The current work examines whether a brief exposure to a computer science role model who fits stereotypes of computer scientists has a lasting influence on women's interest in the field. One-hundred undergraduate women who were not computer science majors met a female or male peer role model who embodied computer science stereotypes in appearance…

The impact of female role models on women's leadership aspirations and self-perceptions after a leadership task were assessed across two laboratory studies. These studies tested the prediction that upward social comparisons to high-level female leaders will have a relatively detrimental impact on women's self-perceptions and leadership aspirations…

Two studies examined the extent to which matching on gender determines the impact of career role models on the self. Because women face negative stereotypes regarding their competence in the workplace, they may derive particular benefit from the example of an outstanding woman who illustrates the possibility of overcoming gender barriers to…

The introductory quiz suggests that women have been involved in all facets of the rapidly developing field of psychology. The woman's role in the professional, family, and social context is explored. Struggles of women in the 1980s are compared with struggles of the foremothers in psychology. (BEF)

Compared 64 women in atypical professions with 71 women in sex-typical professions. Results suggested those in atypical professions were more likely to be firstborn, with employed mothers, and to mention positive influences of men on their careers. Factors related to atypical choice may relate to academic achievement. (JAC)

Interviewed 50 women who chose a male-dominated career, the ministry, about career choice and professional development including role models and educational experiences. Findings indicated a complex interaction of sex and function of role models with age and sex-role orientation of subjects. (JAC)

This study explored college women's ideas regarding how their lives would change if their appearance were consistent with a media-supported female beauty ideal. Participants rated self-generated life changes they associated with looking like a media ideal in terms of likelihood and positivity. Women's tendency to link positive and likely life…

Using a survey of women science majors, we tested the assumption that women mentors and other women guides help women students pursue the sciences. The survey explicitly distinguished among three types of guides: mentors (who provide psychosocial support), sponsors (who provide instrumental support), and role models (who act as examples)…

Investigates the relationship of women's current role choices, role satisfaction, and self-esteem to their perceptions of the earlier relationship with their mothers and to their perceptions of their mothers' role choices and role satisfaction. (Author/ABB)

Undergraduates in mixed-sex groups evaluated female-authored articles. Subjects in all-women groups did not show sex discrimination. Female subjects in mixed-sex groups endorsed more profeminist ideas. Participation in an all-women's group may elicit a more positive image of women. (Author)

Biographical interviews elicited information concerning personality characteristics that predispose women toward achievement-striving behavior, taking into account the effects of family, friends, and role models. The majority of women reported not fearing success, but most wondered if their achievements were worth it and at what cost. (Author/ABB)

Females were more influenced by female models in their choice of career than were males. No effect of sex-role attitude appeared. The particular importance of female models for female students was discussed. (Author)

Self-perceptions of competence of white, middle-class fifth- and tenth-grade girls were examined in relation to (a) maternal variables and (b) self-esteem and anticipated role pattern (career aspirations and desired family size). Subjects were 79 fifth-graders and 51 of their mothers, and 49 tenth-graders and 38 of their mothers. Results are…

This article explores aspects of the situation of women in male-dominated fields; the techniques of adaptation they use and the effects on the intellectual styles and personal integrations women develop in these circumstances. (Author)