Two studies were undertaken to determine first whether language characteristics attributed to females are more socially desirable than those attributed to males and second whether a double standard exists such that language traits seen as socially desirable for adults in general are viewed as negative when assigned to either females or males. For the first study, 94 college students were asked to rate qualities of speech that are stereotypic of male or female speech as being more or less socially desirable. It was found that traits more often assigned to women's language are rated more socially desirable than those associated with men's language. In the second study, 96 different college students were assigned to one of three treatment groups. The first group was asked to evaluate 36 stereotypic characteristics as if they were the behavior of a mature, competent adult woman. For the second group, "man" was substituted for "woman" in the directions; for the third group, "person" was used. The results showed that characteristics of competent females were more like those of competent adults than were those for competent males. (TJ)