Defusing the Objectification of Women by Other Women: The Role of Competence

Can success deflect racism? Clothing and perceptions of African American men

We examined the effect of different clothing styles on the perceptions of African American men. Using a between-group design, we tested whether participants perception of African American models wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts ("swagger"), clothing showing they won an event, or formal clothing, would vary. Participants (N = 143) viewed four African American models in one of three conditions. Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVA) with Symbolic Racism Scale scores as a covariate revealed that participants rated models in Formal clothing significantly higher than models in winning clothing in intelligence, p <.001, trustworthiness, p <.001, and warmth p =.005. Models wearing formal clothing or winning clothing were also rated significantly higher than models wearing swagger clothing on several traits. Participant's Symbolic Racism Score significantly affected their ratings of models. Results suggest that the clothing that an African American wears, as well as viewer prejudice, affects the impression that the viewer makes.

Dressing "in code": Clothing rules, propriety, and perceptions

Does dressing in line with societal clothing rules make a woman appear more professional and competent? We used a within-subjects design and tested if participants rated women dressed in compliance with school and workplace clothing rules more positively than women not dressed in compliance with rules. Participants (N = 89) at a mid-sized mid-western university rated 10 pictures of women captured from the internet on 11 attributes. Participants rated the five women dressed following clothing rules higher on a composite measure of positive attributes (intelligent, competent, powerful, organized, efficient, and professional), F(1, 86) = 68.92, p < .001 η_p² = .45. Participant's ratings did not correlate with their own self-reported levels of sexism. Participants' gender was not a significant correlate. Our findings indicate that how students perceive women significantly relates to dressing in code. Participants rated women in less revealing and less tight clothing more positively.

Power and provocativeness: The effects of subtle changes in clothing on perceptions of working women

The current study investigates the effects of subtle changes in professional women's dress on women's perceptions of power and competence. We replicate and extend Howlett, Pine, Cahill, Orakcioglu, and Fletcher's (2015) research showing that women in provocative clothing are rated as less competent. We used a larger sample, tested a second independent variable, and fine-tuned the design for higher face validity. Participants (N = 198, 170 women and 29 men) from a Midwestern university in the USA rated four photographs of professionally dressed women whose blouses varied in the number of buttons left undone and whether they wore a camisole. We found main effects of buttons (undone/done) and camisoles (on/off) for participants perceptions of intelligence, competence, powerfulness, and on a global rating score. Results also showed significant interaction effects between buttons and camisoles on ratings of powerfulness. The results have many implications for how women dress professionally.

Conceptual Review of Underrepresentation of Women in Senior Leadership Positions From a Perspective of Gendered Social Status in the Workplace

An increasing number of studies report more similarities than differences in leadership styles between women and men. However, the evident vertical gender segregation at top management levels still remains a common phenomenon for various organizations. This consistent disparity needs to be addressed by identifying the underlying mechanism embedded in organizational structures that portrays women as less suitable for senior leadership positions than their male counterparts, although evidence suggests that there is no substantial gender difference in leadership styles or behaviors. This conceptual review articulates the deeply rooted gendered social status of organizations by delineating conceptual constructs and relationships regarding women’s delayed advancement to senior leadership positions. The resulting model further implies that the gendered social status associated with women could compromise the effectiveness of human resources development (HRD) interventions initially developed to help women. This understanding prompts reexamination of existing HRD interventions to support women’s career advancement to senior leadership positions in organizations.

Objectification of people and thoughts: An attitude change perspective

Many objectification phenomena can be understood from a mind-body dualism perspective in which the more people focus on their bodies, the less they focus on their minds. Instead of viewing mind and body in opposition to each other, we advocate for a more reciprocal view in which mind and body work in conjunction. Consistent with an integrated mind-body approach, we begin our review by describing research on embodied persuasion revealing that focusing on our own body can reduce but also increase thinking (elaboration), as well as affecting the use of thoughts in forming evaluations (validation). Next, we extend our integrated view to a new domain and suggest that physical objects can influence thoughts and that one's thoughts can also be objectified. The first portion of this section focuses on research on enclothed cognition revealing that wearing physical objects can operate through the same processes of elaboration (increasing and decreasing thinking) and validation (increasing and decreasing thought usage) as the body. The second portion reveals that thoughts can be understood and treated as if they were physical objects affecting evaluative processes by influencing elaboration and validation processes. The final section provides some practical guidance relevant to campaigns designed to reduce the objectification of women and the infrahumanization of stigmatized groups.

Media and Sexualization: State of Empirical Research, 1995-2015

Sexually objectifying portrayals of women are a frequent occurrence in mainstream media, raising questions about the potential impact of exposure to this content on others' impressions of women and on women's views of themselves. The goal of this review was to synthesize empirical investigations testing effects of media sexualization. The focus was on research published in peer-reviewed, English-language journals between 1995 and 2015. A total of 109 publications that contained 135 studies were reviewed. The findings provided consistent evidence that both laboratory exposure and regular, everyday exposure to this content are directly associated with a range of consequences, including higher levels of body dissatisfaction, greater self-objectification, greater support of sexist beliefs and of adversarial sexual beliefs, and greater tolerance of sexual violence toward women. Moreover, experimental exposure to this content leads both women and men to have a diminished view of women's competence, morality, and humanity. Limitations with the existing research approaches and measures are discussed, and suggestions for future research directions are provided.

From Sex Objects to Human Beings

Recent studies have shown that sexualized female bodies are objectified at a cognitive level. Research using the body-inversion recognition task, a robust indicator of configural (vs. analytic processing) within cognitive psychology, shows that for sexualized female bodies, people recognize upright and inverted bodies similarly rather than recognizing upright bodies better than inverted bodies (i.e., an inversion effect). This finding suggests that sexualized female bodies, like objects, are recognized analytically (rather than configurally). Nonetheless, it remains unclear when and why sexualized female bodies are objectified at a basic cognitive level. Grounded in objectification theory, the present experiments examine moderating factors that may prompt more configural processing (i.e., produce an inversion effect) and less objectification of sexualized female bodies. Replicating previous research, sexualized male bodies elicited more configural processing and less objectification compared to sexualized female bodies. We then examined whether reducing the salience of sexual body parts (Experiments 2a and 2b) and adding humanizing information about the targets (Experiment 3) causes perceivers to recognize female bodies more configurally, reducing the cognitive objectification of women. Implications for sexual objectification theory and research, as well as the role of humanizing often-dehumanized sexy women, are discussed. Additional online materials for this article are available to PWQ subscribers on PWQ’s website at http://pwq.sagepub.com/supplemental .

Seeing Eye to Body

Scholars have long argued that women are denied a basic sense of humanness—are objectified—when focus is directed toward their physical rather than mental qualities. Early research on objectification focused on women’s self-objectification and measured objectification indirectly (as an emphasis on physical appearance). Recent research, however, has provided direct evidence that a focus on the physical aspects of women by others causes women to be perceived like, and act like, objects lacking mind. Manifestations of this literal objectification include attributing women less of the traits that distinguish people from objects and visual-recognition and neural responses consistent with nonhuman-object perception. Women themselves also behave more like objects (by, e.g., speaking less) when they are aware of this focus by others. Real-world implications and ways to defuse literal objectification are discussed.

The Ripple Effects of Stranger Harassment on Objectification of Self and Others

Despite the frequency and negative consequences of stranger harassment, only a scant number of studies have explicitly examined stranger harassment and its consequences through the lens of objectification theory. The current study introduced and tested a mediation model in which women’s experiences of stranger harassment may lead to self-objectification, which in turn may lead to objectification of other people. To examine this model, undergraduate women ( N = 501) completed measures of stranger harassment (including the verbal harassment and sexual pressure subscales of the Stranger Harassment Index), body surveillance, and objectification of other women and men. Consistent with hypotheses, significant positive correlations emerged among total stranger harassment, verbal harassment, sexual pressure, body surveillance, and other-objectification of women. Other-objectification of men showed a similar pattern of results, with the exception of being unrelated to total stranger harassment and sexual pressure. Consistent with the proposed model, body surveillance was a significant mediator of the relation between total stranger harassment and other-objectification of both women and men, as well as the relation between verbal harassment and other-objectification of both women and men. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as future directions for research on stranger harassment, are discussed.