"Did you see what I saw?" Gender differences in perceptions of avenues to prestige among adolescents

We use data from 1,796 college students to explore gender differences in pe rceptions of avenues to prestige during adolescence, Students attending sev en large universities during the 1997-98 academic year provided information on the ways in which adolescents in their high schools bad gained prestige with peers. The analysis reveals substantial gender differences in percept ions regarding the most common avenues to prestige. Most important, men wer e less likely than women to report that female students in their high schoo ls accrued prestige through sports and grades, and more likely than women t o report that male students accrued prestige through engaging in deviant be haviors, such as sexual activity, drug and alcohol use, and fighting. We di scuss the findings in the context of gender differences in social perceptio n and gender-role attitudes.