It has been suggested that for women, success in competitive achievement situations may produce negative social sanctions, resulting in a motive to avoid success, which inhibits high performance in these situations. 120 college women, 60 exhibiting fear of success and 60 exhibiting no fear of success, based upon results of a projective measure, were subjects. Half of each group worked on a task described as masculine, and half performed the same task described, however, as feminine. In addition, part of each group competed against a man, part competed against a woman, and part worked alone. The results indicated that the current instrument for assessing the motive to avoid success is sex-role biased. Further, it was suggested that women perform best on tasks and against competitors who are preceived as compatible with their manifest sex-role orientation. Performance is depressed when these conditions are not met, due to the engagement of the motive to avoid success. (Author/BW)