Feminine Mystique
What's The Gendered Story? Vancouver's Prime Time Olympic Glory on NBC
James Angelini, Paul MacArthur & Andrew Billings
Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Spring 2012, Pages 261-279
Abstract:
Previous Olympic media studies have shown that NBC's Winter Olympic telecast is far more likely to promote and advance men athletes and sports than women athletes and sports, and this study of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic telecast again reveals gender divisions. Analysis of all 64 hours of NBC's prime time telecast revealed that (a) when excluding mixed-gender pair competitions, men received more than three-fifths of the remaining airtime, (b) 75% of the most-mentioned athletes were men, and (c) sportscasters again employed dialogue differences in key areas including that men were more likely than women to be portrayed as succeeding because of their experience, while women were more likely than men to be depicted as succeeding because of courage and failing because they lacked commitment. Contextualization is also offered related to intervening factors such as (a) Olympic participation rates and (b) U.S. medal successes by gender.
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Gender Differences in Willingness to Guess and the Implications for Test Scores
Katherine Baldiga
Harvard Working Paper, January 2012
Abstract:
Multiple-choice tests play a large role in determining academic and professional outcomes. Performance on these tests hinges not only on a test-taker's knowledge of the material but also on his willingness to guess when unsure about the answer. In this paper, we present the results of an experiment that explores whether women skip more questions than men. The experimental test consists of practice questions from the World History and U.S. History SAT II subject tests; we vary the size of the penalty imposed for a wrong answer and the salience of the evaluative nature of the task. We find that when no penalty is assessed for a wrong answer, all test-takers answer every question. But, when there is a small penalty for wrong answers and the task is explicitly framed as an SAT, women answer significantly fewer questions than men. We see no differences in knowledge of the material or confidence in these test-takers, and differences in risk preferences fail to explain all of the observed gap. Because the gender gap exists only when the task is framed as an SAT, we argue that differences in competitive attitudes may drive the gender differences we observe. Finally, we show that, conditional on their knowledge of the material, test-takers who skip questions do significantly worse on our experimental test, putting women and more risk averse test-takers at a disadvantage.
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L'eggo My Ego: Reducing the Gender Gap in Math by Unlinking the Self from Performance
Shen Zhang, Toni Schmader & William Hall
Self and Identity, forthcoming
Abstract:
Stereotype threat can vary in source, with targets being threatened at the individual and/or group level. This study specifically examined the role of self-reputational threat in women's underperformance in mathematics. A pilot study showed that women report concerns about experiencing self-reputational threat that are distinct from group threat in the domain of mathematics. In the main study, we manipulated whether performance was linked to the self by asking both men and women to complete a math test using either their real name or a fictitious name. Women who used a fictitious name, and thus had their self unlinked from the math test, showed significantly higher math performance and reported less self-threat and distraction, relative to those who used their real names. Men were unaffected by the manipulation. These findings suggest that women's impaired math performance is often due to the threat of confirming a negative stereotype as being true of the self. The implications for understanding the different types of threats faced by stereotyped groups, particularly among women in math settings, are discussed.
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Sheryl Skaggs, Kevin Stainback & Phyllis Duncan
Social Science Research, July 2012, Pages 936-948
Abstract:
Previous theory and research suggests that workplace gender composition at the highest organizational levels should play a crucial role in reducing gender linked inequalities in the workplace. In this article, we examine how the presence of women in top corporate positions influences female managerial representation at the establishment-level. Using a unique multi-level dataset of 5679 establishments nested within 81 Fortune 1000 corporations, we find that having more women on corporate boards, but not in executive positions, at the firm-level is associated with greater female managerial representation at the establishment-level. The results also show that women are more likely to be in management positions when employed in young, large, and managerially intensive workplaces, as well as those with a larger percentage of female non-managers. Implications for future research and policy implementation are discussed.
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James Albisetti
History of Education, May/June 2012, Pages 287-301
Abstract:
Within a 20-year period from the late 1850s to the late 1870s, most European countries created programmes in response to what appeared as a new social problem: unwed daughters of the middle classes in need of jobs. Taking off from the 150th anniversary of the English Society for Promoting the Employment of Women, this paper examines the diffusion of such courses across Europe and the very similar occupations that most thought appropriate for their clientele. It also highlights variations in structures, leadership and funding that emerged, and in particular how the English pacesetter remained much smaller than many later creations. Sponsors seldom sought public funding, but they had no problem seeking charitable contributions to help middle-class young women avoid being ‘de-classed'.
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Tall or Taller, Pretty or Prettier: Is Discrimination Absolute or Relative?
Daniel Hamermesh
NBER Working Paper, June 2012
Abstract:
Using several microeconomic data sets from the United States and the Netherlands, and the examples of height and beauty, this study examines whether: 1) Absolute or relative differences in a characteristic are what affect labor-market and other outcomes; and 2) The effects of a characteristic change when all agents acquire more of it - become taller or better-looking. Confronted with a choice among individuals, decision-makers respond more to absolute than to relative differences among them. Also, an increase in the mean of a characteristic's distribution does not alter market responses to differences in it.
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Gender Differences in Subjective Well-Being In and Out of Management Positions
Eileen Trzcinski & Elke Holst
Social Indicators Research, July 2012, Pages 449-463
Abstract:
This study used data from the German Socio-economic Panel to examine gender differences in the extent to which self-reported subjective well-being was associated with occupying a high-level managerial position in the labour market, compared with employment in non-leadership, non-high-level managerial positions, unemployment, and non-labour market participation. Our results indicated that a clear hierarchy exists for men in term of how status within the labour market was associated with subjective life satisfaction. Unemployed men were the least satisfied, followed by men who were not in the labour market, while men in leadership positions reported the highest level of subjective life satisfaction. For women, no statistically significant differences were observed among women in high-level managerial positions, women who worked in non-high-level positions, and women who specialized in household production, with no market work. Only women who were unemployed reported lower levels of life satisfaction, compared with women in other labour-market statuses. Our results lend evidence to the contention that men can "have it all", but women must still choose between career and family in Germany. We argue that interventions need to address how the non-pecuniary rewards associated with high-level managerial and leadership positions can be increased for women. Such policies would also likely serve to mitigate the "pipeline" problem concerning the number of women who are available to move into high positions in the private sector.
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Gary Powell & Kimberly Eddleston
Journal of Business Venturing, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study used survey data from 253 entrepreneurs who founded small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to examine how experiences in their family domain may benefit their experiences in their business domain. Specifically, it hypothesized that affective family-to-business enrichment, instrumental family-to-business enrichment, and family-to-business support would be positively related to entrepreneurial success and that each relationship would be more positive for female entrepreneurs than male entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial success was assessed by economic measures (business performance, growth in employment) and measures of satisfaction with the entrepreneurial experience (satisfaction with status, satisfaction with employee relationships). Results offered substantial support for the notion that female entrepreneurs benefit from the linkages of family-to-business enrichment and support to entrepreneurial success, whereas they offered no support for the notion that male entrepreneurs benefit from these linkages. Female entrepreneurs may experience such benefits because of their relative lack of access to other resources such as human, social, and financial capital and because the female gender role encourages them to pursue work-family synergies. In contrast, male entrepreneurs may fail to experience such benefits because of the relative abundance of other resources available to them and because the male gender role discourages them from pursuing work-family synergies.
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Exploring the interplay of gender, discourse, and (im)politeness
Chit Cheung Matthew Sung
Journal of Gender Studies, forthcoming
Abstract:
Drawing upon the method of discourse analysis, this article explores the complex relationship between gender, discourse, and (im)politeness. By examining an extended excerpt of interaction taken from the popular US reality TV show The Apprentice, I examine the role of gender stereotyping and gender assumptions in the assessment of (im)politeness by the discourse participants. Following Mills (2002), I shall argue that gender plays a role in the judgments of (im)politeness by the interactants, and that judgments seem to vary among individuals. The analysis shows that a woman's relatively masculine verbal behaviour, albeit politic in view of the stereotypically ‘masculine' context, is perceived as inappropriate and impolite. It is suggested that women professionals may be subjected to more stringent gender norms which govern what constitutes polite behaviour, as linguistic behaviour may be evaluated against the ‘norms' of women's speech which is assumed to be stereotypically more polite than men's speech. The analysis also raises the issue of a double bind (Lakoff 1975) that women may confront regularly in the work-place.
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Sezgin Cihangir et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examined whether women (N = 87) who are exposed to blatant discrimination show different responses depending on whether they are rejected with reference to positively ("this is something for men") or negatively ("this is nothing for women") phrased intergroup differentiation. Based on current insights on responses to discrimination, we predicted and found that those who are exposed to negative differentiation will tend to object to those who rejected them, while positive differentiation is more likely to induce efforts to disprove the validity of the rejection. Female participants facing negative differentiation objected against the discriminatory nature of their rejection and showed cardiovascular reactivity more indicative of threat (and less of challenge) than participants in the positive differentiation condition. In addition, positive differentiation caused participants to disprove the validity of these group-based expectations by claiming the possession of relatively more masculine (and less feminine) traits.
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George Cunningham, Kathi Miner & Claudia Benavides-Espinoza
Sex Roles, July 2012, Pages 58-68
Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine the reactions of women and men who observe misogyny. The authors examined the emotional distress associated with observing misogyny, and the degree to which this varied based on (a) reading about or actually observing the incivility, (b) political orientation, and (c) religiosity. Participants (n = 205 US college students) took part in a between subjects experiment where they either heard or read about one of two scenarios: two men making a disparaging comment about a woman while she was out of the room, or a situation in which no comment was made. Results indicate that women, but not men, overestimated their emotional distress to observing misogyny. For women, but not men, whether or not the misogynistic comment was heard also interacted with religiosity to predict emotional distress. Political orientation did not have an effect on women and men's reactions. The authors discuss contributions and implications.
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Apron strings of working mothers: Maternal employment and housework in cross-national perspective
Judith Treas & Tsui-o Tai
Social Science Research, July 2012, Pages 833-842
Abstract:
This paper asks whether maternal employment has a lasting influence on the division of household labor for married women and men. Employing multi-level models with 2002 ISSP survey data for 31 countries, we test the lagged accommodation hypothesis that a long societal history of maternal employment contributes to more egalitarian household arrangements. Our results find that living in a country with a legacy of high maternal employment is positively associated with housework task-sharing, even controlling for the personal socialization experience of growing up with a mother who worked for pay. In formerly socialist countries, however, there is less gender parity in housework than predicted by the high historical level of maternal employment.
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Policy Implications for Female Combat Medic Assignment: A Study of Deployment and Promotion Risk
Lawrence Fulton et al.
Armed Forces & Society, July 2012, Pages 500-512
Abstract:
The current military assignment policy of United States prohibits the assignment of females to billets with high risk of combat exposure. As part of an Army review of this policy, the authors analyzed deployment and promotion risk for combat medics. The effect of current policy on male deployment and female promotion risk was unknown. In light of other countries' policies and current operational considerations, senior military leaders sought to understand the effects of existing policy on a low-density, high-value occupational specialty, the combat medic. The authors found evidence that male medics deployed 2.07 times more frequently than female medics. The authors also found evidence that senior male medics (staff sergeants) deployed even more frequently (3.65-1) than their female counterparts. Perhaps as a result, the male combat medics experience higher likelihood of promotion from staff sergeant (E-6) to the rank of sergeant first class (E-7); however, the magnitude of that benefit was about one-third of the deployment risk. The results confirm the existence of gender-based deployment risk and promotion disparity. Based upon this analysis, the authors recommended the deprecation of current gender coding for combat medics to the senior levels of the US Army.
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Harounan Kazianga et al.
NBER Working Paper, May 2012
Abstract:
We evaluate the causal effects of a program that constructed high quality "girl-friendly" primary schools in Burkina Faso, using a regression discontinuity design 2.5 years after the program started. We find that the program increased enrollment of all children between the ages of 5 and 12 by 20 percentage points and increased their test scores by 0.45 standard deviations. The change in test scores for those children caused to attend school by the program is 2.2 standard deviations. We also find that the program was particularly effective for girls, increasing their enrollment rate by 5 percentage points more than boys', although this did not translate into a differential effect on test scores. Disentangling the effects of school access from the unique characteristics of the new schools, we find that the unique characteristics were responsible for a 13 percentage point increase in enrollment and 0.35 standard deviations in test scores, while simply providing a school increased enrollment by 26.5 percentage points and test scores by 0.323 standard deviations. The unique characteristics of the school account for the entire difference in the treatment effect by gender.
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Gender and player characteristics in video game play of preadolescents
Bruce Homer et al.
Computers in Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present study explores the relation among different characteristics of preadolescents and their video game habits and preferences. Specifically, the predictive power of age, gender, and psychological adjustment on time spent playing video games and game preference was explored. Children ages 10-15 were given two surveys: a video game habits survey and the BASC-II self-report assessment of personality. Results confirm previous findings of significant gender differences in both time spent playing video games and game type preference. For preadolescents, males were found to spend more time overall playing video games, but for both males and females time spent playing increased with age. No relation was found between time spent playing video games and negative psychological adjustment, as assessed by the BASC-II. Game type preference was predicted by several psychological characteristics. For example, females' positive feelings about the self were associated with increased likelihood of electing first person shooters as a favored game type, and males' internalizing difficulties were associated with decreased likelihood of electing Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs). The current findings confirm previous results with preadolescents, an under-studied age group, and lend novel insight into the psychological processes that contribute to video game preference.
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Who is the better applicant? Effects from gender, academic record, and type of decision
Martha Foschi & Jerilee Valenzuela
Social Science Research, July 2012, Pages 949-964
Abstract:
This experiment recreates several features of the selection of candidates for junior professional positions. The situation of central interest involves an assessor (either male or female) and a pair consisting of a male and a female applicant with either equivalent or slightly different academic records. We also investigate effects from quality of record (either excellent or poor) and type of decision (namely, choice between applicants, and ratings of competence and suitability). Our hypotheses consider both gender as social status and as social identity, and predict different outcomes depending on decision type. In line with those predictions, findings show that, at both levels of performance, the question about competence elicited effects only from the two applicants' relative academic standing, while the choice and suitability measures show effects from that standing as well as from sex category of applicant and of assessor. Results and their interpretation are presented and discussed in detail.