Heroine
Kathleen Dolan & Timothy Lynch
American Politics Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
A significant body of previous research demonstrates that the public holds stereotyped views about the abilities and personal traits of women and men who run for office. However, because much of this work is based on experimental designs or hypothetical candidates, we have relatively little information about whether and how gender stereotypes matter in real election situations. In an effort to determine whether people draw on stereotypes in evaluating women in political life, we use data from a survey of people who experienced races for the U.S. House in 2010 in which women candidates ran against men. We analyze two sets of dependent variables - (a) abstract attitudes about women and men as candidates and officeholders and (b) vote choice in the actual House elections. In line with previous experimental work, we find that gender stereotypes are important to people's abstract evaluations of candidates and election situations. However, we find little evidence that gender stereotypes matter to the same degree in shaping vote choice decisions involving actual candidates.
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Lindsey Meeks
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, September 2013, Pages 520-539
Abstract:
This study examines how the New York Times covered a culturally significant event: the 2008 presidential election. A content analysis of Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and their male counterparts examined coverage of "masculinized" and "feminized" issues and traits, and explicit novelty references. Analysis revealed that the Times promulgated stereotypic trends by providing heavy emphasis on women's novelty, and more attention on masculinized content. Furthermore, a time-frame analysis showed that the Times gave men more issue and trait coverage than women as the primary and general election came to an end.
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'You know how tough I am?' Discourse analysis of US Midwestern congresswomen's self-presentation
Jayeon Lee
Discourse & Communication, August 2013, Pages 299-317
Abstract:
Drawing on gender-role theories and considering the potential new media environments brought to the dynamics of strategic political communication, this study explores the nature of US Midwestern congresswomen's strategic online self-presentations in comparison to those of congressmen. The discourse analysis presented in this study shows that in their official online biographies, that is, as given on websites provided by the US government, congresswomen devoted more space to describing their own personal traits than did congressmen. In particular, women tended to stress the masculine aspects of their personalities by using so-called masculine words such as tough and fighter much more than their male counterparts did. Such masculine terminology was scarcely evident in the biographies of male House members in the same states and committees as the female members. These findings imply that female politicians are more active in strategically presenting themselves as tough leaders in what appears to be a self-conscious effort to counteract detrimental gender stereotypes.
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Leaving Boys Behind: Gender Disparities in High Academic Achievement
Nicole Fortin, Philip Oreopoulos & Shelley Phipps
NBER Working Paper, August 2013
Abstract:
Using three decades of data from the "Monitoring the Future" cross-sectional surveys, this paper shows that, from the 1980s to the 2000s, the mode of girls' high school GPA distribution has shifted from "B" to "A", essentially "leaving boys behind" as the mode of boys' GPA distribution stayed at "B". In a reweighted Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition of achievement at each GPA level, we find that gender differences in post-secondary expectations, controlling for school ability, and as early as 8th grade are the most important factor accounting for this trend. Increases in the growing proportion of girls who aim for a post-graduate degree are sufficient to account for the increase over time in the proportion of girls earning "A's". The larger relative share of boys obtaining "C" and C+" can be accounted for by a higher frequency of school misbehavior and a higher proportion of boys aiming for a two-year college degree.
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The Role of Anxiety and Working Memory in Gender Differences in Mathematics
Colleen Ganley & Marina Vasilyeva
Journal of Educational Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research examined a potential mechanism underlying gender differences in math performance by testing a mediation model in which women's higher anxiety taxes their working memory resources, leading to underperformance on a mathematics test. Participants for the 2 studies were college students (N = 87, N = 118) who completed an anxiety measure, 2 working memory tasks (verbal and visuospatial), and a challenging math test including both geometry and algebra items. Findings showed a significant gender difference in math performance, anxiety, and visuospatial working memory. Further, there was a mediating chain from gender to the worry component of anxiety to visuospatial working memory to math performance. The results suggest that women's heightened worry may have utilized their visuospatial working memory resources, and the resulting gender differences in working memory were associated with gender differences on a math test. The present research contributes to our understanding of affective and cognitive factors underlying gender differences in mathematics. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for interventions aimed at reducing anxiety and improving working memory skills.
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Michael McDonald & James Westphal
Academy of Management Journal, August 2013, Pages 1169-1198
Abstract:
This study contributes to the literature on women and minorities in corporate leadership by developing theory that can help to explain the persistent underrepresentation of women and minorities among those who are seen as members of the "corporate elite" because they hold multiple corporate board seats. Our conceptual framework suggests how disadvantages in the receipt of mentoring regarding prevailing norms in the corporate elite are negatively affecting the ability of women and minorities to secure multiple board appointments. Our theory explains why women and minority first-time directors receive comparatively less mentoring regarding a core norm in the corporate elite that outside directors should avoid exercising independent control over firm strategy. Our theory also explains why lower levels of mentoring result in women and racial minority first-time directors receiving relatively fewer appointments to other boards. This study also contributes to the corporate leadership literature by explaining how fundamental intergroup biases are negatively impacting the demographic diversity of the corporate elite. This article further highlights a specific social mechanism that undermines efforts to move toward more meritocratic outcomes in corporate leadership whereby those who are relatively qualified will have greater success in rising to the highest-level positions in the corporate world.
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Tali Mendelberg, Christopher Karpowitz & John Baxter Oliphant
Princeton Working Paper, August 2013
Abstract:
When and why do women gain from increased descriptive representation in deliberating bodies? Using a large randomized experiment, and linking individual-level speech with assessments of speaker authority, we find that decision rules interact with the number of women in the group to shape the conversation dynamics and deliberative authority, an important form of influence. With majority rule and few women, women experience a negative balance of interruptions when speaking, and these women then lose influence in their own eyes and in others'. But when the group is assigned to unanimous rule, or when women are many, women experience a positive balance of interruptions, mitigating the deleterious effect of small numbers. Men do not experience this pattern. We draw implications for a type of representation that we call authoritative representation, and for democratic deliberation.
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What's So Special about STEM? A Comparison of Women's Retention in STEM and Professional Occupations
Jennifer Glass et al.
Social Forces, forthcoming
Abstract:
We follow female college graduates in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and compare the trajectories of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related occupations to other professional occupations. Results show that women in STEM occupations are significantly more likely to leave their occupational field than professional women, especially early in their career, while few women in either group leave jobs to exit the labor force. Family factors cannot account for the differential loss of STEM workers compared to other professional workers. Few differences in job characteristics emerge either, so these cannot account for the disproportionate loss of STEM workers. What does emerge is that investments and job rewards that generally stimulate field commitment, such as advanced training and high job satisfaction, fail to build commitment among women in STEM.
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College Major Choice and the Gender Gap
Basit Zafar
Journal of Human Resources, Summer 2013, Pages 545-595
Abstract:
This paper studies how college majors are chosen, focusing on the underlying gender gap. I collect a data set of Northwestern University sophomores that contains their subjective expectations about choice-specific c outcomes, and estimate a model where majors are chosen under uncertainty. Enjoying coursework and gaining parents' approval are the most important determinants in the choice for both genders. However, males and females differ in their preferences in the workplace, with males caring about the pecuniary outcomes in the workplace much more than females. The gender gap is mainly due to gender differences in preferences and tastes, and not because females are underconfident about their academic ability or fear monetary discrimination. The findings in this paper make a case for policies that change attitudes toward gender roles.
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Ernesto Reuben, Matthew Wiswall & Basit Zafar
Federal Reserve Working Paper, August 2013
Abstract:
Standard observed characteristics explain only part of the differences between men and women in education choices and labor market trajectories. Using an experiment to derive students' levels of overconfidence, and preferences for competitiveness and risk, this paper investigates whether these behavioral biases and preferences explain gender differences in college major choices and expected future earnings. In a sample of high-ability undergraduates, we find that competitiveness and overconfidence, but not risk aversion, are systematically related with expectations about future earnings: Individuals who are overconfident and overly competitive have significantly higher earnings expectations. Moreover, gender differences in overconfidence and competitiveness explain about 18 percent of the gender gap in earnings expectations. These experimental measures explain as much of the gender gap in earnings expectations as a rich set of control variables, including test scores and family background, and they are poorly proxied by these same control variables, underscoring that they represent independent variation. While expected earnings are related to college major choices, the experimental measures are not related with college major choice.
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Can e-mentoring take the "gender" out of mentoring?
Brittany Rockwell, Joanne Leck & Catherine Elliott
Cyberpsychology, July 2013
Abstract:
Mentoring has been identified as a key strategy for career development and organizational advancement, and has been argued to be indispensable for women to succeed. E-mentoring has increased in popularity as a means of reducing some of the challenges associated with being mentored by men. Numerous studies conducted on formal mentoring programs have concluded that there are serious implications to consider in traditional cross-gendered mentoring schemes. A sample of six mentees and seven mentors (three female and four male) were interviewed after a year-long e-mentoring program was created to promote women to leadership roles within the Information Technology (IT) sector. The paper explores whether gender-biases encountered in traditional mentoring schemes are transcended when using an e-mentoring platform. Results from this qualitative study suggest that mentor gender still impacts the mentoring relationship even in a virtual environment. The study's findings indicated male mentors tended to be more methodological in solving problems with their mentees, unlike female mentors who took a more indirect approach. Further, female mentors improved their mentee's confidence through encouragement and relating to their mentee on a more personal level, a practice often avoided by their male counterparts. A summary of these findings is provided below, followed by a detailed discussion of the results and a section offering possible future research avenues to explore.
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"Fairer Sex" or Purity Myth? Corruption, Gender, and Institutional Context
Justin Esarey & Gina Chirillo
Politics & Gender, forthcoming
Abstract:
Cross-national studies have found evidence that women are individually more disapproving of corruption than men, and that female participation in government is negatively associated with perceived corruption at the country level. In this paper, we argue that this difference reflects greater pressure on women to comply with political norms as a result of discrimination and risk aversion, and therefore a gender gap exists in some political contexts but not others. Bribery, favoritism, and personal loyalty are often characteristic of the normal operation of autocratic governments and not stigmatized as corruption; we find weak or non-existent relationships between gender and corruption in this context. We find much stronger relationships in democracies, where corruption is more typically stigmatized.
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Pornography Consumption and Opposition to Affirmative Action for Women: A Prospective Study
Paul Wright & Michelle Funk
Psychology of Women Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
Despite the persistence of wage gaps and other indicators of discrimination, many Americans oppose affirmative action for women. Our study investigated a potential source of social influence that has often been hypothesized to reduce compassion and sympathy for women: pornography. National panel data were employed. Data were gathered in 2006, 2008, and 2010 from 190 adults ranging in age from 19 to 88 at baseline. Pornography viewing was indexed via reported consumption of pornographic movies. Attitudes toward affirmative action were indexed via opposition to hiring and promotion practices that favor women. Contrary to a selective-exposure perspective on media use, prior opposition to affirmative action did not predict subsequent pornography viewing. Consistent with a social learning perspective on media effects, prior pornography viewing predicted subsequent opposition to affirmative action even after controlling for prior affirmative action attitudes and a number of other potential confounds. Gender did not moderate this association. Practically, these results suggest that pornography may be a social influence that undermines support for affirmative action programs for women. Theoretically, these results align with the perspective that sexual media activate abstract scripts for social behavior which may be applied to judgments that extend beyond the specific interaction patterns depicted.
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Maria Stanfors et al.
Economic History Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Women have typically been paid less than men throughout history. We investigate earnings in Swedish cigar making around 1900. Strength was unimportant, yet the gender wage gap was large. Differences in characteristics, such as age and experience, and different jobs within firms, account for two-thirds of the gap overall, and the entire gap for piece-rate workers. Firms were as willing to employ women as men in the better-paying piece-rate section, and women were willing to take those jobs. In contrast, discrimination was extensive in the time-rate section. Men in this section benefited from greater outside opportunities and customary wages elsewhere. Theory holds that labour market discrimination will reduce profitability, and make firm survival harder, a proposition that has never been tested historically. We find that cigar firms that feminized their workforces most extensively were most likely to survive. Product market competition prevented firms employing (overpaid) men to any great extent. We argue that economic historians must interpret industry-specific gender wage differentials in the context of workers' outside opportunities, and in the context of product markets, which can - and in this case did - limit firms' room for manoeuvre.
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Gender Differences in the Use and Benefit of Advanced Learning Technologies for Mathematics
Ivon Arroyo et al.
Journal of Educational Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We provide evidence of persistent gender effects for students using advanced adaptive technology while learning mathematics. This technology improves each gender's learning and affective predispositions toward mathematics, but specific features in the software help either female or male students. Gender differences were seen in the students' style of use of the system, motivational goals, affective needs, and cognitive/affective benefits, as well as the impact of affective interventions involving pedagogical agents. We describe 4 studies, with hundreds of students in public schools over several years, which suggest that technology responses should probably be customized to each gender. This article shows differential results before, during, and after the use of adaptive tutoring software, indicating that digital tutoring systems can be an important supplement to mathematics classrooms but that male and female students should be addressed differently. Female students were more receptive than male students to seeking and accepting help provided by the tutoring system and to spending time seeing the hints; thus, they had a consistent general trend to benefit more from it, especially when affective learning companions were present. In addition, female students expressed positively valenced emotions most often and exhibited more productive behaviors when exposed to female characters; these affective pedagogical agents encouraged effort and perseverance. This was not the case for male students, who had more positive outcomes when no learning companion was present and their worst affective and cognitive outcomes when the female character was present.
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Sex-Based Harassment in Employment: New Insights into Gender and Context
Dana Kabat-Farr
Law and Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Legal definitions of sex-based harassment have evolved over the decades; it is important that social science perspectives on this phenomenon evolve as well. This study seeks to refine our understanding of conditions in which sex-based harassment thrives, with empirical evidence from three organizations. Previous research has suggested that underrepresentation of one's gender in the employment context increases risk for sex-based harassment. This work has focused mainly on sexual-advance forms of harassment, mainly in the lives of women. Less is known about the gender harassment of women, or about any kind of harassment of men. Extending this scholarship, we analyzed survey data from women and men working in three diverse domains: academia (N = 847), the court system (N = 1,158), and the military (N = 19,960). Across all samples, the underrepresentation of women in a workgroup related to increased odds of women experiencing gender harassment, but not sexual-advance harassment. For men, the opposite pattern emerged: underrepresentation did not increase men's risk for either type of harassment, instead relating to decreased odds of harassment in some contexts. We interpret these results in light of theories of tokenism, gender stereotyping, and sex role spillover in organizations. Our findings support the recommendation that, to reduce harassment (whether it be illegal or legal, gender- or sexuality-based, targeted at women or men), organizations should strive for gender balance in every job at every level. For male-dominated contexts, this implies a need to recruit, retain, and integrate more women throughout the organizational hierarchy.
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Lisa Cohen & Joseph Broschak
Administrative Science Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this paper, we examine the relationship between an organization's proportion of female managers and the number of new management jobs initially filled by women versus men. We draw on theories of job differentiation, job change, and organizational demography to develop theory and predictions about this relationship and whether the relationship differs for jobs filled by female and male managers. Using data on a sample of New York City advertising agencies over a 13-year period, we find that the number of newly created jobs first filled by women increases with an agency's proportion of female managers. In contrast, the effect of the proportion of female managers on the number of new management jobs filled by men is positive initially but plateaus and turns negative. In showing these influences on job creation, we highlight the dynamic and socially influenced nature of jobs themselves: new jobs are created regularly in firms and not merely as a response to technical and administrative imperatives. The results also point to another job-related process that differs between women and men and that could potentially aggravate, mitigate, or alleviate inequality: the creation of jobs. Thus this research contributes to literatures on demography, the organization of work, and inequality.
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A Field Experiment: Reducing Interpersonal Discrimination Toward Pregnant Job Applicants
Whitney Botsford Morgan et al.
Journal of Applied Psychology, September 2013, Pages 799-809
Abstract:
The current research targets 4 potential stereotypes driving hostile attitudes and discriminatory behaviors toward pregnant women: incompetence, lack of commitment, inflexibility, and need for accommodation. We tested the relative efficacy of reducing concerns related to each of the stereotypes in a field experiment in which female confederates who sometimes wore pregnancy prostheses applied for jobs in a retail setting. As expected, ratings from 3 perspectives (applicants, observers, and independent coders) converged to show that pregnant applicants received more interpersonal hostility than did nonpregnant applicants. However, when hiring managers received (vs. did not receive) counterstereotypic information about certain pregnancy-related stereotypes (particularly lack of commitment and inflexibility), managers displayed significantly less interpersonal discrimination. Explicit comparisons of counterstereotypic information shed light on the fact that certain information may be more effective in reducing discrimination than others. We conclude by discussing how the current research makes novel theoretical contributions and describe some practical organizational implications for understanding and improving the experiences of pregnant workers.
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Familiarity and sex based stereotypes on instant impressions of male and female faculty
Joel Nadler, Seth Berry & Margaret Stockdale
Social Psychology of Education, September 2013, Pages 517-539
Abstract:
To address the stranger-to-stranger critique of stereotyping research, psychology students (n=139) and law students (n=58) rated photographs of familiar or unfamiliar male or female professors on competence. Results from Study 1 indicated that familiar male psychology faculty were rated as more competent than were familiar female faculty, whereas unfamiliar female faculty were rated as more competent than unfamiliar male faculty. By contrast, in Study 2, familiarity had a stronger positive effect on competence ratings of female faculty than it did for male faculty. Among psychology students, familiarity increased sex bias against female faculty, whereas among law students familiarity decreased sex bias. Together, these studies call into question the stranger-to-stranger critique of stereotyping research. Our findings have direct implications for the context of student evaluations. In male-dominated disciplines it is important for students to be exposed to female instructors in order to reduce pre-existing biases against such instructors.
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Pathways to Gender Inequality in Faculty Pay: The Impact of Institution, Academic Division, and Rank
Linda Renzulli et al.
Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, forthcoming
Abstract:
Wage disparities remain an important source of gender inequality in United States' labor markets including those for college and university faculty. Pay differences may result from the allocation of women and men to different locations defined by institution types, academic divisions, and ranks where pay scales differ. It may also reflect unequal earnings of men and women in similar locations. Using national data, we examine whether institution type, academic division, and rank influence salary independently of each other or whether they are interdependent such that their effects on salary depend on how they are combined. We find that they are interdependent. We then consider how these interdependent locations mediate or moderate the relationship between gender and pay. We find more evidence of mediation. Women are disproportionately located in academic locations that pay less than locations where men are more often found. This work contributes to the understanding of gender segregation and its ramifications for the academy.
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Do Girls Really Experience More Anxiety in Mathematics?
Thomas Goetz et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Two studies were conducte-d to examine gender differences in trait (habitual) versus state (momentary) mathematics anxiety in a sample of students (Study 1: N = 584; Study 2: N = 111). For trait math anxiety, the findings of both studies replicated previous research showing that female students report higher levels of anxiety than do male students. However, no gender differences were observed for state anxiety, as assessed using experience-sampling methods while students took a math test (Study 1) and attended math classes (Study 2). The discrepant findings for trait versus state math anxiety were partly accounted for by students' beliefs about their competence in mathematics, with female students reporting lower perceived competence than male students despite having the same average grades in math. Implications for educational practices and the assessment of anxiety are discussed.
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Dustin Thoman et al.
Psychology of Women Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
When women feel pushed away by the "chilly climate" of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), they seek situations where they experience greater social belonging. We tested whether feelings of belonging to competing (non-STEM) classes were associated with women's interest in their STEM classes using an interval contingent diary methodology. We recruited 62 undergraduate women STEM majors concurrently enrolled in STEM and Humanities/Liberal Arts (H/LA) courses. We first assessed self-competence (SC) and self-liking (SL), and then every 2 weeks during the academic semester the participants were asked to report their feelings of belonging and interest in both types of courses (resulting in eight entries). For women with low felt SC and high SL, a greater feeling of belonging to their H/LA class throughout the semester was associated with less STEM class interest, above and beyond feelings of belonging in STEM. For all women, fluctuations in STEM class belonging mapped onto their STEM class interest but not their H/LA class interest. Results suggest not only that can women feel pushed out of STEM when they feel a low sense of belonging, but also that for women with specific self-esteem contingencies, competing experiences of belonging in non-STEM can pull interest away from STEM. Thus, to promote women's greater participation in STEM, practitioners may need to consider the role of women's broader motivational experiences across the curriculum.
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The Gender Typicality of Faces and Its Impact on Visual Processing and on Hiring Decisions
Lisa von Stockhausen, Sara Koeser & Sabine Sczesny
Experimental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Past research has shown that the gender typicality of applicants' faces affects leadership selection irrespective of a candidate's gender: A masculine facial appearance is congruent with masculine-typed leadership roles, thus masculine-looking applicants are hired more certainly than feminine-looking ones. In the present study, we extended this line of research by investigating hiring decisions for both masculine- and feminine-typed professional roles. Furthermore, we used eye tracking to examine the visual exploration of applicants' portraits. Our results indicate that masculine-looking applicants were favored for the masculine-typed role (leader) and feminine-looking applicants for the feminine-typed role (team member). Eye movement patterns showed that information about gender category and facial appearance was integrated during first fixations of the portraits. Hiring decisions, however, were not based on this initial analysis, but occurred at a second stage, when the portrait was viewed in the context of considering the applicant for a specific job.
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The meaning of tears: Which sex seems emotional depends on the social context
Agneta Fischer, Alice Eagly & Suzanne Oosterwijk
European Journal of Social Psychology, October 2013, Pages 505-515
Abstract:
The media coverage sometimes given to crying women points to the importance of understanding whether gender affects interpretations of crying. This article reports two studies that examined whether observers infer different emotions or dispositions from crying men and women. Study 1 showed that, in the absence of information about the social context of crying, participants inferred gender-stereotypical traits and emotions. Study 2's manipulation of the social context of crying (relationship versus employment) affected participants' interpretations of crying by men and women. In employment contexts, participants perceived crying men as more emotional and sad than crying women as well as less competent. The emotionality inferences mediated the judgments of differing male and female competence. In relationship contexts, interpretations of crying women and men did not differ.