Sometimes Nothing Succeeds like Success: Reactions to Success and Failure in Sex-linked Occupations

Males and females read descriptions of a male or female worker who succeeded or failed as a manager or secretary. Subjects responded with im-pressions of the worker, causal attributions for hidher success or failure, and evaluations of the likelihood of a number of positive and negative conse-quences for the worker. Based upon earlier work, a generalized third-order interaction between worker sex, occupation, and outcome was hypothesized. in contrast to this hypothesis, highly consistent and powerful main effects of outcome were found on all three types of dependent mea-sures. Briefly, successful workers were viewed more positively and expected to experience more positive consequences than those who failed, regardless of their sex or occupation. In addition, success was attributed more to ability and effort and less to the job itself than was failure. The discussion centers on conditions that might limit the effects of sex-role stereotyping on observer reactions to success and failure. Two recent experiments by Feather and Simon (1975) and Feather ( 1 975) have suggested that reactions to occupational success and failure may be highly dependent upon both the sex of the suc-cessful or unsuccessful individual and the sex-role appropriateness of the occupation involved. In the first experiment, Feather and Simon developed a paradigm in which subjects (all females) read cues i n which a male or female was described as having been at the top or bottom of hidher class in medical school, teacher's college, or nursing school. Subjects wer