Showing papers in "Sex Roles in 1977"
TL;DR: This paper explored six differences in linguistic behavior in same-sex and mixed-sex problem-solving groups and found that women, as compared with men, use more linguistic categories that connote uncertainty.
Abstract: Six differences in linguistic behavior in same-sex and mixed-sex problem-solving groups were explored. Small groups of all women, all men, and mixed sex were run and videotaped. Linguistic behavior was assessed through a content analysis of four syntactic categories: intensifiers, modal constructions, tag questions, and imperative constructions in question form. Support was found for the hypothesis of Key (1975) and Lakoff (1975) that women, as compared with men, use more linguistic categories that connote uncertainty. Support was also found for these authors' hypotheses that (1) women use more linguistic forms that connote uncertainty when men are present than when men are absent, and (2) men are more likely to interrupt women than women are likely to interrupt men. The results are discussed from the perspectives of women's role (supportive behavior and minority status) and women's culture (interpersonal sensitivity and emotionality).
182 citations
TL;DR: In this article, male and female college students, divided according to levels of achievement motivation, were asked to do an anagram task at which their success or failure was determined by experimental manipulation of the problems they were given.
Abstract: Male and female college students, divided according to levels of achievement motivation, were asked to do an anagram task at which their success or failure was determined by experimental manipulation of the problems they were given. Their ratings of ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck as possible causes for success or failure indicated that those with high achievement motivation of both sexes made relatively higher ratings for ability and lower ratings for task difficulty. Females tended to employ higher ratings for luck, and females with high achievement motivation made maximal use of effort as a causal factor. Theoretical implications and potential applications of these data are discussed.
119 citations
TL;DR: For instance, this paper found that high levels of masculinity and femininity (androgynous orientation) are conducive to identity achievement and high self-esteem, while low levels of masculine and feminine characteristics (undifferentiated sex-role orientation) were associated with uniformly low self- esteem and a lack of personal integration (identity diffusion).
Abstract: Contrasting hypotheses that psychological androgyny (Bem, 1974, 1975) would be associated with (1) identity confusion and a lack of personal integration or (2) identity achievement and high levels of integration were tested. Sex-role orientation, ego-identity status, and self-esteem were determined for 111 college men and women. The results support the second hypothesis, that high levels of masculinity and femininity (androgynous orientation) are conducive to identity achievement and high self-esteem. In contrast, low levels of masculine and feminine characteristics (undifferentiated sex-role orientation) were associated with uniformly low self-esteem and a lack of personal integration (identity diffusion). Sex-typing was most often associated with premature identity commitments and a lack of personality differentiation (identity foreclosure) and with high self-esteem in males but low self-esteem in females. Cross-sex-typing was associated with high levels of self-esteem and identity achievement in females, but with somewhat lower self-esteem in males and either unsuccessful (diffusion) or transitional (moratorium) levels of identity resolution.
102 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an observational analysis of student-teacher interactions in 60 college classes revealed sex differences in student behaviors and found that male students were the majority sex more often than females in classes taught by male lecturers; there was no difference in female lecturers.
Abstract: An observational analysis of student—teacher interactions in 60 college classes revealed sex differences in student behaviors. Male students were the majority sex more often than females in classes taught by male lecturers; there was no sex difference for classes taught by female lecturers. Male students engaged in proportionately more student—teacher interactions than female students in male-taught classes; there was no sex difference in female-taught classes. Neither male nor female professors appeared to respond differentially to male and female students. Possible causes and implications of these findings are discussed.
98 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the role of parent by parent by child interactions in the development of parent-infant attachments in the first two years of life and found that the sons' preferences for their fathers would be paralleled by greater paternal involvement with sons than with daughters.
Abstract: This study was conducted to explore sex of parent by sex of child interactions in the development of parent-infant attachments in the first two years of life. Such investigations seem especially necessary in view of the common belief that sex-role learning primarily occurs in the process of early family-child interactions (see Lamb, 1976c). Unlike the few previous investigations in which fatherand mother-infant relations were compared, the data were derived from lengthy observations of family triads in the unstructured home setting. Pilot laboratory research conducted by Lewis, Weinraub, and Ban (1972) and Lamb (1976b) indicated that by 2 years of age boys tend to prefer their fathers while girls prefer their mothers. In neither study were individual developmental profiles considered, nor was it clear whether infants who showed a preference for one parent on one measure showed a similar preference on the other measures. The present study was designed to remedy these deficiencies. In addition, the frequency of parental vocalization to the children was recorded; this served as an index of parental interactive participation. It was predicted that the sons' preferences for their fathers would be paralleled by greater paternal involvement with sons than with daughters. The subjects were participants in two overlapping longitudinal investigations. Fourteen infants were observed at 7, 8, 12, 13, 15, 18, 21, and 24 months of age; six others were observed at 7, 8, 12, and 13 months; and six were observed at 15, 18, 21, and 24 months. All came from lower- to upper-middle-class families, in which traditional parental roles prevailed.
72 citations
TL;DR: Wives who had been employed for more than a year were healthier than wives not employed outside the home and wives who had worked less than one year; the occupational status of wife and husband did not seem to change these health differences very much.
Abstract: A sample of nearly 500 urban married women with children was used to evaluate the possible effect of outside-the-home employment on the mental and physical health of married mothers. Six measures of health were used, some drawn from interviews with the women, others from a medical examination. After controlling for ethnicity, education, and age of the women, the husband's occupation, number of children in the family, and length of time the woman has been married, it was found that wives who had been employed for more than a year were healthier than wives not employed outside the home and wives who had worked less than one year. Housewives who had never worked outside the home were healthier, on the whole, than wives who had been employed at some time in the past. Poor marital relationships and having no preschool age children seemed to increase the health advantage of long-term employed wives over those in the housewife categories. The occupational status of wife and husband did not seem to change these health differences very much.
60 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors found that daughters who had lost fathers and whose mothers had not remarried demonstrated greater insecurity and more negative self-evaluations than daughters who either not lost their fathers or had lost their mothers but their mothers had remar married.
Abstract: In the present study, daughters who had lost fathers and whose mothers had not remarried demonstrated greater insecurity and more negative self-evaluations than daughters who had either not lost their fathers or had lost their fathers but their mothers had remarried. Contrary to the findings of Hetherington (1972), neither reason for father loss (i.e., death or divorce) nor age of daughter at time of father loss was found to affect the psychological adjustment of the college-age daughters who served as subjects in this study.
42 citations
TL;DR: This article found that when females are subjects in experiments the independent variable manipulation is less likely to involve the active treatment or arousal of the subject and the dependent variable measurement is more likely not to involve active behavior of a subject than when male subjects are used.
Abstract: In order to determine whether there is evidence for sex bias in experimental design, abstracts of 312 experiments on interpersonal attraction and 244 experiments on aggression which used only male or only female subjects were coded according to types of variables studied. Results indicate that when females are subjects in experiments the independent variable manipulation is less likely to involve the active treatment or arousal of the subject and the dependent variable measurement is less likely to involve the active behavior of the subject, than when male subjects are used. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for how sex differences should be studied.
40 citations
TL;DR: It is found that nontraditional sex-role-related attitudes in conjunction with an internal locus of control orientation are predictive of effective contraception for women respondents and neither variable alone or jointly explained contraceptive behavior of men respondents.
Abstract: Through a review of existing theory and research a set of propositions explaining contraceptive behavior among unmarried young women was developed. The paper tests the propositions with survey research data drawn from a stratified random sample of male and female students at a large Midwestern university. Findings suggest that nontraditional sex-role-related attitudes in conjunction with an internal locus of control orientation are predictive of effective contraception for women respondents. Neither variable alone or jointly explained contraceptive behavior of men respondents.
39 citations
TL;DR: For women, avoidance seems to be tied less to the stimulus aspects of the pregnant woman than to role expectations about her behavior as discussed by the authors, and this constellation of responses may produce discomfort and withdrawal in the pregnant women themselves, since avoidance and staring are easily interpreted as negative reactions.
Abstract: Experimental evidence is presented which explores the social stimulus value of pregnancy. It was found that, for men especially, the pregnant woman elicits avoidance and staring and that these responses occur primarily because pregnancy is a novel visual stimulus. For women, avoidance seems to be tied less to the stimulus aspects of the pregnant woman than to role expectations about her behavior. The pregnant woman is expected to be passive, but is simultaneously rejected for being so. It is argued that this constellation of responses may produce discomfort and withdrawal in the pregnant woman herself, since avoidance and staring are easily interpreted as negative reactions. How these reactions fit into the cultural response to pregnancy is discussed.
38 citations
TL;DR: Female community mental health center therapists and feminist therapists were found to maintain one standard of mental health and male therapists differed from male therapists in their perceptions of health for mothers, but not for adults and wives.
Abstract: Female (n=75) and male (n=55) community mental health center psychotherapists and feminist therapists (n=82) were given the Rosenkrantz, Vogel, Bee, Broverman, and Broverman (1968) Sex-Role Stereotype Questionnaire and were asked to rate either mentally healthy adults, females, wives, or mothers. Female community mental health center therapists and feminist therapists were found to maintain one standard of mental health; that is, their perceptions of mental health for adults, females, wives, and mothers did not differ. In contrast, male therapists perceived mentally healthy adults in more male-valued terms than they perceived mentally healthy females, wives, and mothers. Additionally, both feminist and other female therapists differed from male therapists in their perceptions of health for mothers, but not for adults and wives.
TL;DR: The incidences of sex-role outcome within homosexual and heterosexual male and female young adult samples were compared using a fourfold typology (both masculine and feminine, masculine, feminine, neither masculine nor feminine).
Abstract: The incidences of sex-role outcome within homosexual and heterosexual male and female young adult samples were compared using a fourfold typology (both masculine and feminine, masculine, feminine, neither masculine nor feminine). Sex-role identity disparities between the female groups were more clear-cut; the most striking difference was the high incidence of masculinity (60%) within the homosexual female group. No significant differences for males were found, although a trend was noted toward higher incidence of femininity and lower incidence of masculinity in homosexuals. The second purpose of the study was to search for possible developmental antecedents to heterosexual deficit in unselected college samples. The same key pattern of psychometric indices was identified for males and females. Low heterosexuality and the closest approximation to the modal sex-role identity among homosexuals of their sex were found in females primarily identified with masculine fathers and low in role consistency and in males primarily identified with feminine mothers and low in role consistency.
TL;DR: A checklist composed of 66 adjectives was used to measure sex-role stereotypes of college and senior high school students (15- to 21-year-olds) in the University of Kansas area as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: A checklist composed of 66 adjectives was used to measure sex-role stereotypes of college and senior high school students (15- to 21-year-olds) in the University of Kansas area. Three hypotheses were tested: (a) Traditional ways of describing men and women will be very much in evidence, and a strong agreement between the sexes concerning these attributes will exist. (b) Females will stereotype sex roles to a lesser degree than males. (c) Females will value feminine characteristics more positively than masculine characteristics, but males as usual will value masculine characteristics more positively than feminine characteristics. All the hypotheses were supported with a single exception: Male subjects did not differentially value masculine and feminine characteristics.
TL;DR: In this article, it was argued that if children's own conceptions of sex roles were investigated, girls would prefer their conception of femininity more than boys would prefer his conception of masculinity.
Abstract: Criticisms were raised about methods used in previous studies which have led to the conclusion that, compared to boys, girls have weaker preferences for their own versus the opposite sex role. In addition, it was argued that if children's own conceptions of sex roles — rather than an a priori adult definition — were investigated, girls would prefer their conception of femininity more than boys would prefer their conception of masculinity. This argument rested on evidence that for children, masculine traits often meet with social disapproval. Results indicated that both boys and girls judged their own sex role as more desirable than the opposite sex role. Results were stronger for the girls; and girls judged traits they assigned to the feminine sex role to be, on the average, more desirable than boys judged traits they assigned to masculinity. The difference between present findings and previous findings in regard to children and adults was discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, male and 22 female undergraduate students were trained and then asked to evaluate an in-basket response (with either a male or female respondent) on four dimensions: sensitivity, organizing and planning, decision-making, and written communications.
Abstract: In this study 33 male and 22 female undergraduate students were trained and then asked to evaluate an in-basket response (with either a male or female respondent) on four dimensions: sensitivity, organizing and planning, decision-making, and written communications. Results indicated that the evaluatee's sex did not influence evaluations of the in-basket response. Female in comparison to male evaluators were significantly harsher in evaluating written communications. The absence of sex discrimination which sharply differed from the findings of several previous research studies is discussed in terms of the substantial amount of managerial related data provided by the in-basket technique.
TL;DR: This article explored the relationship between sex-role identification, achievement motivation, and self-esteem, and found that achievement motivation was a significant correlate of selfesteem for both males and females, the relationship was significantly stronger for females than for males.
Abstract: To explore the relationship between sex-role identification, achievement motivation, and self-esteem, 312 male and female college students were given the Stereotype Questionnaire, a modified form of the Mehrabian Achievement Motivation Test, and the Tennessee Self Concept Scale. Group self-esteem scores of males and females did not differ significantly. While achievement motivation was a significant correlate of self-esteem for both males and females, the relationship was significantly stronger for females than for males. Furthermore, a significant direct relationship was found for both males and females between a stereotypically more masculine orientation and self-esteem. A mutually reinforcing “salutary circle” of processes was proposed to explain the results.
TL;DR: In this article, a methodological investigation of sex stereotypes employed three different instruments to collect sex stereotypes from 264 undergraduate students and found that visual imagery of specific persons while responding was significantly related to correct judgment of sex of stimulus items and to high confidence in that judgment.
Abstract: This methodological investigation of sex stereotypes employed three different instruments to collect sex stereotypes from 264 undergraduate students. The Adjective Check List and the Stereotype Questionnaire elicited different stereotypes, while an open-ended form elicited no stereotypic items. It was found that Ss reported visual imagery of specific persons while responding. In a second phase of the research, the stereotypic items obtained in the collection phase were marked on the appropriate instrument form for a male and female description. These forms with a set of multiple choice questions concerning such things as sex of the description, desirability, adjustment, and of the S's experience of visual imagery were given to 180 different Ss. The stereotypic items were found to convey reliable information as to judgment of the sex of the stimulus stereotypic items, however, the different instruments conveyed differential information as to sex of stimulus items, desirability, and adjustment of the instrument description. Visual imagery of Ss was found to be significantly related to correct judgment of sex of stimulus items and to high confidence in that judgment.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the effect of sex-role stereotypes on evaluations of authority figures and find that a female authority figure being firm with a male subordinate was evaluated most negatively.
Abstract: This paper reports the results of two experiments designed to investigate the effect of sex-role stereotypes on evaluations of authority figures. Female and male subjects read short accounts of various situations in which an authority figure confronted a subordinate who had transgressed in some way and then evaluated the authority figure on a variety of dimensions. Sex of the authority figure and of the subordinate were varied factorially. In Experiment 1, where the authority figure took a hard line with the transgressing subordinate, it was found that a female authority figure being firm with a male subordinate was evaluated most negatively. In Experiment 2, where the authority figure was lenient with the subordinate, it was found that a female authority figure being lenient with a female subordinate was evaluated most negatively. Implications of the results are discussed.
TL;DR: The authors examined whether sex-role identities and attitudes toward sex roles are part of a more general liberal-conservative dimension of political ideology, and found that those who score more liberal or flexible on each measure of sex role attitudes are also very likely to hold liberal political attitudes.
Abstract: This study examines whether sex-role identities and attitudes toward sex roles are part of a more general liberal—conservative dimension of political ideology. Survey data are analyzed from two independent random samples of Indiana University students in 1974–1975. Sex-role attitudes are measured by two scales, dealing with evaluations of the traditional sex-based division of labor and levels of sex-stereotyping of various tasks. The Bem Sex Role Inventory is used to measure respondents' sex-role identities. Those who score more liberal or flexible on each measure of sex-role attitudes are also very likely to hold liberal political attitudes. These correlations are strong and consistent enough to indicate that sex-role attitudes fit into a more general liberal—conservative ideology, at least among college students. Correlations between sex-role identities and political attitudes are much weaker. Among men, liberal political attitudes are associated with a more flexible (androgynous) sex-role identity; among women, in contrast, liberal political attitudes are related more consistently to a more traditionally masculine sex-role identity.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined national sample data on time use by men and women in order to determine systematic sex differences in the division of work and leisure in society, focusing on how time-use patterns shift as both paid work and marital and family burdens are added to the woman's role.
Abstract: Analysis of how men and women spend their time reveals much about patterns of underlying sex-role relationships. This article examines national sample data on time use by men and women in order to determine systematic sex differences in the division of work and leisure in society. Particular attention is directed to how time-use patterns shift as both paid work and marital and family burdens are added to the woman's role. To determine time use, subjects kept diaries of their activities for a particular day. In addition, attitude questions about time use were also analyzed. Paid employment was found to constrain the free time of women far more than any other single role factor, including marriage and parenthood. Consequently, employed married women have significantly less free time than do employed men or women not in the labor force. While the free time of a married woman with children decreases when she becomes employed, a husband's free time may actually increase with his wife's employment. Nevertheless, few women indicated that they would like more help with housework and child care from their husbands. Several explanations for women's resistance to more male help are examined. Implications of these results for the career development of employed women and for future changes in marital role relationships are discussed.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors attempted to determine whether male counselors tended to be more biased than female counselors when interacting with female clients when socializing women to a limited and ultimately untenable sex role, and found that counselors as a whole exhibited more behavioral bias with typical than with atypical clients.
Abstract: Counseling and therapy have frequently been attacked by feminists for the role they play in socializing women to a limited and ultimately untenable sex role. Male counselors in particular have been singled out as special oppressors of women. This study attempted to determine whether, in fact, counselor behavior and attitudes operated as a means of sex-role socialization, and whether male counselors tended to be more biased than female counselors when interacting with female clients. Subjects were eight male and eight female graduate students in counseling psychology who conducted initial interview sessions with two client-confederates, volunteer graduate students trained in role-playing situations representing a typical and an atypical sex-role condition. Videotapes of the interviews were subsequently analyzed to assess counselor reinforcement patterns of specific client “cue” sentences. In addition to these behavioral data, paper-and-pencil inventories were used to determine counselors' perception of clients, counselors' degree of attitudinal sex-stereotyping, and client-confederates' subjective evaluation of counselors. Contrary to expectations, results indicated that counselors as a whole exhibited more behavioral bias with typical than with atypical clients. Further, counselors reacted more positively toward the atypical than toward the typical clients, and counselor response to a global sex-role inventory indicated that counselors described the healthy, well-adjusted female as significantly more instrumental than the healthy, well-adjusted male. Female counselors appeared to be both more reinforcing and less punishing than male counselors with female clients in both roles, as well as less behaviorally biased than the male counselors. Female counselors also evaluated the atypical clients more positively than did the male counselors, and were in turn evaluated more positively than were the male counselors by clients in both roles. The study concludes with a discussion of implications for counselor training.
TL;DR: The authors examined the impact of European invasion on the mode of production, household lives, and ideology of one group of Native American women, the Seneca, and examined the effects of disease, war, and the market economy on Seneca women.
Abstract: This study examines the impact of European invasion on the mode of production, household lives, and ideology of one group of Native American women, the Seneca. Seneca women had high public status, a balanced division of labor, ownership of the land, and control over the means of agricultural production. The power derived from their role in production and the social institutions which had developed from this production were difficult to destroy, despite the efforts of missionaries, government, and reformers. The effects of disease, war, and the market economy on the Seneca women are specifically examined. Also described are attempts to impose the ideology of individualism and nuclear household patterns on the Seneca by withdrawing women from production outside the home and establishing male ownership of private property.
TL;DR: The effects of sex and academic field of college teachers on perceptions of teacher competence and sex-role stereotypes are tested in three college samples as discussed by the authors, finding that the instructor's academic field (science or humanities) is consistently the most important determinant of impressions.
Abstract: The effects of sex and academic field of college teachers on perceptions of teacher competence and sex-role stereotypes are tested in three college samples. Contrary to expectations that male and female teachers would be described in sex-typed ways, regardless of academic major, subjects in these three studies rated male and female instructors in the same academic field essentially the same. The instructor's academic field (science or humanities) is consistently the most important determinant of impressions. It is suggested that although college students still hold traditional sex-role stereotypes, these become less important in first impressions when subjects received occupational information about women and men.
TL;DR: Men and women members of the United States House of Representatives for the 91st and 93rd Congresses are compared with male members to test whether there is a significant difference in their legislative behavior in the following areas: liberalism-conservatism, dependency-independence, specialization, and effectiveness as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Women members of the United States House of Representatives for the 91st and 93rd Congresses are compared with male members to test whether there is a significant difference in their legislative behavior in the following areas: liberalism-conservatism, dependency-independence, specialization, and effectiveness. Only in the area of specialization is there reasonable statistical support for the hypothesis of significant difference. Women did introduce legislation relating to health, education, welfare and other social concerns at a slightly higher rate than males, but this still represented only about one-fourth of their legislation.
TL;DR: The authors compared men and women graduate students at one university and identified conditions under which women students equal or surpass men in ambition and found that women were broadly similar in background characteristics, though different in current family status.
Abstract: This paper compares men and women graduate students at one university and identifies conditions under which women students equal or surpass men in ambition. Men and women were broadly similar in background characteristics, though different in current family status. They studied different subjects, aimed for different degrees, and were concentrated in different years in the university. If women were to equal the most highly ambitious men on ambition to publish and engage in related behaviors, they had to aspire to a doctorate, survive past the second year of study, and have nontraditional attitudes toward women's role. The results are discussed in terms of differential “student careers” and barriers to the development of ambition in student women.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the direct and indirect impact of mothers' life style on adolescents' gender-role development and found that mothers' activity outside the home enhances her status and increases the likelihood of diminished gender role differentiation in the family.
Abstract: The perceptions and attitudes of 365 eighth-grade girls were surveyed to examine the direct and indirect impact of mothers' life style on adolescents' gender-role development. Among the hypotheses investigated were the following: (1) mothers' activity outside the home enhances her status and increases the likelihood of diminished gender-role differentiation in the family and (2) status and parental role differentiation explain a greater proportion of the variance in the gender-role socialization variables than maternal life style. Multiple regression analyses were carried out to determine which combination of life style and intervening variables would best predict gender-role responses. Collectively, the results indicated only modest relationships between maternal characteristics and girls' gender-role socialization. The appropriateness of this model for future research is discussed.
TL;DR: This paper found that children perceive differences both between the language usage of men and women, and between the conception of occupational roles traditionally assigned to each sex in a survey with 121 children from an inner city school in a low socio-economic area in north central Florida.
Abstract: This study identified children's perception of sex differences in the areas of language usage and occupational roles. The survey instrument used consisted of 28 items. Each item was a pair of statements identical except for one word or phrase. One statement was definitely male or female according to the literature. The other statement was either neutral or one that would be said by the other sex. Subjects were asked to identify statements that would be said by a man on one section of the instrument. They were asked to identify statements that would be said by a woman on the other section. Subjects consisted of 121 children from an inner city school in a low socio-economic area in north central Florida. The children composed five classrooms in grades one through five. One classroom was randomly selected from each grade level. The results indicate that children perceive differences both between the language usage of men and women, and between the conception of occupational roles traditionally assigned to each sex.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the effect of sexual stereotyping on the exercise of authority in a group of leaders and found that the effects of sex characteristics on the authority behavior of group leaders were independent of task ability.
Abstract: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of sexual stereotyping on the exercise of authority. The hypotheses were that the sexual composition of the group affects the authority behavior of group leaders when the task has low clarity but that sex characteristics have no effect on authority behavior when the task has high clarity. These predictions were expected to hold both in situations where there is a direct association between sex and the task ability and in situations where no such connection is established. As predicted, no significant difference was found in the number of high control acts made by male and female leaders in the high task clarity conditions, even when sex was directly related to the task ability. Also as hypothesized, sex effects did operate strongly in the low task clarity conditions. Male leaders made significantly more high control acts than female leaders, even in conditions where no prior relation was established between sex and the task ability. Thus, these results indicate that the effect of sex characteristics on the exercise of authority is enhanced in low task clarity situations and is neutralized in high task clarity situations.
TL;DR: This article found that women in the US Army are less opposed to women in combat than men, political liberals less than political conservatives, and respondents with no religious affiliation less than those with church ties.
Abstract: Since the American and French revolutions, the right to bear arms has been an integral aspect of the normative definition of citizenship. Citizenship rights were won by people who were given the opportunity to prove their loyalty through the defense of the state. This right has been denied women who, although they have served in the United States armed forces in relatively low numbers, have been systematically excluded from combat specialties. Attitude data collected from both Army and civilian samples show public opinion to be opposed to women in combat. Women in the Army are less opposed than are men, political liberals less than political conservatives, and respondents with no religious affiliation less than those with church ties. In no group, however, is there majority support for extending the “right to fight” to women.