Antecedents and Consequences of Perceived Personal Gender Discrimination: A Study of Solicitors in Hong Kong

Informed by social identity theory, we developed a model to examine the antecedents and consequences of perceptions of personal gender discrimination. In the model, gender, gender identity, and perceived gender bias against women are considered as salient predictors of perceived personal gender discrimination, and organizational commitment and intentions to leave are considered as the outcome variables. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data collected from a sample of practicing solicitors in Hong Kong. We found that (a) women perceived more personal gender discrimination and gender bias against women than did men, (b) gender moderated the relationship between perceived gender bias against women and perceived personal gender discrimination, (c) the positive effect of gender bias against women on gender discrimination was more strongly positive for women than for men, and (d) perceived personal gender discrimination affected organizational commitment and intentions to leave. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Constructing Gender in Chat Groups

We investigated the construction of gender in chat groups. Four unacquainted persons chatted in two gender-anonymous conditions and a non-anonymous control condition. In one anonymous condition, the gender focus was made salient. The other groups did not know about the gender focus. All participants had to guess the gender of the others and give reasons for their decisions. Results suggest that (a) overall, 2/3 of gender guesses fit the sex category of the targets, (b) gender anonymity was more comfortable for women, (c) participants used mostly gender-stereotypic cues to infer gender, however, men and women used syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic cues (with different predictive value) to different degrees, (d) conversational behavior varied depending on gender anonymity, and (e) degree of gender salience was irrelevant for the use of gender as an organizing category.     

Gender Identity and Adjustment in Middle Childhood

This article has two purposes. The first is to present a brief (and speculative) account of the developmental origins of the several components of gender identity featured in the multidimensional model of gender identity proposed by Egan and Perry (2001). The second is to offer additional empirical support for the construct and discriminant validity of the various gender identity dimensions. Children (M age = 11.5 years) were assessed for 4 components of gender identity: (a) felt gender typicality, (b) contentment with gender assignment, (c) felt pressure for gender conformity, and (d) intergroup bias (the sentiment that one's own sex is superior). Gender typicality, gender contentedness, and felt pressure (but not intergroup bias) related to indexes of psychosocial adjustment in specific and theoretically meaningful ways. The case for a multidimensional approach to gender identity is strengthened.     

Mother-Child Attachment and Gender Identity in Preadolescence

We investigated the relations of two dimensions of attachment insecurity (avoidant with mother, preoccupied with mother) to three dimensions of gender identity (gender typicality, gender contentedness, felt pressure for gender differentiation) in preadolescent children. We hypothesized that attachment insecurity (of either sort) fosters felt pressure for gender differentiation but impedes the development of felt gender typicality and gender contentedness. Participants were 863 Black, Hispanic, and White fifth graders attending public schools in the southeast United States (443 girls, 420 boys; M age = 11.1 years). Each attachment measure was associated with each gender identity measure in the expected way, but some associations hinged on child gender or ethnicity/race. Avoidant attachment was negatively associated with felt gender typicality only for White children, negatively associated with gender contentedness for the entire sample, and positively associated with felt pressure for gender differentiation only for White children. Preoccupied attachment was negatively associated with felt gender typicality for the entire sample, negatively associated with gender contentedness only for boys, and positively associated with felt pressure for gender differentiation only for girls.     

Is the gap more than gender? A longitudinal analysis of gender, gender role orientation, and earnings

This study investigated the relationships among gender, gender role orientation (i.e., attitudes toward the gendered separation of roles at work and at home), and earnings. A multilevel model was conceptualized in which gender role orientation and earnings were within-individual variables that fluctuate over time (although predictors of between-individual differences in gender role orientation were also considered). Results indicated that whereas traditional gender role orientation was positively related to earnings, gender significantly predicted the slope of this relationship: Traditional gender role orientation was strongly positively associated with earnings for men; it was slightly negatively associated with earnings for women. Occupational segregation partly explained these gender differences. Overall, the results suggest that although gender role attitudes are becoming less traditional for men and for women, traditional gender role orientation continues to exacerbate the gender wage gap.     

Children’s Responses to Computer‐Synthesized Speech in Educational Media: Gender Consistency and Gender Similarity Effects

This study examines children’s social responses to gender cues in synthesized speech in a computer‐based instruction setting. Eighty 5th‐grade elementary school children were randomly assigned to one of the conditions in a full‐factorial 2 (participant gender) × 2 (voice gender) × 2 (content gender) experiment. Results show that children apply gender‐based social rules to synthesized speech. More specifically, children evaluate synthesized speech more positively, trust the speech more, and learn more effectively when voice gender matches either content gender (consistency attraction) and/or their own gender (similarity attraction). Children’s computer self‐efficacy was a significant covariate for their social responses to synthesized speech. Theoretical and practical implications of the current study for the design of educational media are discussed.     

基于IAT和SEB的内隐性别刻板印象研究

采用内隐联想测验(IAT)和刻板解释偏差(SEB)两种测量内隐社会认知的方法考察了120名大学生被试的内隐性别刻板印象。结果表明,大学生中普遍存在着较强的内隐性别刻板印象,人们对于男性以及男性本身持有的刻板印象符合传统的认知习惯,而对于女性及女性持有的刻板印象则与传统的认知习惯有所不同。用IAT和SEB这两种方法测量大学生的内隐性别刻板印象,在被试的性别变量上得到的结果不一致。     

Essentialism,Culture, and Beliefs About Gender Among the Aravanis of Tamil Nadu,India

The purpose of this study was to investigate the gender beliefs of the Aravanis, a transgender community in Tamil Nadu. Gender transgression and gender transformation (attempts to change gender) tasks were used to examine the essentialist notions of the Aravanis' beliefs about gender. A total of 100 Aravanis participated in the study. In the gender transgression task the Aravanis endorsed both male and female gender transgressions. In the gender transformation task the Aravanis believed in the male to female transformation but not in the female to male transformation. I argue that the asymmetry in the Aravanis' responses suggests that their beliefs about gender are consistent with Hindu patriarchal beliefs that feminine gender is essential and primordial, whereas masculine gender transformations are viewed as part of the male prerogative. The marginalized gender experience of the Aravanis influenced their judgments about gender transgressions but not their beliefs about gender transformations. I also discuss the implications of a cultural psychology of gender.     

Gender Bias Produces Gender Gaps in STEM Engagement

We explored whether the existence of gender bias causes gender gaps in STEM engagement. In Experiment 1 (n?=?322), U.S. women projected less sense of belonging, positivity toward, and aspirations to participate in STEM than did men when exposed to the reality of STEM gender bias. These gender differences disappeared when participants were told that STEM exhibits gender equality, suggesting that gender bias produces STEM gender gaps. Experiment 2 (n?=?429) explored whether results generalized to a specific STEM department, and whether organizational efforts to mitigate gender bias might shrink gender gaps. U.S. women exposed to a biased chemistry department anticipated more discrimination and projected less sense of belonging, positive attitudes and trust and comfort than did men. These gender differences vanished when participants read about an unbiased department, again suggesting that gender bias promotes STEM gender gaps. Further, moderated mediation analyses suggested that in the presence of gender bias (but not gender equality), women projected less positive attitudes and trust and comfort than did men because they experienced less sense of belonging and anticipated more discrimination. Results were largely unaffected by whether departments completed a diversity training, suggesting that knowledge of diversity initiatives alone cannot close STEM gender gaps.     

Does gender identity influence children's psychological well-being?

This study examined influences of gender identity on change in preadolescents' adjustment over time. In each of two successive years, three measures of gender identity (felt gender typicality, contentment with gender assignment, and felt pressure for gender conformity) and four measures of adjustment (self-esteem, internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and acceptance by peers) were collected. Low gender typicality, low gender contentedness, and high felt pressure all foreshadowed deterioration on one or more indexes of adjustment. The combination of low gender typicality with high felt pressure was especially conducive to internalizing problems, underscoring the importance of the cognitive organization of the gender identity variables. The advantages of a multidimensional perspective on gender identity are discussed.     

Constraints and triggers: situational mechanics of gender in negotiation

The authors propose 2 categories of situational moderators of gender in negotiation: situational ambiguity and gender triggers. Reducing the degree of situational ambiguity constrains the influence of gender on negotiation. Gender triggers prompt divergent behavioral responses as a function of gender. Field and lab studies (1 and 2) demonstrated that decreased ambiguity in the economic structure of a negotiation (structural ambiguity) reduces gender effects on negotiation performance. Study 3 showed that representation role (negotiating for self or other) functions as a gender trigger by producing a greater effect on female than male negotiation performance. Study 4 showed that decreased structural ambiguity constrains gender effects of representation role, suggesting that situational ambiguity and gender triggers work in interaction to moderate gender effects on negotiation performance.     

The Gendering of Language: A Comparison of Gender Equality in Countries with Gendered, Natural Gender, and Genderless Languages

Feminists have long argued that sexist language can have real world consequences for gender relations and the relative status of men and women, and recent research suggests that grammatical gender can shape how people interpret the world around them along gender lines (Boroditsky 2009). Although others have theorized about the connection between grammatical gender in language and societal gender equality (Stahlberg et al. 2007), the current work tests this link empirically by examining differences in gender equality between countries with gendered, natural gender, and genderless language systems. Of the 111 countries investigated, our findings suggest that countries where gendered languages are spoken evidence less gender equality compared to countries with other grammatical gender systems. Furthermore, countries where natural gender languages are spoken demonstrate greater gender equality, which may be due to the ease of creating gender symmetric revisions to instances of sexist language.     

Influences of Gender as a Basic-Level Category in Person Perception on the Gender Belief System

The use of gender as an organizing category in social perception and its influence on the gender belief systemwere investigated. A modified version of the Role Construct Repertory Test and selected self-report questionnaires were completed by 190 college students (165 women and 25 men). All the participants used gender to organize their person schemas, and using gender in this way related positively to gender stereotyping. Both sexist gender attitudes and use of gender as an organizing category predicted gender stereotyping. Components of the gender belief system were only correlated if they were conceptually similar. The findings are congruent with gender transcendent and multifactorial gender identity theories.     

Gender role conflict: The interaction of gender,gender role,and occupation

One hundred forty-nine middle class individuals (69 males and 80 females), approximately 80% of whom were Caucasian, participated in the present study. The study was designed to test the hypothesis that individuals whose gender role and occupation did not match (i.e., feminine individuals in predominantly male occupations or masculine individuals in predominantly female occupations) would experience more gender role conflict than individuals whose gender role and occupation matched. The hypothesis was supported. A feminine gender role predicted higher gender role conflict in predominantly male occupations, and lower gender role conflict in predominantly female occupations than a masculine gender role. A masculine gender role predicted the lowest gender role conflict scores in predominantly male occupations, and the highest in predominantly female occupations. Furthermore, higher masculinity scores were related to greater gender role conflict for females than males in more predominantly male occupations.     

Gender,Gender Roles,and Personality: Gender Differences in the Prediction of Coping and Psychological Symptoms

Path models of the effects of gender, gender roles, and personality variables (achievement and affiliation orientation, locus of control, empathy) on coping and symptoms were tested to explore the risk and protective effects of gender roles and personality on psychological symptoms, and to test whether or not gender roles or personality accounted for gender differences in coping and symptoms. In a sample of university undergraduates (35% Asian American, 59% European American or Caucasian, 6% other ethnic/racial background), masculinity predicted lower depression but higher antisocial and substance use problems, whereas femininity predicted lower antisocial and substance use problems. Personality variables did not account for the effects of gender or gender roles on coping or symptoms, but rather gender roles and personality each predicted unique variance in those variables. Significant gender differences in the relations among gender roles and personality emerged; however, there were no gender differences in the relations between coping and symptoms. Findings highlight the importance of studying gender differences in the effects of gender roles and personality on coping and symptoms, because it appears that gender roles and personality operate differently for males and females.     

Women are not less field independent than men—the role of stereotype threat

Prior research has shown that females are less field independent (FI) than males. However, when gender identity is salient, performance on tests assessing constructs similar to FI may be hindered, because of stereotype threat. This study examined the impact of stereotype threat on gender differences in FI. We expected that (a) reporting one's own gender prior to FI testing and (b) having an opposite‐gender experimenter would activate stereotype threat, and in turn result in lower performance on a test of FI among females. Overall, 170 participants were randomly assigned to one of eight conditions in a between‐participants design varying the participant's gender, experimenter's gender and timing of the gender question (before vs. after test). Results showed that reporting one's gender before the FI test led to lower FI performance among females. Furthermore, females achieved higher FI when experimenters were females and gender questions were administered after the FI test.     

Gender and lexical access in Bulgarian

Two procedures were used to explore the effects of semantic and grammatical gender on the recognition and processing of Bulgarian nouns, in relation to other factors that are known to affect lexical access. This study in a three-gender language was modeled on previous work in Italian, a two-gender language (Bates, Devescovi, Pizzamiglio, D'Amico, & Hernandez, 1995). Words were presented auditorily in randomized lists in two tasks: (1) repeat the word as quickly as possible and (2) determine the grammatical gender of the noun as soon as possible and indicate the decision by pressing a button. Reaction times in both tasks were influenced by phonological factors, word frequency, and irregularity of gender marking, but semantic and grammatical gender affected only gender monitoring. The significant contribution of semantic gender to processing in Bulgarian contrasts with previous findings for Italian. Also, we obtained an interaction between sex of the subject and noun gender, reflecting a bias toward one's own grammatical gender "counterpart" (especially for females). Reanalysis of the prior study in Italian showed a similar interaction but confirmed no effects of the semantic gender of the noun, suggesting that these two natural gender effects can dissociate. Possible reasons for cross-linguistic differences are discussed, with implications for comparative studies of gender and lexical access.     

Self-Perceived Gender Typicality, Gender-Typed Attributes, and Gender Stereotype Endorsement in Elementary-School-Aged Children

This study examined relations among self-perceived gender typicality, gender-typed attributes, and gender stereotype endorsement with a sample of elementary-school-aged children (N?=?100, ages 6–12) from the Midwestern United States. Children who perceived themselves as more gender-typical were more interested in same-gender-typed activities and occupations and less interested in other-gender-typed activities and occupations than children who perceived themselves as less gender-typical. Gender typicality was linked to gender stereotype endorsement, as predicted based on Liben and Bigler’s (2002) dual-pathway model of gender development, with children who perceived themselves as less gender-typical having more egalitarian (less stereotyped) attitudes than children who perceived themselves as more gender-typical. The observed relations between gender-typed attributes and self-perceived gender typicality and between self-perceived gender typicality and gender stereotype endorsement did not differ across gender or age. These findings indicate that even young elementary-school-aged children use their knowledge of cultural gender roles to make subjective judgments regarding the self, and, conversely, that views of the self may influence personal endorsement of cultural gender stereotypes. Although the majority of extant research has focused on negative outcomes associated with low self-perceived gender typicality (e.g., low self-esteem), this research indicates that positive outcomes (e.g., flexible gender role attitudes) may also be associated with low self-perceived gender typicality.     

Influence of Item Content and Stereotype Situation on Gender Differences in Mathematical Problem Solving

On standardized tests of mathematical problemsolving, the typical finding has been that women scorelower than men. Experiment 1 manipulated gender labeling(female character, male character, or gender neutral) within the problem question to seewhether this accounted for gender differences inmathematical problem solving. Sixty-four seventh andeighth graders were tested on modified versions of theCanadian Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) with the resultsshowing that although gender labeling affected studentsperformance, it did not account for gender differences.Experiment 2 manipulated both gender labeling and gender stereotype threat for 174 universitystudents writing modified versions of a modelStandardized Achievement Test (SAT). Again, genderlabeling within problem questions did not account forgender differences. However, women scored lower thanmen when they believed that the test had previouslyshown gender differences. There was no gender differencein the performance of the same women and men when they believed that the test was merelycomparing Canadian students with American students. Thissuggests that gender stereotype threat could be a keyfactor in explaining gender differences in mathematical problem solving.     

Interactive Influences of Gender Identity and Gender Typing on Early Adolescents’ Well-Being

We examined whether protective forms of gender identity (typicality, contentedness) ameliorate the negative influences of self-perceived cross gender typing (gender differentiated friendship styles) on early adolescents’ well-being. Early adolescents (N?=?244, 123 girls, M age 12.77 years) in Surrey, England responded to self-reports of friendship styles (preoccupied, avoidant), gender identity (typicality, contentedness), and well-being (self-esteem, depression). Girls reported higher scores than boys on the preoccupied friendship style, and lower scores than boys on the avoidant friendship style. Children who reported a cross gender style (preoccupied for boys and avoidant for girls) also reported poor well-being, indicating that self-perceived cross gender typing is distressing. However, these influences were buffered for youths who reported high levels of gender typicality and gender contentedness. Results suggest that gender identity plays a self-regulatory role in discounting self-perceived gender-atypical attributes that interfere with early adolescents’ sense of well-being.