Grave injustice

Obituaries

Men and women who hold the same job while alive are often perceived very differently after they die. Obituaries published in four European newspapers during the years 1974, 1980, and 1986 described dearly departed male managers as intelligent, indefatigable, experienced, and entrepreneurial, reports psychologist Erich Kirchler of the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria, in the European Journal of Social Psychology (Vol. 22). Women, on the other hand, were remembered by surviving colleagues as adorable, faithful, and likeable in 1974 and 1980. By 1986, they were portrayed as committed and courageous---though still lacking in knowledge and expertise. If obituaries reflect the soul of gender-stereotyping society, today's working women may never rest in peace.

ILLUSTRATION: (BECKY HEAVNER)