When women evaluate women, nothing succeeds like success: The differential effects of status upon evaluations of male and female professional ability

Abstract

Male and female subjects evaluated articles supposedly written by either a male or a female author of high or low professional status. Although evaluations by the male subjects appeared to be only slightly affected by the status variable, female subjects exhibited a complex reaction to the status variable and gave their most favorable evaluations to the high status woman and their least favorable evaluations to the low status woman. An evaluation-attribution hypothesis is presented to explain this response pattern. The significance of this response pattern for women who are attempting professional success and for the perception of female professional role models is discussed.