Women,Karate, and Gender Typing*

When women have the physical ability to overcome men, a major basis of cognitive categorization is violated and dissonance created. Two dissonance-resolving mechanisms take place-derision and denial. A study of women trained in Karate¹ provided an opportunity to examine these dissonance-reducing mechanisms. Results from fieldwork and questionnaires administered to both participants in Karate and a sample of students reveal that dissonace created by women's skills is most often resolved by denying skill. rather than by denigration of the woman's self. Field observations suggest that a psychology of tokenism operates; men discount women's achievement presumably gained by satisfying gender-independent criteria.