Training Women To Be More Assertive in Mixed-Sex Task-Oriented Discussions 1

Abstract

This study tests the effectiveness of assertiveness training in increasing the level of women's participation in a small mixed-sex task-oriented discussion. Undergraduate women who met both self-descriptive and behavioral criteria for low activity participated with three active under-graduates in a pretest and posttest discussion, each with a different topic and with nonoverlapping group membership, as well as in either an ex-perimental or a control intervention. Experimental subjects received behavioral training in assertiveness while functioning essentially as a fifth member of several tape-recorded discussions. Assertiveness training was successful, with experimental subjects differing from controls on dependent measures reflecting three independent sources of information: (a) the subject's own behavior, as coded by an experimental assistant; (b) pretest and postttest group members ' perceptions of the subject's behavior; and (c) the subject's perceptions of her own behavior. These results are inter-preted as consistent with the view that a lack of assertiveness in the presence of men-rather than any lack of substantive knowledge or conceptual skill-depresses women's participation in mixed-sex discussions. ~This article is based upon a doctoral dissertation by Hedva Lewittes, submitted to th