Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

The “Princess Syndrome”: An Examination of Gender Harassment on a Male-Majority University Campus

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Sex Roles Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Gender harassment is prevalent in contexts where women are underrepresented and negatively stereotyped, yet instances of gender harassment are often discounted as unimportant and inconsequential. The current research presents an examination of gender harassment operating on a male-majority university campus in the form of a sex-based slur known as the “Princess Syndrome.” Across two studies, the present research investigated the prevalence, meaning, and adverse consequences of the label. Study 1 indicated that the label was widespread at the university: 70% of participants had heard of the label, nearly half had used the label, and 1 out of 4 female participants had been targeted by the label. Inductive content analysis of open-ended responses revealed that the label was a derogatory term used to insult and degrade women by stigmatizing women as manipulative, exploitative, and stuck up. In Study 2, participants read about and rated a female student who was either labeled with the “Princess Syndrome” or not. Consistent with predictions, participants were more likely to discount the female student’s success in an engineering course as due to external factors (e.g., luck), rated her as less competent, and were less likely to choose to work with her on a team project when she was labeled with the “Princess Syndrome” than when she was not labeled. Results contribute to a growing body of literature demonstrating that sex-based slurs matter and suggest that slurs such as the “Princess Syndrome” may constitute a consequential yet understudied source of gender harassment for undergraduate women in STEM that reinforces and maintains gender inequity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Acknowledgement

This research was presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues in San Diego, CA, June 2019. I wish to thank Stephanie Dukes for her assistance coding open-ended responses, as well as the editor and anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and feedback on previous drafts. Data is available on the Open Science Framework website at https://osf.io/vhgkj/?view_only=a4f1b1fdb8b643cd961b4b6fc91c2343.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jessica L. Cundiff.

Ethics declarations

Ethical Approval

The author certifies that the research was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Missouri University of Science and Technology, and that the research was conducted in accordance with APA ethical guidelines, including informed consent from all research participants. The author declares that they have no conflict of interest. This research did not receive any funding.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cundiff, J.L. The “Princess Syndrome”: An Examination of Gender Harassment on a Male-Majority University Campus. Sex Roles 85, 587–605 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-021-01243-4

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-021-01243-4

Keywords

Navigation