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Abstract Little research has been conducted on the possible determinants of dominance in adolescent girls. However, popularity seems largely to reflect a girl's appearance. In this study 50 upper-middle-class girls, 15 to 18 years old, were ranked by 200 classmates of each sex on various traits reputed to be social prerogatives (leadership, popularity, winning disputes, and possessing a positive self-concept) or bodily expressions (standing erect, being relaxed, and maintaining eye contact) of dominance status. Girls who exhibited these signs of dominance were perceived as fashionable, attractive, and well groomed. Athletic ability showed some relation to dominance but intelligence did not. Factor analyses confirmed this intelligence and dominance emerged as separate factors in each sex's perception of the girls. These results suggest that adolescent girls, like boys, compete for dominance in the ethological sense. Boys seem to strive for social success mainly through competence in athletics, and girls though cultivating an attractive appearance.
Weisfeld et al. (Thu,) studied this question.