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.     

Students’ stereotypes of professors: an exploration of the double violations of ethnicity and gender

This study examined students’ stereotypes of professors based on professor ethnicity, gender, teaching style, and course taught. An ethnically diverse sample of undergraduates (N = 594) rated hypothetical professors on several dimensions including perceived warmth, professional competence, and difficulty. Evidence consistent with response amplification and expectancy violation theories was found. Women professors were viewed as more warm than men professors even though their course syllabuses were identical. Students’ ratings of women and Latina/os were, in some cases, based on their teaching style and the courses they taught, whereas ratings of Anglo men were not. Implications for women and Latina/os in the academy are discussed.     

Turning the gender tables: evidence of students’ awareness of a reversal in gender status between academic and occupational contexts

Social Psychology of Education - This study investigates young people’s awareness of gender differences in achievement and their reversal between educational and occupational contexts. Girls...     

Facial gender confirmation surgery—review of the literature and recommendations for Version 8 of the WPATH Standards of Care

Facial gender confirmation surgery (FGCS), also popularly known and referred to in the scientific literature as facial feminization surgery (FFS), was previously treated as a collection of aesthetic procedures complementing other aspects of gender-confirming surgery. Recent literature on quality-of-life outcomes following FGCS has supported the substantial impact these procedures have on overall well-being and reduction of psychosocial sequelae in patients. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health Standards of Care, Version 7 (WPATH SOC 7), did not deem FGCS a medical necessity. Based on these new studies, increasing evidence points to the need to include FGCS among medically necessary gender-confirming surgeries, though more-prospective studies are needed. Updates to the WPATH SOC 8 are proposed based on available quality of life studies.     

Are the facial gender and facial age variants of the composite face illusion products of a common mechanism?

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - When the upper half of one face (‘target region’) is spatially aligned with the lower half of another (‘distractor region’), the two...     

How accurately do young children and adults discriminate the gender of natural faces?

The effects of gender-relevant facial features and hairstyles on discrimination of sex of photographed men and women were examined. The stimuli were 36 photographs of natural faces: 9 masculine-males, 9 feminine-males, 9 masculine-females, and 9 feminine-females. Each of the nine faces had one of three hairstyles, hair concealed, short hair, or long hair. 33 children (M age=5:10) and 28 adults were asked to identify the sex of each stimulus. Children had difficulties with cross-gender faces and cross-gender hairstyles, such as a feminine-male face with long hair. Adults' discriminations were accurate except for masculine-female faces, while children's decisions depended both on hairstyle and internal facial features. Children's discriminations might be based both on their perceptual skill in detecting critical visual features and their knowledge of men and women.     

Children’s judgments of social interactive behaviors with peers: the influence of age and gender

Participants (138 children; 7–12 years of age) rated how often nice and not nice behaviors occurred when (a) participants (boys/girls) were the actor and peers (males/females) were the target and (b) when participants were the target of peers’ actions in a school setting. Children indicated they were nicer to their same-gender peers than to their opposite-gender peers. Also, older boys, in comparison to young boys, indicated that not nice interactions occurred more often among them and male peers. Nice (e.g., helping) and not nice (e.g., verbal aggression) behaviors were also generated, which also differed by age and gender. Finally, this study has important implications for educators in that from children’s point of view these are the types of behaviors that are occurring during their time at school. Although there are programs in schools that are aimed at decreasing physical aggression, more attention should be given to the more indirect or subtle forms of aggression, such as social manipulation and verbal. At the same time, programs that encourage nice behaviors, such as helping and sharing, should be expanded.     

Stereotype endorsement and perceived ability as mediators of the girls' gender orientation–soccer performance relationship

ObjectiveThis study investigated girls' endorsement of the stereotype that girls are not good soccer performers through three questions: (1) did stereotype endorsement predict soccer performance? (2) Was this relationship mediated by perceived ability? (3) Was stereotype endorsement related to gender role orientation?MethodOne hundred and two junior high school girls from the 6th to the 9th grade (M age = 13.5 years, SD = 1.23) reported their beliefs about girls' and boys' performance in soccer, perceived ability and gender role orientation. Next, their soccer performance was observed during matches in compulsory physical education classes. A path-analytic model tested the relationships among the variables using a product-moment correlation matrix and a maximum likelihood estimation procedure.ResultsStereotype endorsement (i.e., the belief that girls' performance in soccer is poor) negatively predicted performance, this relationship being mediated by perceived ability. Moreover, masculinity positively predicted perceived ability, and this relationship was partially mediated by stereotype endorsement.ConclusionThis study reinforces the idea that girls' sports performance may be related to gender stereotypes. Interpretations of the results in light of Eccles et al.’s expectancy-value model and stereotype threat theory are discussed, along with implications for practice.     

Do you really expect me to apologize? The impact of status and gender on the effectiveness of an apology in the workplace

We examine the effectiveness of apology following a workplace offense, as influenced by the achieved or ascribed status (i.e., professional status or gender) of the parties involved. A total of 780 undergraduates participated in a scenario experiment. The results demonstrate that apologizing is more effective than not apologizing. Yet apology is most effective when the apologizer is a male, a manager or is a male apologizing to a female. Moreover, apology expectancy mediates the relationships between the apologizer's status and the apology's effectiveness: Apologies are less expected from managers and males than from subordinates and females, and the less expected they are, the greater their effectiveness. Apology expectancy has a unique effect unrelated to the apologizer's sincerity and perceived motive.     

Parent-child conversations about science: the socialization of gender inequities?

This study investigated the family as a context for the gender typing of science achievement. Adolescents (N = 52) from 2 age levels (mean ages = 11 and 13 years) participated with their mothers and fathers on separate occasions; families were from predominantly middle-income European American backgrounds. Questionnaires measured the parents' and the child's attitudes. Each parent also engaged his or her child in 4 structured teaching activities (including science and nonscience tasks). There were no child gender or grade-level differences in children's science-related grades, self-efficacy, or interest. However, parents were more likely to believe that science was less interesting and more difficult for daughters than sons. In addition, parents' beliefs significantly predicted children's interest and self-efficacy in science. When parents' teaching language was examined, fathers tended to use more cognitively demanding speech with sons than with daughters during one of the science tasks.     

Fear of the known? The effect of peer relevance and gender on women’s math performance under threat

Social Psychology of Education - The goal of the current research was to investigate the impact of peer comparisons on female participants’ math performance when the peers varied on...     

Is there coherence among the cognitive components of gender acquisition?

This study examined the relationships among five measures that assess various cognitive components of the child's acquisition of gender. At around 2 years of age, children were given a task assessing their ability to accurately label as a boy or a girl some head-and-shoulders pictures of boys and girls. At 4 years of age, these children were given tasks measuring (1) the degree to which they found gender a salient parameter of categorization, (2) the amount of gender-related knowledge they could display (SERLI-SRD), (3) the degree to which their preferences were gender-typed (SERLI-SRP) and (4) the accuracy of their memory for gender-typed information. There was no consistent pattern of relationship among the children's scores on these five tools for measuring gender acquisition. Our findings suggest that gender is a multidimensional construct in children's development, and thus these results challenge the undimensional manner in which gender is repeatedly addressed in developmental theory and research.This research was funded in part by a federal biomedical research grant (No. 2507RR07080) awarded to the first author from the Department of Psychology at the University of Oregon, and by Grant No. RO1HD175751 from the National Institute of Child Development awarded to the third author.We wish to thank Margo Lane, Rachel Robertson, Jacqui Oucalt, Laura Baker, Dale Roberts, and the teachers, parents, and assistants of the Child Research Laboratory at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, for their invaluable contribution to this research.     

Fuzzy logic-based observation and evaluation of pedestrians’ behavioral patterns by age and gender

Pedestrian behavior is affected by a multitude of factors such as age, gender, and operating conditions. However, traditional statistical analysis based on observed movements or questionnaire survey is unable to model decision-making process of each pedestrian. This study develops an innovative approach based on fuzzy logic to model the underlying cognitions and behavioral patterns of pedestrians as inferred from field observation in order to evaluate age and gender effect of pedestrians in crossing a signalized crosswalk and when jaywalking. Fuzzy sets and rules are created to model the relationship between human cognitions and decisions of an individual pedestrian. Through calibrating the membership functions of different age and gender groups, behavioral patterns of pedestrians are evaluated and compared. Different from most previous studies, both older and younger pedestrians are found to be less risk-taking than adult pedestrians. Moreover, significant gender difference is found only for cognitions of most hazardous conditions. Consistent with previous studies, it is seen that men have better cognitive skills than women at detecting hazardous situations. The findings from this study are useful to better design safe pedestrian crossing facilities. The fuzzy logic-based approach also provides an innovative way to simulate pedestrian movements in microscopic simulation models.     

Effects of problem frame and gender on principals’ decision making

Research indicates people’s decisions can sometimes be influenced by seemingly trivial differences in the framing (i.e., wording) of alternative options. The tendency to prefer risk averse options when framed positively and risky options when framed negatively is known as the framing effect. The current study examined the susceptibility of school principals to the framing effect. Additionally, analytical and intuitive decision styles, the degree to which one’s typical goal is to maximize (rather than satisfice), gender, and years of experience as a principal were measured to assess whether they are predictive of principals’ choices, and to test whether they moderate the effects of framing on choice. Seventy-one principals completed six decision problems (framed either positively or negatively) and instruments assessing decision style, typical decision goal, gender, and experience. Analyses demonstrated that principals are influenced by framing. Although the positively and negatively framed versions of the decision problems were objectively identical, negative framing resulted in more risky choices. Additionally, regardless of frame, men made more risky choices than women. There was no evidence that experience, decision style, or the degree to which one’s typical decision goal was to maximize, decreased framing effects. Several potential debiasing strategies are described, and limitations are noted.     

Evaluative expectations and the gender schema: Is failed inconsistency better?

Are evaluative assessments a part of the information that constitutes the gender stereotype? Two studies tested this question by presenting participants (50 female and 43 male college students, for whom English was their native language) with information that manipulated both the knowledge of gender roles and the evaluative assessments of performance in those roles. Participants tried to learn statements like “Jane is a good nurse” or “John is a bad nurse.” Memory for these relationships was then tested. Results indicated that when the person's name and the role were consistent with the gender stereotype, a positive evaluative connection made the statement easier to recall than a negative evaluative connection. However, an inconsistent name—role pairing was easier to recall when the evaluative connection was negative rather than positive. The results are interpreted as support for an evaluative bias that is part of the knowledge associated with gender differences.     

For better or for worse? a nationwide study of the social psychological effects of gender and ability grouping in mathematics

This exploratory investigation employs the National Education Longitudinal Surveybreak(NELS:88) to examine equity in tracking from a new, less-studied angle, with the view that tracking may not be all good or all bad, but that its effects are variable. The present study considers how these variable effects might, in part, be produced through a mechanism of social comparison conceptualized by Marsh et al. as the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE). It compares similar students, except that some are in schools that use tracking and some are in schools that do not use tracking. Unlike previous studies of between-track effects, it asks whether tracking works uniformly for males and females within the same track placement in a particular subject area. Analyses yielded significant differences in students' attitudes toward mathematics, educational aspirations, self-esteem, locus of control, and engagement in school. These systematic effects suggest the mechanisms of the BFLPE. Despite the reflected glory of being in a high ability track, when males, in contrast to females, are grouped with peers of similar high ability in a subject area that defines their competence, they seem to lose their competitive edge. Low ability males are positively affected through the mechanism of comparing with their peers because the competition to do well is relatively less keen than in high tracks.     

Women and ‘the philosophical personality’: evaluating whether gender differences in the Cognitive Reflection Test have significance for explaining the gender gap in Philosophy

Synthese - The Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) is purported to test our inclination to overcome impulsive, intuitive thought with effortful, rational reflection. Research suggests that philosophers...