College students' visions of power and possibility as moderated by gender

The research literature, the shortage of women in positions of visible leadership, and the media's treatment of powerful women suggest that cultural prescriptions for power and leadership mesh uncomfortably with expectations for women in many contexts. To explore the ways in which young women and men may be absorbing cultural messages about power and gender, this study investigated the ways in which university students imagined their "possible powerful selves. Respondents provided written descriptions of their possible selves as persons with power, political leaders, chief executive officers, and directors of scientific research centers as well as ratings of how possible and how positive such roles would be for them. Women rated the possibility of becoming a person with power or a political leader lower than men did. Women were also significantly more likely than men to anticipate relationship problems associated with the political leader role.