Introduction:

Gender stereotypes are beliefs about the physical, psychological, and behavioral attributes of men and women. According to the literature, there is some variability in stereotypes for the woman category, as they are associated with one of three subcategories: traditional woman, independent woman, and sexy woman. This study aimed to observe the predominant and differentiating stereotypes of each type of woman and the formation of impressions in a Portuguese sample.

Method:

Participants (N = 78), distributed in 6 conditions according to the experimental design 3 (woman type: traditional, independent vs. sexy) x 2 (participant’s gender: male vs. female), should base on a previous description indicate the professional field, physical appearance and dress of the target woman and form an impression in terms of warm and competent attributes.

Results:

The results indicate higher warmth ratings for traditional women, little variability in competency ratings, and the responses obtained through semantic analysis provide different images for the three subgroups of women.

Conclusions:

The results partially confirm the hypotheses and are discussed based on the implications for the gender stereotypes` literature.

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