Relation of Success and Nontraditional Career Choice to Selection for Dating and Friendship

Abstract

Women who succeed in traditionally male-dominated fields have previously been found to experience lower social acceptance, both from men in romantic contexts and from women in platonic contexts. The present study examined whether such preferences continue to exist. Participants were 256 university students (110 men, 146 women) with an average age of 21.4 yr. ( SD = 3.6). They answered the Bem Sex Role Inventory and the Modern Sexism Scale and also responded to four descriptions of stimulus persons which represented the variables of traditional versus nontraditional field and successful versus nondescribed academic performance. Results indicated that men preferred to date women in traditional careers (independent of their success). This finding was unrelated to men's scores on sex role orientation or egalitarianism and sexism. However, in platonic relationships, women favored women in nontraditional careers as friends.