It is official: Majority of Americans think women are just as competent as men, if not more so

Good news, ladies: Americans now think women are just as smart and just as competent as men.

And it gets better: Among the 25% of respondents who did perceive a gender difference in the smart category, most said that women were more intelligent and competent than men.

So says a scientific study published Thursday in the journal American Psychologist that examines Americans' perceptions of women over the past 70 years.

"It's a pretty dramatic shift," said Alice Eagly, a social psychologist at Northwestern University in Illinois who led