Abstract
People vary in the extent to which they hold stereotypic beliefs about women. The recently developed Beliefs About Women Scale (BAWS) was used in five investigations to examine the following aspects of people's stereotypic beliefs about women: (Study I) the impact of ethnicity (Hispanics and Anglos) on women's endorsement of traditional beliefs about women; (Study II) the impact of national culture (Mexico and the United States) on women's responses to the BAWS; (Study III) the extent to which U.S. women define women's and men's mental health in terms of stereotypic beliefs about women; (Study IV) the extent to which preferences for counseling orientation influence the beliefs about women attributed to mentally healthy women and men; and (Study V) the impact of national culture (Mexico and the United States) on the beliefs about women ascribed to mentally healthy women and men. The results indicated that (a) U.S. Anglo females disagreed more strongly with traditional beliefs about women than did U.S. Hispanic females; (b) U.S. women expressed greater agreement with traditional stereotypes about women's interpersonal abilities and greater disagreement with traditional stereotypes about women's personal competencies than did women from Mexico; (c) the beliefs about women held by U.S. psychology trainees, and the beliefs about women that they attributed to mentally healthy females, were more nontraditional than those that they attributed to mentally healthy males; (d) particular counseling preferences were associated with the stereotypic beliefs about women that female counseling trainees imputed to mentally healthy males and females; and (e) similarities and differences exist on the beliefs about women that female psychology trainees from the United States and Mexico ascribe to mentally healthy females and males. The discussion focuses on mentally healthy beliefs about women, and the implications of these findings for the delivery of mental health services to women and men from various cultures.
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Portions of this paper were presented at the 31st (Austin, Texas) and 33rd (New Orleans, Louisiana) annual meetings of the Southwestern Psychological Association. Gratitude is extended to Faith Gilroy and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. Requests for reprints and copies of the Spanish and English versions of the Beliefs About Women Scale should be sent to Sharyn S. Belk, EDB 504, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712; or to William E. Snell, Jr., Department of Psychology, Southeast Missouri State University, One University Plaza, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701.
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Belk, S.S., Snell, W.E., Holtzman, W.H. et al. The impact of ethnicity, nationality, counseling orientation, and mental health standards on stereotypic beliefs about women: A pilot study. Sex Roles 21, 671–695 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00289177
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00289177