Feminism Is For Everyone

Sep 30, 2010,2:29 PM

Healthy Woman ≠ Healthy Adult?

In case you haven't heard of the classic psychology experiment conducted in 1971 by Broverman & Broverman on gender stereotypes, here's a quick summary:

The two researchers asked groups of mental health workers to make lists of characteristics describing a healthy male, then a healthy female, and finally a healthy "person." The results: there were expectedly large differences observed between the descriptions of a healthy female and a healthy male, but there were also markedly large differences between the descriptions of a healthy person and a healthy female.

Hmm... 1971 was quite a long time ago. Maybe attitudes have changed since then?

Nope. The study was replicated in 2006 by Susan Seem and Diane Clark and found pretty much the same results. Have a look at the abstract:

"An important question often asked when counselors-in-training read textbook discussion of gender role stereotypes, especially of older work such as the classic study by the Brovermans and their colleagues, is “Haven't these biases been eliminated or at least reduced?” The current study was designed to replicate the work of the Brovermans and their colleagues to answer that specific question and to determine how current counselors-in-training perceive healthy adult women, healthy adult men, and healthy adults. As in the prior research, initial ratings of the social desirability of traditional gender role stereotypes were conducted, and the findings showed many similarities to past research. That investigation was followed by a modified Stereotype Questionnaire, based on the original work of Rosenkrantz, Vogel, Bee, I. Broverman, and D. M. Broverman (1968). Healthy adult women were found to be significantly different from healthy adult men as well as from healthy adults. In addition, the results suggest that there have been changes in counselors' perceptions of healthy adults. Counselors-in-training were found to hold two standards for mental health—one for women and another for men."

To those who argue that there is no longer a need for a feminist movement in today's society because outward, blatant expressions of sexism are not as common, I would say that the existence of these implicit attitudes and beliefs certainly proves otherwise.

Read more details on the Broverman study here.

Labels: broverman study, feminism, gender, health, psychology