"I'm either a bitch or a bimbo."

So said Carly Fiorina, the high-profile former CEO of Hewlett Packard, describing a phenomenon social scientists call "ambivalent sexism." When women face ambivalent sexism, they sometimes have to choose between being liked but not respected, or being respected but not liked. In these situations women face complex political dynamics that don't affect men.

When ambivalent sexism is at work, women who adhere to traditionally feminine roles meet with benevolent approval—but are not seen as go-getters. Women who don't adhere to feminine scripts are respected but seen as having personality problems. When this occurs, women are called to task for behavior that is seen as unobjectionable in their male colleagues—sometimes called the "he's assertive, she's aggressive" syndrome. Another example of the same pattern is when self-promotion is seen as inappropriate in women ("she's a shameless self-promoter") but appropriate in men ("he knows his own worth"). Double binds also arises in the context of anger: workplace displays of anger raise the status of men but lower that of women.

Ambivalent sexism is especially complicated for women in professions that expect traditionally masculine qualities in their employees but still expect women to play traditionally feminine roles such as:

• The Mother: Restrained and endlessly supportive, picking up extra service and perhaps clerical work
• The Princess: Aligning with a powerful man but never challenging his dominance
• The Pet: Acting as an unthreatening cheerleader for the men

These scenarios illustrate the Double Bind bias (or lack of it). These scenarios are based on information from surveys and focus groups of faculty women.