Judith E. Rosenstein’s research while affiliated with United States Naval Academy and other places

A culture of respect: Leader development and preventing destructive behavior - Volume 13 Issue 2 - David M. Wallace, Celeste Raver Luning, Judith E. Rosenstein, Andrew Ledford, Barbara Cyr-Roman

In the workplace, women often encounter gender stereotypes and biases that reinforce the existing gender hierarchy, may hinder women’s career aspirations and retention, and may limit their ability to be promoted—especially in traditionally male organizations. Long-standing and widely held (although often unconscious) beliefs about gender can reinforce women’s perceived lower status position relative to men’s. Because men are described/prescribed as agentic (often masculine) and women as communal (often feminine), women leaders are often evaluated as being status-incongruent. We explore the gendered assignment of leader attributes with particular attention to associations of agentic competence (deficiency for women) and agentic dominance (penalty for women). We examined peer evaluations of 4344 U.S. Naval Academy students who are assigned attributes from a predefined list. Although men and women received similar numbers of descriptive (positive) attributes, women received more proscriptive (negative) attributes than did men and these individual attributes were predominantly feminine. These findings offer evidence that women leaders’ status incongruity may be associated with perceived competence (agentic deficiency). A contribution of our analysis is theory testing using data from a real-life performance evaluation system. Additionally, our research contributes to our knowledge of gendered language and status characteristics in performance evaluations and can assist researchers and practitioners with developing interventions. Understanding the association of gender status beliefs with evaluation processes may facilitate changing workplace culture to be more gender-inclusive through less biased and stereotypical performance evaluations.

As hybrids of civilian colleges and the military, the United States military service academies provide a unique lens through which to examine sexual harassment and assault. They are also lightning rods for scrutiny and criticism, and testing grounds for innovation, intervention, and change. In this article, the authors provide an introduction to the academies and consider cultural and contextual factors, including masculinity and tokenism, that may influence student attitudes and experiences regarding these issues. In addition, they examine reports spanning almost a decade that show how rates of sexual harassment and assault have changed and make comparisons to both the broader military and civilian colleges and universities when possible. Finally, the authors discuss relevant prevention and response efforts at each institution, address implications, and suggest ways forward.

Although both the military and fraternities have been theorized to be characterized by norms and attitudes that serve to legitimize violence against women, no previous work has examined the potential similarity and differences in rape-supportive beliefs of these 2 environments or the people drawn to them. Further, the belief systems of women within these organizations have received little attention. As such, the current study sought to serve as an initial exploration of the rape-supportive belief systems of people drawn to these groups. Participants were recruited from students entering 2 military service academies (U.S. Military Academy, n = 1,169, 1,003 men, 166 women; U.S. Naval Academy, n = 1,916, 1,551 men, 365 women) and fraternities and sororities at a Midwestern university (n = 393, 188 men, 205 women). All participants completed the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale-Short Form. Consistent with previous findings related to gender, men were more accepting of rape myths than women. Further, there was more variability in the levels of rape myth acceptance among military service academy and fraternity men than among military service academy and sorority women. Although across all groups the women expressed significantly lower levels of rape myth acceptance than the men, women and men from the United States Military Academy were more closely aligned in their beliefs than women and men from the other samples. Implications for sexual assault prevention education are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

As increasing numbers of women are recruited into the U.S. Navy, retention of women (especially in combat occupational specialties) lags behind men. Data indicate that women and men leave the Navy because of impact on their family. Lack of career persistence for women in nontraditional professions such as science, technology, engineering, and math professions has also been attributed to social psychological factors including self-efficacy, stereotype threat, and bias. We build on this research to examine the military and service academies’ socialization of women into a traditionally male profession through role model influence. Surveys were collected from students at the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA) on their work–family expectations. Results show a gendered difference in career intentions and influences by male and female non-USNA peers, but not from their families or officers. Expected work–family conflict, gender ideology, and family formation intentions were employed to explore relationships between work and family expectations.

The bystander approach to sexual assault prevention has become popular on college campuses and within the military. Previous research has identified a negative association between the acceptance of rape myths and the likelihood of individuals intervening in a sexual assault situation. However, to date, all examinations of rape myth acceptance (RMA) and bystander intervention have focused on female rape myths (i.e., myths about rape involving a female victim). The current study explored whether male RMA (i.e., acceptance of myths about rape involving a male victim) influences bystander intervention in similar or differing ways compared with female RMA. In addition, the study explored whether male and female RMA function differently by subtypes of bystander intervention (i.e., known victim vs. stranger victim) and bystander gender. Participants included 970 students (731 men, 239 women) entering the United States Naval Academy. Participants completed the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale—Short Form, a 30-item male RMA scale, and the Intent to Help Friends and Intent to Help Strangers scales. The findings indicated that higher acceptance of both female and male rape myths was associated with a lowered intent to help someone known to the bystander. In contrast, after controlling for both types of RMA, only male RMA had a negative relationship with intent to help a stranger. These findings highlight the need to incorporate a discussion of male victimization and associated myths into bystander intervention programs.

Discussion of military sexual assault has largely focused on women, but men comprise a large percentage of survivors. Men are also less likely to report or seek care, partly because of rape myths. Rape myth acceptance (RMA) regarding female victims declines following interventions; however, the impact when victims are male is unclear. This cross-sectional study of U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen examines the relationship between an intervention and both types of RMA. One group completed the survey after a mandated sexual assault prevention training, while the other completed it before. More training was associated with lower RMA for both myth types.

Repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that excluded openly lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) persons from military service (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111–321, 124 Stat. 3515, 2010) was a defining moment for the nation and cause for hope that open service might become a reality for thousands of LGB service members. But the near-term reality of the DADT repeal may include heightened stressors and risks for LGB military personnel, including continuation of sexual stigma and prejudice and resistance to the policy change, a potential spike in sexual-orientation-based harassment and victimization, difficult decisions about remaining concealed or disclosing sexual orientation, and the potential that military mental health providers will have little recent experience in service delivery to openly LGB clients. In this article, we consider the effects of the DADT policy and the policy repeal on LGB military members. We conclude with several recommendations for psychologists who serve active duty LGB clients and who consult to military commanders and policymakers.