Subjects read discussion group transcripts and evaluated the performance of group members, the group leader, and the group as a whole. Discussants' names were varied to represent male or female leadership and all-male, all-female or half-and-half group membership. The data supported two of the three coping strategies postulated as alternatives to attitude change, namely isolation and degradation. The only factor which reliably affected ratings of group performance was the sex of the chairperson. Female-led groups were evaluated more favorably than the same groups when they were led by males. (BN)