Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM): An Investigation of Their Implicit Gender Stereotypes and Stereotypes’ Connectedness to Math Performance

In spite of many barriers facing women??s enrollment in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), some women are successful in these counter-stereotypic disciplines. The present research extended work primarily conducted in the United States by investigating implicit gender-STEM stereotypes??and their relation to performance??among female and male engineering and humanities students in Southern France. In study 1 (N?=?55), we tested whether implicit gender-math stereotypes??as measured by the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald et al. 1998)??would be weaker among female engineering students as compared to female humanities, male engineering and male humanities students. In study 2 (N?=?201), we tested whether this same results pattern would be observed with implicit gender-reasoning stereotypes (using a newly created IAT) and, in addition, whether implicit gender-reasoning stereotypes would be more strongly (and negatively) related to math grades for female humanities students as compared to the three other groups. Results showed that female engineering students held weaker implicit gender-math and gender-reasoning stereotypes than female humanities, male engineering and male humanities students. Moreover, implicit stereotyping was more negatively related to math grades for female humanities students than for the three other groups. Together, findings demonstrate that female engineering students hold weaker implicit gender-STEM stereotypes than other groups of students and, in addition, that these stereotypes are not necessarily negatively associated with math performance for all women. Discussion emphasizes how the present research helps refine previous findings and their importance for women??s experience in STEM.     

Changing stereotypes,changing grades: a longitudinal study of stereotyping during a college math course

Previous research has illuminated an important connection between stereotypes and the performance of those targeted by a stereotype. This body of work suggests that even implicit (i.e., nonconscious and unintended) math-gender stereotyping is related to poor math performance among women. Our longitudinal study sought to measure students’ math-gender stereotyping during a college math course and examine the relationship between changes in implicit stereotyping and course performance. Results showed that, for both male and female students, stereotypes increased during the course. Importantly, there was a significant interaction between gender and changes in implicit stereotyping when predicting course performance. Female students showed a negative relationship between changes in implicit stereotypes and course performance, while male students showed no relationship between changes in implicit stereotyping and course performance. This suggests that only for women, who are stereotyped as poor math performers, did the observed increases in stereotyping over time predict poorer math performance.     

Implicit Science Stereotypes Mediate the Relationship between Gender and Academic Participation

While the gender gap in mathematics and science has narrowed, men pursue these fields at a higher rate than women. In this study, 165 men and women at a university in the northeastern United States completed implicit and explicit measures of science stereotypes (association between male and science, relative to female and humanities), and gender identity (association between the concept “self” and one’s own gender, relative to the concept “other” and the other gender), and reported plans to pursue science-oriented and humanities-oriented academic programs and careers. Although men were more likely than women to plan to pursue science, this gap in students’ intentions was completely accounted for by implicit stereotypes. Moreover, implicit gender identity moderated the relationship between women’s stereotypes and their academic plans, such that implicit stereotypes only predicted plans for women who strongly implicitly identified as female. These findings illustrate how an understanding of implicit cognitions can illuminate between-group disparities as well as within-group variability in science pursuit.     

Approaching math increases math = me and math = pleasant

In two studies, we examined the effect of extensive practice in approaching math on implicit identification with math, implicit math attitudes, and behavior during a math test. The results from Study 1 demonstrated that women trained to approach math showed more identification with and positive implicit attitudes toward math than women trained to avoid math. Notably, this latter pattern of findings was only evident for women low in initial identification with this field. The results from Study 2 replicated these findings by showing that women who were initially low in math identification and trained to approach math showed more implicit identification with math and attempted more items on a math test than women trained to respond to math in a neutral way. The implications of these findings for current theorizing on the gender gap in women’s representation in math related careers are discussed.     

Separating Implicit Gender Stereotypes regarding Math and Language: Implicit Ability Stereotypes are Self-serving for Boys and Men, but not for Girls and Women

We investigated implicit gender stereotypes related to math and language separately, using Go/No-go Association Tasks. Samples were grade 9 adolescents (N?=?187) and university students (N?=?189) in Germany. Research questions concerned the existence of and gender differences in implicit stereotypes. While typical explicit-stereotyping findings were replicated, implicit math-male stereotypes were found in male, but not in female participants. Females revealed strong language-female stereotypes, whereas males showed language-male counterstereotypes. Thus, females?? implicit math-gender stereotypes were the only ones that did not link own gender to the respective academic domain in a self-serving way. Further, females?? stronger stereotypes were related to lower and males?? to higher scores on constructs related to math ability, corroborating implicit stereotypes?? importance.     

Gender differences in implicit gender self‐categorization lead to stronger gender self‐stereotyping by women than by men

It was hypothesized that, in natural group contexts, low‐status in‐group membership would be highly accessible, whereas membership to high‐status groups would not. Therefore, gender group membership was predicted to be more accessible for women than for men. It was further hypothesized that the high accessibility of gender group membership would lead to stronger self‐stereotyping for women than for men. To measure the accessibility of gender group membership, participants performed a Gender Self‐Categorization Implicit Association Test (Studies 1 and 2), measuring the strength of automatic associations between the self and the gender in‐group. Participants also performed a Self‐Stereotyping Implicit Association Test (Study 2), assessing the strength of automatic associations between the self and the stereotypical traits of the in‐group. As expected, implicit gender self‐categorization and implicit gender self‐stereotyping were stronger for women than for men. Importantly, implicit gender self‐categorization mediated the relation between gender and self‐stereotyping. Therefore, implicit gender self‐categorization was the mechanism underlying stronger implicit self‐stereotyping by women. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using implicit bias training to improve attitudes toward women in STEM

Implicit biases can foster negative attitudes and lead to damaging stereotypical behaviors. Stereotypes can negatively affect the education, hiring, promotion, and retention of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This study evaluated the impact of diversity training on university faculty ( \(N = 234\) ) by assessing changes in implicit associations and explicit attitudes toward women in STEM. Personal implicit associations about women in STEM improved for men, but not for women who already tended toward more positive implicit associations at pre-test. Men were more likely than women to explicitly endorse stereotypes about women in STEM at both pre- and post-test, and these attitudes did not change as a result of the diversity training. These findings suggest that participation in a brief diversity training can improve implicit associations about women in STEM.     

Competition in stereotyped domains: Competition,social comparison,and stereotype threat

The current work examines a novel and specific way in which competition can hurt the performance of negatively stereotyped individuals: by evoking stereotype threat. In four experiments, we demonstrate that women's underperformance in math when primed with competition was due to feeling worried about confirming negative stereotypes about women's math ability (i.e., stereotype threat), that the activation of negative performance stereotypes for women primed with competition was due to increased group‐level social comparisons (i.e., comparing the self with men and women), and that priming competition led men to perform more poorly than women in a domain where they are negatively stereotyped (i.e., verbal ability). This research suggests that priming people with competition in contexts where they are negatively stereotyped leads to greater social comparison, activation of negative stereotypes, and concern about confirming these stereotypes, thereby decreasing stereotyped individuals' performance in the stereotyped domain. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

大学生性别情绪刻板印象的内隐和外显研究

为了了解不同性别大学生的性别情绪刻板印象,并分析内隐和外显测验的关系,对280名大学生进行了外显连线测试,对87名大学生进行了内隐联想测验。结果发现:在内隐和外显测验中,男女大学生均存在性别情绪刻板印象,将男性名字更多地与愤怒词相联系,将女性名字更多地与高兴词相联系;男女大学生的性别情绪刻板印象程度存在极其显著的差异,女生更明显地表现出"男性更容易愤怒、女性更容易高兴"的偏见;被试的内隐和外显性别情绪刻板印象相关不显著,是两个不同的建构。     

Bragging About One's School Grades: Gender Stereotyping and Students' Perception of Their Abilities in Science,Mathematics, and Language

Three studies examined stereotypes about the abilities of women and men and their implications for self-evaluation. All the three studies suggest that women are generally perceived as better than men in language and that men are generally perceived as better than women in science and math. Furthermore, Study 1 reveals that female university students in psychology who believe that men are better than women in science feel significantly less able in science, have lower self-esteem, and report lower school average than students who do not believe that men are better than women in science. Study 2 shows that female high school students in a language career track rate their own ability in science less highly and report lower school grades in math when gender stereotypes are salient than when they are not. Study 3 shows that male university students in science tend to rate their own ability in language less highly and report significantly lower school grades in language when gender stereotypes are activated prior to their self-evaluation than when they are not. Overall, the findings suggest that gender stereotypes can have detrimental consequences for self-concept of ability of both male and female students. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A Comparative Study of the Implicit and Explicit Gender Attitudes of Children and College Students

Implicit attitudes and explicit attitudes toward men and women and toward male soldiers and female soldiers were assessed in fifth-graders (28 male, 31 female) and college students (43 male, 42 female). Women were rated more positively than men on an explicit attitude measure. Similarly, female soldiers were rated more positively than male soldiers, except among college men, who were pro-male soldier. Different results emerged from an Implicit Association Test using names of men and women (general gender condition) or of male soldiers and female soldiers (soldier name condition). Latencies indicated pro-female attitudes in the soldier name condition and among women and college students. Error rates also indicated pro-female attitudes, except for a pro-male preference among men in the general gender condition. Reasons that implicit and explicit attitude measures may produce such divergent results are discussed.     

Who's in Charge? Effects of Situational Roles on Automatic Gender Bias

Sixty European American male and female participants' implicit gender-related attitudes were assessed prior to engaging in a cross-gender dyadic interaction, according to one of three situational roles (superior, subordinate, or equal-status partner). Results revealed that the social roles affected male participants' gender attitudes. Specifically, male participants who anticipated an interaction with a female superior revealed negatively biased evaluative attitudes about women. By contrast, males who expected to interact with a female equal-status partner or subordinate revealed attitudes that were biased in favor of women. This finding highlights the importance of situational factors in the generation of implicit attitudes regarding social groups. Specifically, the present data point to the influence of situational status on males' attitudes regarding women. Implications of this work for integration and diversity initiatives are discussed.     

Matching Abilities to Careers for Others and Self: Do Gender Stereotypes Matter to Students in Advanced Math and Science Classes?

Interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers falls off more quickly for young women than for young men over adolescence, and gender stereotypes may be partially to blame. Adolescents typically become more stereotypical in their career interests over time, yet they seem to become more flexible in applying stereotypes to others. Models of career interest propose that career decisions result from the alignment of self-perceived abilities with occupation-required skills and that gender stereotypes may influence this process. To investigate the discrepancy between applying stereotypes to self and others, we examined if these models can be applied to perceptions of others. Focusing on students from fifth grade through college enrolled in advanced STEM courses, we investigated how STEM occupational stereotypes, abilities, and efficacy affect expectations for others’ and own career interests. U.S. participants (n = 526) read vignettes describing a hypothetical male or female student who was talented in math/science or language arts/social studies and then rated the student’s interest in occupations requiring some of those academic skills. Participants’ self-efficacy, interest, and stereotypes for STEM occupations were also assessed. Findings suggest that ability beliefs, whether for oneself or another, are powerful predictors of occupational interest, and gender stereotypes play a secondary role. College students were more stereotypical in their ratings of others, but they did not manifest gender differences in their own STEM self-efficacy and occupational interests. Experiences in specialized STEM courses may explain why stereotypes are applied differentially to the self and others.     

Is School Feminine? Implicit Gender Stereotyping of School as a Predictor of Academic Achievement

One cause proposed for boys’ relatively lower academic achievement is a “feminisation” of schools that might result in a lack of fit between boys’ self-concept and academic engagement. Research so far has investigated math-male and language-female stereotypes, but no school-female stereotypes. Our study tested for implicit gender stereotyping of school and its impact on boys’ achievement in N?=?122 ninth-graders from a large city in Western Germany using the Go/No-go Association Task (GNAT). Gender role self-concept and grades in math (representing an academic domain stereotyped as male) and German (domain stereotyped as female) were assessed using written questionnaires. It was found that, overall, students associated school more strongly with female than with male, and that this association of school with female was related to boys’ academic achievement. The more strongly boys associated school with female and the more they ascribed negative masculine traits to themselves, the lower their grades in German were. Boys’ academic achievement in math was unrelated to the extent to which they perceived school as feminine and themselves as masculine. Girls’ grades in both German and math were unrelated to their gender stereotyping of school. These findings emphasize the importance of fit between a student’s gender, gender role self-concept and gender stereotyping of school for academic achievement. Strategies to improve this fit are discussed.     

Catching up with wonderful women: The women‐are‐wonderful effect is smaller in more gender egalitarian societies

Inequalities between men and women are common and well‐documented. Objective indexes show that men are better positioned than women in societal hierarchies—there is no single country in the world without a gender gap. In contrast, researchers have found that the women‐are‐wonderful effect—that women are evaluated more positively than men overall—is also common. Cross‐cultural studies on gender equality reveal that the more gender egalitarian the society is, the less prevalent explicit gender stereotypes are. Yet, because self‐reported gender stereotypes may differ from implicit attitudes towards each gender, we reanalysed data collected across 44 cultures, and (a) confirmed that societal gender egalitarianism reduces the women‐are‐wonderful effect when it is measured more implicitly (i.e. rating the personality of men and women presented in images) and (b) documented that the social perception of men benefits more from gender egalitarianism than that of women.     

Solo status, stereotype threat, and performance expectancies: Their effects on women’s performance

Women working in male-dominated environments may find themselves to be the only woman present, and that negative stereotypes about women persist in the environment. This experiment tested women’s performance in solo status (SS: being the only woman present) and under stereotype threat (ST: when women are stereotyped as poor performers). White male and female participants (157) learned information, then tested on it in an opposite-gender (SS) or same-gender group (nonsolo). In addition, the information was described as being traditional math material (ST) or a type of math information impervious to gender stereotypes (no threat). Women performed more poorly in SS than nonsolos, and under ST than no threat. Experiencing both factors was more detrimental to women’s performance than experiencing one or the other. Men’s performance was the same across all conditions. Performance expectancies partially mediated the effect of SS, but not ST, on performance.     

Exposure to sexism can decrease implicit gender stereotype bias

Two studies examined the effect of exposure to sexism on implicit gender bias, focusing specifically on stereotypes of men as competent and women as warm. Male and female participants were exposed to sexism or no sexism. In both Experiment 1 (Implicit Association Task; N = 115) and Experiment 2 (Go/No‐go Association Task; N = 167), women who had been exposed to sexist beliefs demonstrated less implicit gender stereotype bias relative to women who were not exposed to sexism. In contrast, exposure to sexism did not influence men's implicit gender stereotype bias. In Experiment 2, process modelling revealed that women's reduction in bias in response to sexism was related to increased accuracy orientation and a tendency to make warmth versus competence judgments. The implications of these findings for current understandings of sexism and its effects on gender stereotypes are discussed.     

Concepts of present self,expected self,and ideal self in vocational preferences and expectations

This study investigated the hypotheses that similarity of ideal self and occupational stereotypes are important in determining the vocational preferences of adolescents, while similarity between expected self and occupational stereotypes is important in determining their occupational expectations. Subjects were 97 male and 88 female high school students. Findings were consistent with the view that ideal self played an important role in determining vocational preferences for males and females. However, contrary to expectations, ideal self was more strongly associated than expected self with vocational expectations for females, though not for males.     

STEMing the tide: using ingroup experts to inoculate women's self-concept in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)

Three studies tested a stereotype inoculation model, which proposed that contact with same-sex experts (advanced peers, professionals, professors) in academic environments involving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) enhances women's self-concept in STEM, attitudes toward STEM, and motivation to pursue STEM careers. Two cross-sectional controlled experiments and 1 longitudinal naturalistic study in a calculus class revealed that exposure to female STEM experts promoted positive implicit attitudes and stronger implicit identification with STEM (Studies 1-3), greater self-efficacy in STEM (Study 3), and more effort on STEM tests (Study 1). Studies 2 and 3 suggested that the benefit of seeing same-sex experts is driven by greater subjective identification and connectedness with these individuals, which in turn predicts enhanced self-efficacy, domain identification, and commitment to pursue STEM careers. Importantly, women's own self-concept benefited from contact with female experts even though negative stereotypes about their gender and STEM remained active.