The Influence of Legal Mandates on the Acceptance of Women as Professionals

Recent research indicates increasing entry and acceptance of American women into high-status, traditionally male-dominated professions. In the present study it was hypothesized, consistent with Kelley's (1973) notion of discounting, that an important variable influencing this acceptance of women is the perceived basis for their entry. Ninety-six college psychology students were randomly assigned by sex to one of four conditions of a fictitious profession: continued male domination; increasing percentages of women due to demonstrated ability of female incumbents; increasing percentages of women due to legal mandate; no explanation of increasing percentages. Each student read a job description and then evaluated the bogus profession, “information recovery analyst.” Results revealed that male but not female students did discount ratings of future prestige and desirability of the profession when women's entry was explicitly attributed to a legal mandate.