The past century has witnessed an effort on the part of various feminist groups to improve the status of American women in contemporary society. Two or three decades of women's liberation and an increased sense of autonomy and opportunity for women has raised some interesting questions. An important one concerns a woman's own ability to deal with her increase in freedom. Horner (1968) showed that the expectancy of success in achievement-related situations was followed by negative consequences arousing a tendency to lower the level of successs in an otherwise achievement motivated woman by lowering her level of aspiration.

It was proposed in this study that a woman who chooses a traditional career will experience less anxiety than one who chooses a non-traditional career because of the fear of success phenomenon. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory State form, was administered as pre- and posttest to equal numbers of female dental students (non-traditional female career), male dental students, and female dental hygienists (traditional female career). No significant differences in anxiety were revealed between the groups in reaction to a highly competitive situation with a male competitor. Women in a non-traditional career did not experience a higher level of fear of success due to conflict with their femininity than women in a traditional career or men in the same career field. Women did reveal a higher score on Costello's Scale I measure of desire to do a job well reflecting their affiliation needs. Contrary to expectations, women scored significantly higher on Costello's Scale II measure of desire to be a success. This result may support the supposition that high fear of success women depress performance in competition with males since the female dental hygienists were competing with other females.