THE PERSONAL AND SOCIAL CORRELATES OF A GENDER DIFFERENCE IDEOLOGY

In our society, widely shared strong beliefs about differences between women and men in interests, competencies, and roles are ubiquitous. T his paper explores the powerful, problematic and widespread influence of this gender difference ideology, and presents examples from areas o f personal experience, family life, paid employment, and social intera ction. It is proposed that the relationship between a gender ideology and social behavior is a complex one and that beliefs do not necessari ly precede behavior A final section presents challenges to a gender di fference ideology and suggests that, because our construction of gende r is inextricably tied to inequality, our study of gender must focus o n the process and conditions that underlie the construction.