies that although communicators know that not all hairdressers are women, they may use their gender stereotypes to select a pronoun when referring to a hairdresser (Paterson, 2011).…”

Stereotypes of Women and Men Across Gender Subgroups

“…Within this thriving research field, three key issues are currently at the center of scientific inquiry: understanding how stereotypes are shaped by the intersection of gender with other social group memberships (i.e., intersectionality), understanding how gender stereotypes are rooted in specific social roles (e.g., occupational roles), and stability and change in gender stereotypes over time. Researchers interested in intersectionality or social roles often zoom in on the unique issues pertaining to specific gender subgroups (e.g., women and men of different ethnicities, Ghavami and Peplau, 2013 ; women and men in the same occupations, Gustafsson-Sendén et al, 2020 ). Researchers interested in change and stability over time tend to focus on women and men as broad, generic categories ( Hentschel et al, 2019 ; Eagly et al, 2020 ; Bhatia and Bhatia, 2021 ).…”

“…Unlike the SCM, a key prediction of social role theory is that role information overrides the effect of gender on stereotyping. Put differently, when women and men occupy the same social role, the effect of gender on inferences of stereotypical traits weakens or disappears ( Eagly and Steffen, 1984 ; Bosak et al, 2012 ; Koenig and Eagly, 2014 ; Gustafsson-Sendén et al, 2020 ). For example, research showing that working mothers and working fathers ( Cuddy et al, 2004 ) and male and female middle managers ( Rosette and Tost, 2010 ) are stereotyped as equally warm and competent, supports this claim.…”