HES SKILLED, SHES LUCKY - A METAANALYSIS OF OBSERVERS ATTRIBUTIONS FOR WOMENS AND MENS SUCCESSES AND FAILURES

This meta-analysis builds on past qualitative reviews examining differ ent attributions that observers give for other women's and men's succe sses and failures. Results suggest the greatest support for the argume nt that differences in expectations for women's and men's performances on masculine tasks influence the selection of stable or unstable caus es. However, the results also indicate that the strength of the findin gs for all but one of the attributions is a function of the lack of in dependence in measuring the different attributions. The only attributi on that is unaffected by this artifact is effort for successes and fai lures. Suggestions for pursuing new perspectives on the impact of gend er on attribution processes are discussed.