Implicit and explicit attitudes toward female authority

Attitudes toward female authority and their relationship to gender beliefs were examined using implicit and explicit measures of each. Implicit attitu des covaried with implicit gender authority beliefs (i.e., linking men to h igh-authority and women to low-authority roles). Explicit attitudes covarie d with explicit gender authority beliefs, feminist identification, and host ile sexism. Thus, gender authority beliefs may influence both conscious and unconscious prejudice against female authorities. Although women showed le ss explicit prejudice than did men, their implicit attitudes were similarly negative. Finally, the relationship found between two different response l atency methods (a priming task for attitudes, a categorization task for bel iefs) supports the assumption that implicit measures assess similar constru cts (i.e, automatic associations in long-term memory).