Ideal Images and Real Roles: The Perpetuation of Gender Inequality

Popular perceptions of sex differences—lately embodied in the Reagan era’s “gender gap”—too often are based on presupposed innate attributes or those set early in life. This division of the world into men’s and women’s roles has generated invidious comparisons: the male is typically considered strong, courageous, logical, the more dependable and competent in work situations, the more gifted in intellectual, scholarly, or artistic pursuits; the female the weak...