Effects of conformity and nonconformity to gender-role expectations for dress: teachers versus students

Role theory predicts that a student's conformity to gender-role expectations for dress will result in favorable teacher evaluations and expectations. This conformity may be complicated by contradictory expectations from two sources: teachers and peers. This study examined the effects of conformity and nonconformity to gender-role expectations for dress on evaluations made by teachers and students. Both viewed a photograph of a young male student wearing or not wearing an earring and rated his personal traits, educational performance, parents' attitudes, social class, and interpersonal skills. Subjects were also asked to assess guilt and assign punishment after reading a behavior vignette. Results revealed that evaluations of personal traits, social class, and reactions to the behavior vignette were influenced by the presence or absence of an earring and by whether the evaluator was a teacher or a student. Results are discussed in terms of role theory.