Gender Stereotyping in Supervisory Styles

The following insightful metaphor provided the backdrop for Stolorow and Atwood's (1979) Faces in a Cloud:

Man — the object of concern — is like an ever-varying cloud and psychologists are like people seeing faces in it. One psychologist perceives along the upper margin the contours of a nose and lip, and then miraculously other portions of the cloud become so oriented in respect to these that the outline of a forward-looking superman appears. Another psychologist is attracted to a lower segment, sees an ear, a nose, a chin, and simultaneously the cloud takes on the aspect of a backward-looking Epimethean. Thus, for each perceiver every sector of the cloud has a different function, name and value — fixed by his initial bias of perception. To be the founder of a school indeed, it is only necessary to see a face along another margin, (p. 13)

If the shape of a woman were also included in this metaphoric cloud, this philosophical idea would highlight the essence of this article, which will address the effects of the subjective style of the supervisor. The very vision described in this metaphor is a kind of blindness arising from the bias of the subjective perceiver. Gender stereotyping is a similar blindness — one that has significant impact in the mental health field, and in the supervisory process in particular. Because blindness can be removed only by repeated exposures of bias, it is important to address its existence in supervision. This is particularly essential because especially for the young analyst, supervision is the major arena where learning takes place.

Gender stereotyping in the supervisory process is manifested on several different levels. One instance, with frequently cited studies, is the differential response to and expectations of male and female candidates. In each case, certain learning needs will be met and others will be short-circuited.

Another level of gender stereotyping is related to the content of