BELIEFS IN A JUST WORLD, DISCONTENT, AND ASSERTIVE ACTIONS BY WORKING WOMEN

Seventy working women completed a questionnaire that assessed their dissatisfaction with their own job situation (personal discontent), their dissatisfaction with the job situations of women as a group (group discontent), and the strength of their beliefs in a just world (BJW). One month later, they completed a questionnaire that measured behaviors potentially related to discontent, some involving self-improvement (self-directed behaviors) and others relating to collective action (group-directed behaviors). Strong believers in a just world reported less group discontent than weak believers. BJW predicted both self-directed and group-directed behaviors, strong believers reported fewer behaviors of both kinds than weak believers. Taken together, BJW, group discontent, and personal discontent accounted for 23 % of the variance in self-directed behaviors (R =. 48) and 26 % of the variance in group-directed behaviors (R = .50). These data constitute the first evidence linking BJW to assertive actions.