How women’s unconscious process

are effected in Gender Situations

Tatiana Christofi

Presentation Contents

1. Gender Stereotypes and Assessments of task competence

2. Two ways that stereotypes influence Self-Assessment 3. How do stereotypes impact Performance4. What can be done – Previous studies - 5. How organisations can help6. Statistics 7. References8. Questions ?

‘‘Many young men and women in vocational schools and general secondary education still opt for career choices reflecting traditional gender roles. Better vocational guidance is

needed to address this issue and for career advisers to be more gender aware and thus more able to challenge stereotypes.’’

(European Commission – 2010)

While there are many reasons why individuals might prefer one career to another…

…as a minimum, individuals must believe they have the skills necessary for a given career in order to develop preferences for that career.

Shelley J. Correll, 2006

Stereotypic Beliefs

Aspiration&

Decisions

Assessment of

Competence

Gender Stereotypes and Assessments of task competence.

• gender stereotypes affect assessments we make our own competence Self Assessment

• gender stereotypes affect assessment others make of our competence Other’s Assessments

Shelley J. Correll, 2006

Two ways that stereotypes influence Self-Assessment

• Negative stereotypes lead to decreased task performance

• Negative stereotypes lead individuals to judge their performance by a harsher standard

Shelley J. Correll, 2006

How do stereotypes impact performance? ‘Stereotype threat’)

• Main finding is that negative stereotypes lead to decreased task performance

• When salient, stereotypes interfere with working memory capacity

‘‘Stereotype threat refers to being at risk of confirming, a negative stereotype about one's

group’’ Steele & Aronson, 1995

(Stereotype Threat and women’s Math Performance by Spencer S., 1998)

The effect often occurs out of awareness. • ‘‘Stereotype threat inquiring about task takers’

ethnicity and gender and standardised test performance’’

Stricker and Wood, 2004.• ‘‘Neural basis of stereotype – included shift in women’s mental

rotation performance’’ Wraga, Helt, Jacobs and Sullivan, 2006

• ‘‘Stereotypes Susceptibility: identify salience and shifts in qualitative performance.’’

Shih, Pittinsky and Ambady, 1999.

How do stereotypes impact performance? ‘Stereotype threat’)

‘‘Stereotype threat inquiring about task `takers’ ethnicity and gender and standardised test

performance’’ Stricker and Ward, 2004.More Details:• Tetris like game• Half of them were exposed to a negative stereotype and half of

them were exposed to a positive stereotype• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) brain scanMain Findings:• Women exposed to a negative stereotype made 40% more errors -

> decrease performance • Women exposed to a negative stereotype, the portion of their

brain that use to solve problems was not being recruited as heavily as for women in the other condition.

• Occurs out of awareness

‘‘Neural basis of stereotype – included shift in women’s mental rotation performance’’

Wraga, Helt, Jacobs and Sullivan, 2006.

More Details:• Previous A.P. Calculus test• Complete Demographic Information before or

after the testMain Findings:• 47.000 women in the US would have gone the

AP Calculus credit

‘‘Stereotypes Susceptibility: identify salience and shifts in qualitative performance.’’

Shih, Pittinsky and Ambady, 1999.More Details:• Asian Women to the laboratory • Gender and Mathematic stereotype(negative stereotype),

Asian and Mathematics stereotypes (positive stereotype)and a control condition were they were exposed to no stereotypes

Main Findings:• Women in exposed to the negative stereotype had a decrease

performance compared to the control group. Women exposed to the positive stereotype had a stereotype lift performance

• Stereotypes that are in our local environment makes the difference.

What can be done?

• Stereotypic bias often occur out of awareness • Biases are more extreme in uncertain

situations• The impact of stereotype change when beliefs

in the local setting change.• Stereotypes also bias the standards of

gatekeepers use to access competence.

• ‘‘Signaling Threat: How Signaling Cues Affect Women in Math, Science and Engineering Settings.’’

Murphy, Steele and Gross, 2007More Details: - SEM major student from Stanford University – highly identified with

mathematic abilities - Leadership conference- Gender balanced and unbalanced video- Looking for students to attend Main Findings:- Women in the balanced video showed significant more interest in going to

the conference- Importance to portray image that suggest people belong

What can be done?

• ‘‘ Unlock the Clubhouse: Women in Computing.’’ Margolis and Fisher, 2003More Details: - Geek picture of Computer Science and then they asked

people if that image describes themMain Findings:- 3/4 of men said yes- 1/3 of women said yes- We don’t need to fit women into Computer Science we need

to change Computer Science- Expand the image of what computer science is

What can be done?

• Control the message: what are the gender beliefs that are operating in the organisation? How hoes the organisation presents itself?

• Make performance clearer and communicate them clearly. Teach tacit knowledge.

• Hold gatekeepers accountable for gender disparities. It is important to keep thinking about how our policies and procedures affect career relevant decisions.

What can be done?Organisations need to….

Bachelor’s Degrees Earned by Women in Selected Fields 1966-2006

Women and men in Science, Engineering and Technology:the UK statistics guide 2010. UCRC

Key statistics on STEM GCSEs in 2009• Girls do well in STEM GCSEs. In 2009, girls outperformed boys in grades A* to C

(pass rate) in six out of twelve STEM GCSE subjects.• Girls and boys enter exams in STEM GCSEs in almost equal numbers, with girls

accounting for 48.8 per cent of all STEM exam entries.• The overall proportional representation of girls in STEM GCSE subjects has slightly

improved in the recent years, particularly in physics, chemistry and biology.Key statistics on A evel STEM subjects in 2009• Fewer girls than boys take STEM subjects at A level. Girls accounted for 42.2 per cent

of all A level STEM exam entries in 2009. They were only 9.6 per cent of students in computing and 22.2 per cent in physics.

• Girls are a smaller proportion of entrants to most STEM subjects at A level than they are in STEM GCSE exams.

• In recent years the increase in the numbers of girls taking mathematics, further mathematics, technology, physics, and science subjects at A level has been proportionately greater than that for boys.

• Girls perform well in A level STEM subjects. In 2009, girls outperformed boys in A grade attainment in all but two A level STEM subjects.

• Girls also had a slightly better pass rate (grades A – E) than boys in all A level STEM subjects.

References • AAUW, (2010). Why so Few? Women in Science. Technology, Engineer and

Mathematics. Available at http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/upload/whysofew_execsummary.pdf. Last accessed 24/05/2012.

• Correll S., (2006) Gender stereotypes and the career choice process: Implications for graduate education in computer science, Cornell University

• Kirkup, G., Zalevski, A., Maruyama, T. and Batool, I. (2010). Women and men in science, engineering and technology: the UK statistics guide 2010. Bradford: the UKRC

• Europian Commission, (2010). Gender Differences in Educational Outcomes: Traditional stereotypes are the biggest challenge for gender equality in education. Available online at : http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/thematic_reports/120EN_HI.pdf Last accessed 20/05/2012.

• Margolis J. and Fisher A., (2003). Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing. The MIT Press, USA.

• Murphy M. C., Steele, C. M. & Gross, J. J. (2007). Signaling threat: How situational cues affect women in math, science, and engineering settings. Psychological Science, 18

• Shih, M., Pittinsky, T. L., & Ambady, N. (1999). Stereotype susceptibility: Identity salience and shifts in qualitative performance. Psychological Science, 10

• Spencer S., et. al., (1999). Stereotype Threat and Women’s Math Performance. University of Waterloo

• Steele, C.M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype Threat and the intellectual test-performance of African-Americans. Journal of personality and Social Psychology, 69 (5): 797-811.

• Wraga, M.; Helt, M.; Jacobs, E.; Sullivan, K. (2006). "Neural basis of stereotype-induced shifts in women's mental rotation performance". Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 2 (1)

• Stricker LJ, Ward WC. Stereotype threat, inquiring about test takers' ethnicity and gender, and standardized test performance. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 2004

References