Differences between prescriptive and proscriptive gender stereotypes and gendered self‐evaluations in Sweden

Abstract

This study investigates prescriptive (how women and men should be) and proscriptive (how women and men should not be) gender stereotypes in Sweden and how these stereotypes relate to self‐ascribed gendered traits. In an online survey with students at three major universities ( N = 679) it was found that participants believed that the societal view was that women should be more communal than men, but less dominant and men should be more agentic than women, but less weak. In comparison, self‐ratings only differed for communion, such that women rated themselves as more communal than men (there were no differences in self‐ratings of agency, dominance, or weakness). Thus, prescriptive and proscriptive stereotypes and self‐views differed. Women mainly perceived differences between self‐ratings and prescriptions of communion, whereas men mainly perceived differences between self‐ratings and prescriptions of agency. Moreover, women mainly perceived differences between self‐ratings and proscriptions of dominance, and men mainly perceived differences between self‐ratings and proscriptions of weakness. Hence, both women and men perceive larger gaps between self‐evaluations and societally desired and undesired gender stereotypical traits. Future studies should investigate the consequences of such mismatches.

Full text

Empirical Article
Differences between prescriptive and proscriptive gender stereotypes and
gendered self-evaluations in Sweden
EMMA A. RENSTR
¨
OM
Kristianstad University, Kristianstad, Sweden
Renstr¨
om, E. A. (2023). Differences between prescriptive and proscriptive gender stereotypes and gendered self-evaluations in Sweden. Scandinavian
Journal of Psychology.
This study investigates prescriptive (how women and men should be) and proscriptive (how women and men should not be) gender stereotypes in Sweden
and how these stereotypes relate to self-ascribed gendered traits. In an online survey with students at three major universities (N=679) it was found that
participants believed that the societal view was that women should be more communal than men, but less dominant and men should be more agentic than
women, but less weak. In comparison, self-ratings only differed for communion, such that women rated themselves as more communal than men (there
were no differences in self-ratings of agency, dominance, or weakness). Thus, prescriptive and proscriptive stereotypes and self-views differed. Women
mainly perceived differences between self-ratings and prescriptions of communion, whereas men mainly perceived differences between self-ratings and
prescriptions of agency. Moreover, women mainly perceived differences between self-ratings and proscriptions of dominance, and men mainly perceived
differences between self-ratings and proscriptions of weakness. Hence, both women and men perceive larger gaps between self-evaluations and societally
desired and undesired gender stereotypical traits. Future studies should investigate the consequences of such mismatches.
Key words: Prescriptive, proscriptive, gender stereotypes, Sweden.
Emma A. Renstr¨
om, Kristianstad University, Elmetorpsv. 15, 291 39 Kristianstad, Sweden. Email: emma.renstrom@hkr.se
INTRODUCTION
Norms about gender include ideas about what traits and
behaviors are socially desired among women and men. These
ideas are socially consequential. Prescriptive gender stereotypes
prescribe how women and men should be, while proscriptive
gender stereotypes stipulate non-accepted behavior (e.g.
Rudman, Moss-Racusin, Phelan & Nauts, 2012). For instance,
women are desired to be communal and men are desired to be
agentic (Koenig, 2018). At the same time, it is undesirable for
a woman to show dominance and for a man to show weakness
(Koenig, 2018; Prentice & Carranza, 2002; Rudman
et al., 2012). Individuals who violate these pre- and
proscriptive stereotypes are punished (Moss-Racusin et al.,
2010; Rudman et al., 2012).
Sweden is considered a highly gender egalitarian country
(World Economic Forum, 2022), yet the Swedish labor market
is deeply segregated (Swedish Gender Equality Agency, 2023).
This segregation is both vertical, where men more often than
women occupy leadership roles, and horizontal, where women
and men occupy different sectors. Hence, Sweden constitutes a
paradox where gender equality is a salient issue, but the labor
market is segregated. Because gender stereotypes can be rooted
in the division of labor (Eagly, 1987; Eagly & Wood, 2012),
this paradox could influence perceptions of stereotypes, but
also how individuals view themselves on gender stereotypical
traits.
This article aims to: (1) assess how Swedish citizens perceive
the societal pre- and proscriptive stereotypes regarding
communion, agency, weakness, and dominance; (2) assess
individuals’self-ratings on these traits; and (3) compare
perceptions of societal stereotypes with self-ratings.
Prescriptive and proscriptive gender stereotypes
Gender stereotypes are sometimes discussed as being rooted in
the societal division of labor (Eagly, 1987; Eagly & Wood, 2012).
For instance, men, who as a group are overrepresented in
occupations related to engineering, corporate leading and law
enforcement, are assumed to possess traits matching those roles.
Women, who as a group are overrepresented in occupations
related to caring, are instead assumed to possess traits related to
care-taking roles. This idea leads to that these gender stereotypes
may change with a changing societal structure (Eagly, 1987;
Eagly & Wood, 2012).
Because different societies have different distributions of labor,
stereotypes may vary across time and place (Bosak, Eagly,
Diekman & Sczesny, 2017; Diekman & Eagly, 2000). Sweden
ranks high on aggregated measures of gender equality, like the
Global Gender Gap Index (World Economic Forum, 2022) and
women are strongly represented in the Swedish work force. Still,
the horizontal segregation remains high. Only 15–20% of
employees work in jobs with equal gender distribution. Moreover,
the vertical segregation is also high (Statistics Sweden, 2022) and
in fact larger in Sweden than in many other European countries
(Ellingsaeter, 2014; Swedish Gender Equality Agency, 2023).
Hence, Sweden constitutes a paradox when it comes to gender
equality, which may influence the construction of gender
stereotypes.
The perceptions of women’s and men’s traits pertains to two core
dimensions in social judgment, referred to as agency and
communion (Abele & Wojciszke, 2014). Agency relates to goal-
achievement, whereas communion relates to the maintenance of
social relationships (Bakan, 1966). Because men disproportionately
occupy roles that are agentically demanding (e.g., police officer and
© 2023 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology published by Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 2023 DOI: 10.1111/sjop.12995

CEO), social perceivers attribute agency to men as a group and
individuals (e.g., assertiveness, independence). Similarly, because
women disproportionately occupy roles that are communally
demanding (e.g., nurse and social worker), social perceivers attribute
communion to women, as a group and individuals (e.g., caring and
understanding). Hence, agentic traits are traditionally associated with
masculinity while communal traits are traditionally associated with
femininity. But these inferences are not only descriptive, describing
how people believe that women and men are, but also function
prescriptively and proscriptively. The perceptions that women and
men possess traits corresponding to their roles in society leads to
normative ideas about how women and men should and should not
be, which are socially consequential.
Prescriptive stereotypes are ideas about how women and men
should be, what is desired from a woman and a man (Gill, 2004;
Koenig, 2018; Prentice & Carranza, 2002; Rudman et al., 2012).
Prescriptive stereotypes are desired traits and behaviors mainly
designated for one of the two traditional genders more than the
other, such as communion for women and agency for men. While
descriptive stereotypes describe how women and men in a society
are perceived to be, the prescriptive stereotypes prescribe how
women and men should be and do. Research show that women
should be communal (caring, nurturing, empathic) and men
should be agentic (assertive, competitive, independent) (Koenig,
2018; Prentice & Carranza, 2002; Rudman et al., 2012).
Prescriptive stereotypes hence represent the group-specific
behavioral norms that group members must uphold to avoid being
socially punished through for instance ridiculing or rejection (Gill,
2004).
While prescriptive stereotypes dictate how women and men
should be, proscriptive stereotypes dictate how women and men
should not be. For instance, women should not show dominance
and men should not show weakness (Koenig, 2018; Prentice &
Carranza, 2002; Rudman et al., 2012). While these traits are
negative in general, they are even less accepted when displayed
by one gender than the other. It is less accepted for a man than a
woman to display weakness and for a woman, than a man to
display dominance. Prescriptive stereotypes thus dictate what is
desired, while proscriptive stereotypes dictate what is not
acceptable.
Violations of approved and disapproved behavior for either
gender has negative consequences (Rudman & Glick, 2010). For
instance, prescriptive gender stereotypes have been linked to
prejudice and bias against women, particularly in career-climbing
contexts (Heilman, 2002). Women focusing on their career violate
the expectations of how women should be, such as caring and
family-oriented. Moreover, such women may violate the
proscriptive stereotypes for women when they display dominance.
Consequently, evaluations tend to be negative (Rudman
et al., 2012). For instance, women who were described as
dominant were disliked and less likely to be hired for a certain
position, even when they were competent for the position (Moss-
Racusin et al., 2010; Rudman et al., 2012). To avoid negative
evaluations, women and men could hide their gender non-
conforming behavior and engage more in gender stereotypical
behavior. Such gender compliance functions to maintain, or even
increase the stereotypes based on what people see (Prentice &
Carranza, 2002; Rudman & Glick, 2010; Rudman et al., 2012).
Prescriptive stereotypes involve the transformation of a
descriptive stereotype from mere description to moral injunction
(Eagly & Karau, 2002; Heilman, 2002). These kinds of
stereotypes foster bias and discrimination because they represent
societal ideals. Because they are ideals, societal norms about what
women and men should and should not be, they are likely to be
quite rigid and resistant to changes (Zehnter, Olsen &
Kirchler, 2018). In fact, prescriptive stereotyping seems to
persevere after behavioral information has undercut descriptive
stereotyping (Gill, 2004), clearly indicating that descriptive and
pre/proscriptive stereotypes represent two different processes with
different outcomes.
Because prescriptive and proscriptive stereotypes stipulate
expectations of women and men and can predict prejudice
(Gill, 2004) it is important to know to what extent individuals
perceive that agency and communion is desired by society, and to
what extent dominance and weakness are undesired, particularly
in an egalitarian context such as Sweden.
Stereotypes and self-views on gender stereotypical traits
Little research has explored how individuals see themselves in
terms of gender stereotypical traits, and the available research on
self-evaluations shows inconsistent findings. For instance,
Obioma, Hentschel and Hernandez Bark (2021) found that
German women and men rated themselves equally agentic as well
as equally communal. That is, German women and men see
themselves less in line with gender stereotypes on both agency
and communion. Other research from the US showed that women
see themselves as more communal than men see themselves
(Hentschel, Heilman & Peus, 2019; Spence & Buckner, 2000),
and hence comply to the gender stereotypes of communion.
Results for self-ascribed agency are more complex. Some studies
found that men ascribe themselves with more agency than women
do (Diehl, Owen & Youngblade, 2004; Powell & Butterfield,
2015), while an older study found no gender differences in self-
ascribed agency (Twenge, 1997). Moreover, some studies found
that gender differences in self-ascribed agency depend on the type
of agentic trait being considered (Hentschel et al., 2019; Spence
& Buckner, 2000), such that there are no differences in agency
facets like competence (Eagly, Nater, Miller, Kaufmann &
Sczesny, 2020). I have not found any studies assessing self-
ratings of dominance and weakness.
While the research on self-views of gender stereotypical traits
is scarce, there is even less when it comes to comparing self-
views and prescriptive and proscriptive stereotypes. Such a
comparison is important, because gender stereotypes can become
internalized standards of behavior and subsequently essential parts
of people’s identities and self-concepts (Wood & Eagly, 2015). If
individuals internalize prescriptive and proscriptive stereotypes,
this means that people might come to comply with gendered
expectations, and we would expect that self-ratings show a similar
pattern as prescriptive and proscriptive stereotype ratings.
However, as discussed earlier, stereotypes are sometimes
discussed as being rooted in role divisions on the labor market
(Eagly, 1987; Eagly & Wood, 2012), which could also influence
how individuals see themselves. Because Sweden is perceived by
its citizens as highly egalitarian (Swedish Gender Equality
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om Scand J Psychol (2023)
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Agency, 2022), self-perceptions may be less stereotypical than the
perception of the societal stereotypes. Moreover, in one study,
Swedish citizens largely underestimated the gender segregation in
highly gender segregated jobs (Gustafsson Send´
en, Klysing,
Lindqvist & Renstr¨
om, 2019), which could also contribute to
perceptions of women and men, and perhaps the self, in less
stereotypical terms.
If self-ratings of gender stereotypical traits are less pronounced
than pre- and proscriptive stereotypes, this results in a discrepancy
between prescriptive/proscriptive stereotypes and the view of the
self. A discrepancy between prescriptive/proscriptive gender
stereotypes and self-view may have consequences for behaviors,
where people might be motivated to modify their behavior to be
gender compliant since such compliance is socially rewarding
(Rudman et al., 2012). Thus, discrepancies between self and
perceptions of what is desired might function as a barrier to apply
for certain jobs or to present oneself authentically, ultimately
perpetuating the gender segregation and gender stereotypes.
Overview and hypotheses
This study aims to analyze how Swedish citizens rate prescriptive
and proscriptive gender stereotypes and position these ratings in
relation to self-ascribed gender stereotypical traits. Hence, the
purpose is three-fold. The first aim is to describe how desired
individuals perceive that it is for a woman to be communal and
for a man to be agentic, and how undesired it is for a woman to
show dominance and for a man to show weakness. The second
aim is to describe how women and men perceive themselves on
these traits. The third aim is to compare the stereotype ratings to
the self-ratings. This is done by comparing women’s perceptions
of how desired/undesired it is for women to be communal/
dominant with women’s self-ratings of communion/dominance,
and by comparing men’s perceptions of how desired/undesired it
is for men to be agentic/weak with men’s self-ratings of agency/
weakness.
Prescriptive and proscriptive stereotypes are beliefs about what
is desired from a woman or a man in society and hence represent
how individuals perceive the societal view to be. Because
prescriptive and proscriptive stereotypes represent normative
ideals (Gill, 2004), these are expected to follow the same patterns
as has been found in previous research where women are
supposed to be communal, but not dominant, and men are
supposed to be agentic but not weak (Koenig, 2018; Prentice &
Carranza, 2002; Rudman et al., 2012).
If gender stereotypes are internalized, we could suspect that
self-views would follow prescriptive and proscriptive stereotypes.
However, Sweden is among the most gender egalitarian countries
in the world (World Economic Forum, 2022), and citizens seem
to believe that gender equality is greater than it is (Gustafsson
Send´
en et al., 2019). If such ideas are internalized, we would
expect that self-views that are less gender-stereotypical. Yet at the
same time there is still major horizontal and vertical segregation
on the labor market (Ellingsæter, 2014; Statistics Sweden, 2022;
Swedish Gender Equality Agency, 2023), which also could
influence self-views. The following hypotheses were specified:
Hypothesis 1: Prescriptive and proscriptive stereotypes
will follow traditional gender patterns, such that perceived
beliefs about the societal view of women is that they should
be more communal than men but less dominant, and that
men should be more agentic than women, but less weak.
Because it is expected that self-views will be less stereotypical,
it is expected that there will be discrepancies between the
perceived societal view of women and men and the self-view.
Hypothesis 2: Women will see themselves as less
communal than they perceive that the societal stereotype for
women is, and men will see themselves as less agentic than
they perceive that the societal stereotype for men is.
Because no studies exploring self-views of dominance and
weakness were found, no hypotheses about these traits in relation
to self-ratings were formulated.
METHODS
The present study was part of a larger research program dedicated
to exploring gender stereotypes across several nations (www.
towardsgenderharmony.se). Participants were undergraduate students both
from psychology and other areas at three large universities in Sweden.
Data was collected during 2019. Because the present data is part of a
larger project, participants also responded to other measures than the ones
presented here (for more information see https://osf.io/fqd4p/).
Participants
Participants were students at three major universities in Sweden.
Participants were recruited via mailing lists and announcements on course
platforms. Participants were rewarded a cinema voucher for their time. In
total, 679 participants who cleared the attention checks were included in
the sample. Out of these, 342 self-identified as women, 327 as men, eight
as non-binary and two did not identify with any gender. In the statistical
analyses, binary gender woman and man were used. No other inclusion or
exclusion criteria were used. Because the survey was in Swedish only,
only participants fluent in Swedish could participate. Age ranged from 17
to 66 (M=26, SD =7.76).
Procedure
Participants were recruited by research assistants through e-mail and
course platforms and were asked to take part in a large international
project about how people perceive others in today’s society. They were
given a link to the survey and could choose to participate any time they
wanted. They were informed that the survey would take about 25min and
about ethics, such as voluntary participation, right to withdraw and data
handling. Before starting the survey, the participant was required to
provide informed consent. The study was approved by the Ethics Review
Board in Sweden, Dnr 2019–04082. The survey was performed online.
After the survey, participants were thanked and reimbursed for their time.
Instruments
Four domains of gender stereotype traits were measured: agency and
communion, weakness and dominance in terms of how women and men
rate themselves, and how they perceive that women and men should or
should not be. All domains included 12 traits reflecting central parts of the
domains. Example traits for communion are compassionate, warm, helpful,
and for agency, decisive, competent, independent. Traits for weakness
included weak, submissive, childish and for dominance, aggressive,
dominant, arrogant.
Gender stereotypes for women and men were introduced with the
question “How desirable is it in your society for a woman [man] to
© 2023 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology published by Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Gender stereotypes and self-evaluations 3Scand J Psychol (2023)
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possess each of the following traits?”Participants indicated to what extent
each item was perceived to be desirable or not on a scale from 1 =Not
desirable at all, to 7 =Highly desirable. The same formulation was used
for both prescriptive (desired traits) and proscriptive (not acceptable) traits.
This measurement is similar to what has been used earlier to measure
prescriptive and proscriptive stereotypes (Koenig, 2018; Prentice &
Carranza, 2002).
Mean indices were computed for women stereotypes of communion
(α=0.86), agency (α=0.89), weakness (α=0.90), and dominance
(α=0.88); and for men stereotypes of communion (α=0.92), agency
(α=0.89), weakness (α=0.84) and dominance (α=0.91).
Self-assessed traits were introduced with the question “Rate the extent
to which each of the traits describes you personally.”Participants indicated
to what extent each characteristic described themselves on a scale from
1=Does not describe me at all, to 7 =Describes me very well. Mean
indices were computed for self-views of communion (α=0.84), agency
(α=0.83), weakness (α=0.84), and dominance (α=0.83).
A further eight difference indices were created, four for each gender,
corresponding to the four stereotypes (agency, communion, weakness and
dominance) to compare prescriptive and proscriptive stereotypes to self-
ratings.
RESULTS
The results section is structured as follows. First, ratings of pre-
and proscriptive stereotypes corresponding to H1 are presented.
Second, analyses of self-views and comparisons to stereotypes,
corresponding to H2 are presented.
First, analyses of prescriptive and proscriptive stereotypes are
presented. H1 stated that the societal perception of women is that
they should be more communal than men but less dominant, and
that men should be more agentic than women but less weak. A
repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) with trait
(communion, agency, weakness, dominance) and target gender
(woman, man) as repeated factors was performed. The analysis
showed a main effect of type of trait, F(3,659) =3,894,06,
p<0.001, η2
p=0.86. Agency was rated as most desired
(M=5.48, SE =0.03) followed by communion (M=5.28,
SE =0.03). Weakness was seen as least desired (M=2.34,
SE =0.03) and dominance a little more accepted (M=2.65,
SE =0.03). All pairwise comparisons using Bonferroni
corrections were significant, indicating that all traits differed from
each other, ps<0.001. There was also a main effect of target,
F(1,659) =26.76, p<0.001, η2
p=0.04, such that women targets
(M=3.95, SE =0.02) were rated higher overall compared to men
targets (M=3.88, SE =0.02). Of more relevance, there was a
significant interaction between type of trait and target, F(3,659) =
231,30, p<0.001, η2
p=0.26. To explore these differences, follow-
up t-tests between the target genders was performed for each trait.
The results from these tests and means and standard deviations
are shown in Table 1. The results are illustrated in Fig. 1.
As can be seen in Table 1and Fig. 1, women targets were
desired to be more communal than men, but less dominant. Men
targets were desired to be more agentic than women, but less
weak. Hence, these results support H1, that pre- and proscriptive
stereotypes follow traditional patterns.
The second hypothesis stated that women will see themselves
as less communal than they perceive that the societal stereotype
for women is, and men will see themselves as less agentic than
they perceive that the societal stereotype for men is. Before
testing the differences between stereotype ratings and self-ratings,
analyses of self-ratings are presented. A mixed ANOVA was
performed with self-ratings on the four types of traits as repeated
factor (communion, agency, weakness, dominance) and binary
participant gender as a between groups factor. There was a main
effect of type of trait, F(3,665) =1,144,56, p<0.001, η2
p=0.63.
The participants rated themselves highest on communion
(M=5.15, SE =0.03) followed by agency (M=4.80, SE =0.03).
Dominance was rated lowest (M=3.03, SE =0.03) and weakness
was slightly more prevalent among the self-ratings (M=3.20,
SE =0.04). Pairwise follow-up comparisons with Bonferroni
corrections showed that all traits differed from each other,
ps<0.01. The interaction between trait and participant gender
was also significant, F(3,665) =12,24, p<0.001, η2
p=0.02. To
explore this, t-tests between women and men participants were
performed for each self-rated trait. These results are shown in
Table 2and illustrated in Fig. 2. As can be seen in Table 2and
Fig. 2, both women and men rated themselves equal on all traits,
except for communion, where women rated themselves higher
than men rated themselves.
To test H2, a difference index between women’s ratings of
prescriptive stereotypes for women (communion) and women’s
self-ratings on communion were created. Conversely, a difference
index for men’s ratings on prescriptive stereotypes for men
(agency) and men’s self-ratings on agency were created. There
were no clear hypotheses about dominance and weakness, but
exploratory these difference indices were also created, that is,
women’s ratings of proscriptive stereotypes for women
(dominance) and women’s self-ratings of dominance, and men’s
proscriptive stereotypes for men (weakness) and men’s self-ratings
of weakness.
The indices were computed by taking the stereotype rating
and subtracting the self-rating. This means that if the index is
0, there is no difference between the stereotype rating and the
self-rating. If the index is positive, the stereotype rating is
higher than the self-rating, and if the index is negative, the
stereotype rating is lower than the self-rating. To test if the
means presented in Table 3differ from 0 (no difference in
stereotype- and self-ratings), one-sample t-tests with test value 0
were performed. These results are presented in Table 3, where
highlighted areas represent hypothesized effects, and visualized
in Fig. 3, where error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.
H2 stated that women will see themselves as less communal
than they perceive that the societal stereotype for women is. As
can be seen in Table 3and Fig. 3, women rated themselves lower
than their perceived stereotype for women on communion (index
is positive), indicating that there is a discrepancy between
perceptions of what is perceived to be socially desired for a
woman and the view of the self regarding communion. H2 further
stated that men will see themselves as less agentic than they
perceive that the societal stereotype for men is. Again, as can be
seen in Table 3and Fig. 3, men rated themselves lower than their
perceived stereotype for men on agency (index is positive),
indicating a discrepancy.
Exploratory, potential differences between self-ratings and
proscriptive stereotypes for dominance (for women) and
weakness (for men) were tested. As can be seen in Table 3
and Fig. 3, both these indices were negative indicating that
participants rated themselves higher on these traits than they
rated the stereotype. Hence, women rated themselves as more
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om Scand J Psychol (2023)
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dominant than what they perceive is acceptable for women in
their society to be. Dominance is perceived to be proscriptive
for women, yet women assign themselves a higher level of
dominance than what they believe is accepted by society. The
same was true for weakness when it comes to men. Men rated
themselves as weaker than they perceive that the stereotype for
men regarding weakness is. Again, weakness is proscriptive for
men, yet men see themselves as weaker than what they perceive
is accepted by society.
Finally, tests of gender stereotype incongruent traits are also
presented (communion and dominance for men, and agency and
weakness for women). The test of stereotypes for men’s
communion compared to men’s self-rated communion, was non-
significant indicating that men rate themselves as communal as
they perceive that the desired societal view of men is. Further,
women rated themselves lower on agency than they perceive
the stereotype for agency to be, indicating that they saw
themselves as less agentic than they perceive what is desired in
society. When it comes to the negative traits, the same pattern
is observed. Women see themselves as weaker than what is
acceptable in society and men see themselves as more
dominant than what is acceptable by society. These latter
effects were smaller compared to the gender-congruent
stereotypes.
Table 1. Means and standard deviations for women and men targets across the four stereotype dimensions, as well as t-values and effect sizes of
difference tests
Trait
Target gender
Mean difference tCohen’sdMen Women
Communion 4.87 (1.12) 5.68 (0.82) 0.81 15.71*** 0.60
Agency 5.71 (0.86) 5.11 (0.95) 0.60 14.41*** 0.55
Weakness 1.96 (0.72) 2.72 (1.07) 0.76 16.51*** 0.64
Dominance 3.00 (1.12) 2.31 (0.88) 0.69 12.25*** 0.48
Note:***p<0.001.
Fig. 1. Mean ratings of the four traits split on target gender.Note: Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.
Table 2. Means and standard deviations for men and women targets
across the four dimensions of stereotype content, as well as t-values and
effect sizes of difference tests
Participant gender
tCohen’sdWomen Men
Communion 5.37 (0.72) 4.93 (0.80) 7.46*** 0.58
Agency 4.84 (0.82) 4.76 (0.85) 1.25 0.10
Weakness 3.24 (0.87) 3.16 (0.92) 1.08 0.08
Dominance 2.98 (0.84) 3.07 (0.83) 1.33 0.10
Note:***p<0.001.
© 2023 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology published by Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Gender stereotypes and self-evaluations 5Scand J Psychol (2023)
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DISCUSSION
The present study investigated prescriptive and proscriptive
gender stereotypes regarding communion, agency, weakness and
dominance in Sweden, and related these stereotypes to self-
evaluations on gendered traits.
The results showed that prescriptive and proscriptive
stereotypes are strong in Sweden, that is, the view of how women
and men “should”and “should not”be, follow traditional patterns
such that women are supposed to be more communal than men,
and men are supposed to be more agentic than women. Also,
women should be less dominant, and men should be less weak.
These results mirror what has been found in previous research in
the US context (Koenig, 2018; Prentice & Carranza, 2002;
Rudman et al., 2012). Hence, while several studies show that
descriptive stereotypes are fluid and change with time and context
(Bosak et al., 2017; Diekman & Eagly, 2000; Diekman, Eagly,
Mladinic & Ferreira, 2005; Diekman & Goodfriend, 2006;
Garcia-Retamero, Muller & Lopez-Zafra, 2011; Gustafsson
Send´
en et al., 2019; Wilde & Diekman, 2005), prescriptive and
proscriptive stereotypes persist and seem to be less subject to
change across varying contexts. Past research has indicated that
descriptive stereotypes might be changing faster than prescriptive
stereotypes (Zehnter et al., 2018). One potential reason is that the
pre- and proscriptive stereotypes portray societal ideals about
what is desired from women and men. It has been argued as
descriptive stereotypes change more rapidly as they are directly
related to observed behavior (distribution of labor; Eagly &
Woo d , 2012) than prescriptive and proscriptive stereotypes that
rather are associated with normative values. This is important
since it indicates a conflict between what people believe is desired
for women and men and the inferences they draw about how
women and men are, based on daily observations.
The results from this study are consequential. Given that
Sweden is ranked among the most egalitarian countries in the
world (World Economic Forum, 2022), and Swedish citizens
perceive Sweden to be a highly gender egalitarian society (Gender
Fig. 2. Mean self-ratings of the four traits split on participant gender.
Table 3. Means and standard deviations for the difference indices, as well as t-tests comparing the means to 0 and effect sizes (Cohen’sd)
Participant
gender
Communion Agency Weakness Dominance
M (SD) t (d) M (SD) t (d) M (SD) t (d) M (SD) t (d)
Women 0.51 (0.88) 10.64*** (0.58) 0.23 (1.17) 3.74*** (0.20) 0.41 (1.33) 5.74*** (0.31) 0.81 (1.03) 14.43*** (0.79)
Men 0.02 (1.17) 0.33 (0.02) 0.85 (1.05) 14.69*** (0.82) 1.11 (1.08) 18.62*** (1.03) 0.17 (1.27) 2.46*(0.14)
Notes: Means are for women and men participants separately.
Test value =0.
***p<0.001.
*p<0.05.
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Equality Agency, 2022), the fact that pre- and proscriptive
stereotypes seem to prevail is worrisome. Both policy and
research has focused much on feminist progress (such as
affirmative actions, parental leave policies, etc.), which may have
consequences for descriptive stereotypes. However, if the
normative ideals about women and men persist, individuals who
violate these will still be negatively evaluated (Moss-Racusin
et al., 2010; Rudman et al., 2012).
Concerning how individuals view themselves, these views may
be more closely tied to everyday experiences –how they
themselves live their lives. If that is true, we would expect self-
views to be less stereotypical than pre- and proscriptive
stereotypes. In fact, since descriptive stereotypes reflect what
people perceive that women and men do in society, what roles
they perform, we could expect that self-views are more closely
tied to descriptive stereotypes. We cannot test this claim with the
current data. However, we know from previous research exploring
descriptive gender stereotypes that women and men in Sweden
were seen as equally agentic, but women were seen as more
communal than men (Gustafsson Send´
en et al., 2019). Hence, the
previously found descriptive stereotypes align with the results of
self-ratings from the present study, where women and men rated
themselves equal on agency, but women rated themselves higher
on communion. One tentative conclusion is therefore that self-
views on gendered traits are connected to descriptive stereotypes.
Moreover, in the previous study men were seen as having slightly
more negative masculine traits (e. g. dominance) than women and
women were seen as having slightly more negative feminine traits
(e.g. weakness). While the corresponding differences on self-
ratings were not significant in the present study, the pattern is
similar. Taken together, the results imply that young women and
men of today view themselves in less gender stereotypical ways.
Such an interpretation could be a consequence of the strong
gender egalitarianism enforced in Sweden. For instance, women
see themselves as equally agentic as men see themselves. Also,
even though men see themselves as less communal than women
see themselves, they still rate themselves high on communion.
One recent study documented how self-views differed in
countries varying on gender equality (Kosakowska-Berezecka
et al., 2022). They found that differences between women and
men in self-rated agency was smaller in more gender-egalitarian
countries than in less egalitarian countries. The difference was
mainly driven by men in less egalitarian countries who viewed
themselves as more agentic than men in more egalitarian
countries did. Regarding communion, there was a general
negative trend such that as national level gender equality
increased, self-rated communion decreased. This decrease was
larger for men, leading to a larger difference in self-rated
communion between women and men in more gender-egalitarian
countries, which is a bit counter-intuitive. While this study is
informative for positioning the findings of self-views in the
present study in a larger context, it does not say anything about
the relation to prescriptive or proscriptive stereotypes.
Discrepancies between societal pre- and proscriptive stereotypes
and self-views
As noted, the pre- and proscriptive stereotypes follow traditional
patterns where women should be communal but not dominant,
and men should be agentic but not weak (Koenig, 2018; Rudman
et al., 2012). Moreover, self-ratings of these traits showed that
only communion differed between women and men such that
women saw themselves as more communal than men.
Consolidating these findings imply that there are discrepancies
between how the societal stereotypes for women and men are
perceived to be and how women and men see themselves.
Significant effects for all relevant traits for women and men
participants were found, that is, women rated themselves lower on
Fig. 3. Mean differences compared to 0. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.
© 2023 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology published by Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Gender stereotypes and self-evaluations 7Scand J Psychol (2023)
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communion than what they perceived is desired by a woman in
society, and men rated themselves lower on agency compared to
what they perceived is desired by a man in society. While there
were no clear hypotheses about the proscriptive stereotypes
dominance and weakness, they show an inversed pattern. That is,
women rated themselves higher on dominance than what they
perceive is accepted for women by society and men rated
themselves higher on weakness than what they perceive is
accepted by society.
While there were no hypotheses about gender-incongruent traits
(communion for men and agency for women), the results showed
that men rated themselves as communal as they perceive the
societal stereotype for men to be, while women saw themselves as
less agentic than they perceive the societal stereotype for women
to be. Regarding the proscriptive stereotypes, women saw
themselves as significantly weaker than they perceive the
stereotypes for women’s weakness, but the effect was smaller than
the discrepancy for women’s dominance. Similarly, men saw
themselves are more dominant than the perceived stereotype for
men’s dominance, but again the effect was smaller than the
difference for men’s dominance.
Taken together, our results indicate that overall, both women
and men tend to view themselves as highly discrepant from how
they themselves think that women and men should be in their
society. According to self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, Roney,
Crowe & Hymes, 1994), such discrepancies between actual and
desired self, or ought self, could lead to negative psychological
consequences, such as negative self-evaluations. A potential
consequence is that individuals adapt their behavior to better fitin
with the stereotype for their gender, thus perpetuating gender
stereotypes (Rudman et al., 2012). Our sample consisted of young
people, and it is possible that, as they get older, they adapt to
their gender roles becoming more gender stereotypical.
Consequently, this could lead to that women and men restrict
themselves in how they behave or what roles they submit to in
order to fulfill perceived gender norms. Past research has
indicated that gender-incongruent behavior might be punished or
negatively evaluated by others (Rudman et al., 2012). However, it
is not certain that the perceived societal stereotypes correspond to
the individual’s desired or ought self. That is, the individual may
be knowledgeable about the societal desired view, but not agree
with it and hence themselves not submit to this view. If that is the
case, then discrepancies would not lead to negative outcomes in
terms of self-view. Hence, how gender stereotype incongruence in
self-views influence feelings and behavior needs further research.
In the present study, it is not possible to say anything about
consequences of the observed discrepancies such as psychological
health, or behaviors, but this should be explored further.
Limitations and future directions
Some limitations are worth noting. First, the present research did
not include similar ratings on descriptive stereotypes. While it is
important to compare self-views with prescriptive/proscriptive
ratings, it would have been informative to also include descriptive
stereotype ratings, that is, how women and men are seen in
society. In a recent study, Gustafsson Send´
en et al.(2019) found
that the descriptive stereotype for agency did not differ for
women and men targets at the present time in Sweden, but the
stereotype for communion differed such that women were seen as
more communal than men. The pattern is hence similar to the
self-views found in the present research.
Second, another limitation is the sample, which consisted of
students. While care was taken to include a variety of students
from different disciplines, the group is still not representative of
the general population. Yet, students tend to be younger and often
more progressive than the general population, which makes the
results even more interesting. The fact that this group still has
pronounced prescriptive and proscriptive stereotypes is
worrisome. In relation to the sample, cross-cultural work is also
encouraged. The present study was conducted in Sweden, and as
previous research show (Kosakowska-Berezecka et al., 2022;
Olsson et al., 2023) national level gender equality and individual
level gender attitudes matter for gender egalitarian behaviors and
self-attributions.
One important future venue is to explore the consequences of
the observed discrepancies. For instance, do these discrepancies
lead to negative psychological well-being as would be predicted by
self-discrepancy theory (Higgins et al., 1994), or do they reflect
individuals’opposition to the prescriptive and proscriptive
stereotypes. Other consequences that should be explored are if
these discrepancies are related to occupational choices for instance,
which may influence stereotypes in the future, that is, does the
magnitude of the difference on an individual level matter for the
type of occupation one seeks out? Two possibilities are plausible.
First, a larger discrepancy on individual level could motivate
individuals to seek out gender-stereotypical occupations in an
effort to remedy the difference (Rudman et al., 2012). Because role
congruity is encouraged and lack of fit between gender and role is
punished (Eagly & Diekman, 2005; Eagly & Karau, 2002;
Heilman & Caleo, 2018), it seems logical that people try to change
their behavior to be more in line with what they perceive to be
desired and expected by them (Rudman et al., 2012).
However, the opposite is also plausible. Individuals with a
large difference between self-view and pre/proscriptive
stereotypes may be motivated to seek out gender-incongruent
occupations that better reflect their view of themselves. As
stipulated by social role theory (Eagly, 1987; Eagly &
Woo d , 2012), gender stereotypes are rooted in the distribution of
labor and if this distribution changes, so will the (descriptive)
stereotypes associated with different roles. This malleability has
been shown in earlier research across both time and context
(Bosak et al., 2017; Diekman & Eagly, 2000; Diekman
et al., 2005; Diekman & Goodfriend, 2006; Garcia-Retamero
et al., 2011; Gustafsson Send´
en et al., 2019; Wilde &
Diekman, 2005). Consequently, these two possible scenarios have
very different long-term effects where the first would increase or
at least preserve gender stereotypes in the future, while the latter
would decrease gender stereotypes. Hence, there is a need to
further our understanding of the consequences of the observed
discrepancies.
CONCLUSION
This study showed that Swedish participants perceive the societal
stereotypes for women and men on the traits communion, agency,
© 2023 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology published by Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
8 E.A. Renstr¨
om Scand J Psychol (2023)
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dominance and weakness to follow traditional gendered patterns
such that women should be communal but not dominant and men
should be agentic but not weak. Further, women and men did not
differ much in how they perceived that they themselves possessed
these traits, with the exception that women saw themselves as
more communal than men saw themselves. Consequently, there
are discrepancies between the perceived societal ideals and the
self-views. Mainly, women and men see themselves as possessing
less of traits that they should have according to their perception of
the societal norm (communion for women and agency for men),
and as possessing too much of what they should not be
(dominance for women and weakness for men). Such
discrepancies may have negative individual consequences in
terms of wellbeing as well as societal consequences in terms of
gender equality.
The author declare no conflict of interest. The data for this
project will be made available at https://osf.io/fqd4p/ during 2023.
This project was supported by Forskningsr˚
adet om h¨
alsa, arbetsliv
och v¨
albefinnande (FORTE).
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