Head Coach Changes in Women’s College Soccer: An Investigation of Women Coaches Through the Lenses of Gender Stereotypes and the Glass Cliff Abstract Women are underrepresented in leadership positions in sport, including coaching. In the present study of women’s college soccer in the United States, the authors examine the relationship between team performance and coaching changes through the lenses of gender stereotypes, role congruity theory, and the glass cliff theory. The authors collected 11 seasons of data (2007–2017) for all teams (n = 695) in five conferences. The results of logistic regression analyses with rare events correction show no significant differences between men and women coaches in terms of being dismissed following poor team performance. Hence, the theoretical assumptions of the gender stereotypes and role congruity literature could not be supported empirically. However, the results indicate that women coaches are significantly more likely to be hired as new coaches following poor performance of a team in terms of wins and winning percentage (but not losses) over the course of a season, providing some empirical support for a glass cliff in coaching. The findings have implications for the hiring practices of decision-makers in athletic departments and their performance expectations of women coaches.

Situating Oneself in the Intersectional Hierarchy: Racially Diverse, Low-Income Women Discuss Having Little Agency in Vasectomy Decisions Abstract Few studies are qualitative explorations of intimate partners’ conversations among racially/ethnically diverse adults about contraception, in particular, sterilization. Sterilization is an interesting case study given its permanency and the fact that it is a possible procedure for both men and women. More research is needed because sterilization decisions can reveal complex social relationships built on gender, class, race, and power that resonate throughout many parts of societies. The present paper draws on ideas of power/agency as they intersect with gender, race, and class in an analysis of 40 semi-structured interviews of a racially/ethnically diverse group of low-income U.S. women with male partners as they recall their sterilization discussions with their intimate partners before they themselves were voluntarily sterilized. The results offer insight into how class and racial and gender norms influence reproductive behaviors. Whereas a majority of these women displayed agency in female sterilization decisions, they had little control over male partners’ vasectomy decisions, which they attributed to their place in a racial/ethnic and gender hierarchy by utilizing ambiguous, unidimensional definitions of “machismo.” These results give insights into the conceptual complexity of contraceptive power and control as well as understandings of how gendered and racialized norms at individual and structural levels influence reproductive behaviors and perpetuate harmful gender stereotypes of both men and women.

Picture Perfect: The Relationship between Selfie Behaviors, Self-Objectification, and Depressive Symptoms Abstract Social media use has been linked to depression, although there is evidence that how one uses social media matters. Self-objectification may influence social media-related behaviors, such as taking many pictures before posting and using photo editing. These may be related to negative outcomes, perhaps because they contribute to feeling disingenuous online. These relationships were explored in the context of selfie posting on Instagram among a sample of young U.S. women who completed self-report measures. Mediation analyses were used to determine whether self-objectification, operationalized as body surveillance, predicted depressive symptoms serially mediated by either (a) taking multiple pictures before posting or (b) photo-manipulation as well as through feeling disingenuous online. In the first model, body surveillance predicted taking multiple selfies before posting which, in turn, related to feelings of depression. Taking multiple selfies before posting was not related to feelings of deception. In the second model, there was a significant four-variable indirect effect wherein self-objectification predicted depression through photo manipulation and feelings of disingenuousness online. The present study shows that there are specific behaviors that women, especially those who self-objectify, engage in before actively using social media that can relate to negative consequences. Understanding how self-objectification impacts social media behaviors can help women became more aware of their engagement in potentially problematic behaviors and work toward self-acceptance.

The Role of Gender in Worry and Efforts to Cope during Stressful Waiting Periods Abstract Waiting for personally significant news is a near-universal experience, but people differ in how they cope with these acute moments of uncertainty. The present study examined whether self-identified men and women differ reliably in how they experience and cope with uncertain waiting periods, given societal pressures toward (for men) or against (for women) emotional experiences that may be relevant in these moments. Across 20 U.S. studies in field and laboratory settings (total n = 4714), we examined gender differences in worry and use of coping strategies during various waiting periods. We then explored whether gender moderated links between worry and use of coping strategies to determine whether gender meaningfully shapes the coping process or if worriers require a larger toolbox of coping strategies, regardless of their gender. Mini meta-analyses across our studies confirmed that women reported greater worry and greater use of coping strategies than did men. However, the relationships between gender and coping largely disappeared after controlling for worry, and gender did not consistently or strongly moderate the link between worry and coping. These findings suggest that despite apparent gender differences in the experience of stressful uncertainty, worry is a far more potent predictor of coping than is gender.

A Social Justice Approach to Measuring Bystander Behavior: Introducing the Critically Conscious Bystander Scale Abstract Researchers studying bystander behavior in the context of sexual violence are informed by the five-step process of bystander intervention that was described by Latané and Darley (1969). According to this process an individual must first recognize a situation as problematic prior to intervening. The behaviors that are easily recognized or taught in college programming as problematic are generally indicative of sexual assault and rape; however, behaviors that feed into sexual violence exist on a continuum, allowing for a range of opportunities for intervention. The goal of the current study was to expand the conceptualization of bystander behavior to include precursors to what has been traditionally considered bystander behavior (e.g., directly intervening on behalf of a potential victim) through the creation and initial validation of the Critically Conscious Bystander Scale (CCBS). The CCBS moves beyond traditional measures of bystander behavior by considering sexual harassment and sexual assault separately. Further, the CCBS incorporates sociopolitical involvement and critical consciousness education within bystander behavior. Through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and relation to similar and related constructs with two separate U.S. college samples (ns = 409 and 502), the CCBS demonstrated initial reliability and validity encompassing four related, but unique, factors present among the retained items: Sexual Harassment Bystander Behavior, Consciousness Raising, Advocacy/Activism, and Sexual Assault Bystander Behavior. Implications for the CCBS, including how this measure can help to provide a nuanced picture of bystander behavior, are discussed.

Femmephobia: The Role of Anti-Femininity and Gender Policing in LGBTQ+ People’s Experiences of Discrimination Abstract Since the 1970s social science researchers have documented the cultural devaluation of femininity and its impact on experiences of discrimination among sexual and gender minorities. Yet, despite the continued and accumulating evidence demonstrating the role of anti-femininity (or femmephobia) in these experiences, little research has specifically examined femininity as an intersecting component of discrimination. Using in-depth interviews with sexual and gender minorities (N = 38), the current study explores the intersecting role of femmephobia in experiences of discrimination. Under the global theme of “femininity as target,” 5 key subthemes were identified: femininity and passing, regulating sexualities, masculine right of access, biological determinism, and the feminine joke. Participants illuminated femmephobia as a regulatory power within LGBTQ+ communities and society at large, as well as how femininity itself operates as a target in their experiences of gender policing and discrimination. By turning attention toward femininity, the current paper provides a clearer understanding of what may possibly lay at the heart of many social issues surrounding discrimination and violence. These findings have implications for the study of social inequalities, as well as strategies for remedying the pervasive devaluation of femininity.

Characteristics of Preschool Gender Enforcers and Peers Who Associate with Them Abstract Children who try to exclude others due to their gender can be considered as “gender enforcers.” Using multiple methods (observations, interviews) and informants (children, teachers, teacher aides), we investigated the prevalence of gender enforcement, the characteristics of gender enforcers, and potential associations of exposure to gender enforcers. Participants were 98 (Mage = 49.47 months, SD = 11.40; 52% boys) preschoolers from a southwestern city in the United States. Results showed that both girls and boys engage in gender-enforcing behavior. Further, findings suggest that aggression and biased gender-related beliefs are associated with gender-enforcing behavior. Children who spent more time (over months) with enforcers were observed to play more with same-gender peers and to show more biased gender cognitions than were children who spent less time with enforcers. The study extends our understanding of how gender norms are enforced in early childhood, and it provides insights that may help to identify young gender enforcers. These findings have potential to inform future research and practice related to gender-based aggression in childhood.

Insights into Men’s Sexual Aggression Toward Women: Dehumanization and Objectification Abstract Sexual aggression is a global, ongoing problem, and it is most often perpetrated by men against women. In a set of studies, we investigated the role of dehumanization and objectification in men’s sexual aggression-related attitudes and interests toward women in general, as well as toward a specific female target. The first of our studies, with 190 heterosexual British men recruited online, established a correlational link between dehumanization and rape proclivity. Dehumanization was also related to unfavorable attitudes toward rape victims. Critically, our results largely held when controlling for several variables with previously established relationships to sexual aggression. Results for objectification were less consistent. Our second study sought to experimentally manipulate the dehumanization of a woman and measures its effect on sexual aggression attitudes and interests. Results from 106 heterosexual British men seemed to be particularly driven by one aspect of dehumanization—the denial of human uniqueness—showing differences in correlations between experimental groups on measures of sexual aggression including rape proclivity, unfavorable attitudes toward a rape victim, and a behavioral rape analogue task. Avenues for future research are discussed, and implications of the work include the potential for emphasizing women as people, especially through highlighting their human uniqueness, in designing effective prevention and interventions (e.g., bystander) efforts.

The Femme Fatale Effect: Attractiveness is a Liability for Businesswomen’s Perceived Truthfulness, Trust, and Deservingness of Termination Abstract In what we label the “femme fatale” effect, we proposed and found support for the notion that attractive businesswomen are judged as being less truthful than less attractive women for reasons rooted in sexual insecurity. In Study 1 (n = 198; U.S. participants), attractiveness predicted less perceived truthfulness for female, but not male, leaders delivering negative organizational news. Next, we revealed limitations of the lack-of-fit explanation; this effect persisted when the attractive woman was in a feminine role in Study 2 (n = 155; U.S. participants), in a feminine industry in Study 3 (n = 286; U.S. participants), and delivering positive rather than negative news in Study 4 (n = 148; U.S. participants). In Study 5 (n = 209; U.S. participants), the effect was eliminated when participants were primed to feel sexually secure, but maintained among those primed to feel generally secure, and truthfulness predicted trust in the target’s leadership. In Study 6 (n = 206; U.S. participants), we again eliminated the femme fatale effect by priming sexual security and extended our findings by demonstrating that perceptions of truthfulness predicted perceived deservingness of termination.