Perceiving Women: Effects of Marital, Parental, and Occupational Sex-Typing Variables

College students (152 women, 80 men) rated personality and job performance characteristics of one of 16 women described as divorced or married, with one or three children, and employed in a low-status, female- or male-dominated occupation. Married women were judged more interpersonally skilled than divorced women. Women in female-dominated jobs were viewed as less well-adjusted but as better skilled interpersonally than those in male-dominated jobs. Among women with three children, those in female-dominated jobs were rated more nurturant than those in male-dominated jobs.