how stereotype threat may cause poor performance in women

1518 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The impact of gender stereotypes on individuals

Introduction
Throughout the years, males have dominated the academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) with very few females finding their way in the mix (Steinberg, Okun, & Aiken, 2012). Those females enrolling in the STEM majors soon find themselves questioning why they have, and many quickly change their majors to more female-accepting professions (Steele, James, & Barnett, 2002). The view that women lack the intellect to succeeded in STEM disciplines has been a prevailing one for much of history (Cadinu, Maass, Rosabianca, & Kiesner, 2005). Many researchers have questioned whether it is social stigma impeding female success or indeed basic biological differences that make males are more successful in these fields than women (Smith, Sansone, & White, 2007).
One theory explaining why low number of females achieve STEM degrees attributes its cause to stereotype threat (Schmader & Johns, 2003). Stereotype threat is defined as a “socially-premised psychological threat that arises when one is in a situation or doing something for which a negative stereotype about one’s group applies.” (Steele, 1997, p 614). According to C.M. Steele and Aronson (1995), there are two types of stereotype threat a person can encounter. The first kind of stereotype threat a person can come across is when that person acknowledges that a negative stereotype exists about their social group and their capabilities. The second type of stereotype threat is when a person is more hesitant to participate in certain activities out of a fear of confirming the stereotype of their social group. If encountered with a stereotype threat, people facing discrimination may self-handicap, self-suppress, dis-identificate, or disengage w...

... middle of paper ...

...ogy, 69(5), 797-811. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.69.5.797

Steele, J., James, J. B., & Barnett, R. (2002). Learning in a man's world: Examining the perceptions of undergraduate women in male-dominated academic areas. Psychology of
Women Quarterly, 26(1), 46-50. doi:10.1111/1471-6402.00042

Steinberg, J. R., Okun, M. A., & Aiken, L. S. (2012). Calculus GPA and math identification as moderators of stereotype threat in highly persistent women. Basic and Applied Social
Psychology, 34(6), 534-543. doi:10.1080/01973533.2012.727319
Rydell, R. J., Rydell, M. T., & Boucher, K. L. (2010). The effect of negative performance stereotypes on learning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(6), 883-896. doi:10.1037/a0021139 Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2003). Stereotype Lift. Journal of Experimental Social
Psychology, 39(5), 456-467. doi:10.1016/S0022-1031(03)00019-2

Show More
Related

  • Half the Sky: Perpetuating Stereotypes Contribution and the Oppression of Women

    2356 Words  | 5 Pages

    We cannot deny the imperfection of the world today; poverty, violence, lack of education, and the general overwhelming deficiency of basic daily necessities are among some of the most troubling issues on the agenda. By carefully selecting our critical lens, we can gather that there are many aspects of today’s issues where we can focus our attention and begin the quest for solutions to these pervasive problems. Authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (2009) utilize their book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide to emphasize the particular struggle of women in the world today and how by addressing three particular abuses of sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence (including honor killings and mass rape), and maternal mortality, we may begin “unlocking an incipient women’s movement to emancipate women and fight global poverty” (p. xxii). However, we must first understand the difficulty of addressing such complex issues by a proposing a “one-size fits all” solution and take into consideration the varying feminist perspectives that currently contemplate the oppression of women in societies around the world. To be able to critically digest Kristof and WuDunn’s book we must explore the types of stories and evidence included and how they’re presented, and the generalized theories behind the insight and solutions regarding the women in need around the world. The authors alienate their audience by ignoring the complexity of building a singular feminist movement. Kristof and WuDunn’s book Half the Sky further contributes to the oppression of women because they objectify Third World women by portraying them as victims in need of outside rescue and suggest that an overarching solution...

    Read More

  • The Power of Words: Lawrence Summers' 2005 Speech on Inequality

    1223 Words  | 3 Pages

    Words can be powerful, especially when those words are spoken by the president of a top university. In a 2005 speech by Lawrence Summers, he put forth the hypothesis that there are more men than women in the most high end positions due to a different set of measurable attributes, rather than it being caused by pervasive sexism or discrimination. To make it to the top of highly demanding fields, one has to be of exceptional quality and these are “people who are three and a half, four standard deviations above the mean in the one in 5,000, one in 10,000 class” (Summers, 2005). Summers is making the point that we should analyze the dataset that produces this type of result, rather than saying it’s all because of discrimination. Summers does not deny that discrimination exists, but he argues it cannot explain every difference. While there are more women in science and math based majors than ever before, fewer of them are in the top research positions that require the most demanding work and longest hours. Summers was strongly criticized and forced to resign as president of Harvard.

    Read More

  • Institutionalized Sexism in Academia: Real or Perceived

    2859 Words  | 6 Pages

    " Beyond Gender Schemas: Improving the Advancement of Women in Academia." NWSA Journal 16.1, (Re) Gender Science Fields (2004): 207-20.

    Read More

  • Gender Prejudices

    1372 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Women need to..” is the first line featured in the new ad campaign for UN Women, an organization focusing on the gender equality and the empowerment of women. The ad features a woman with a Google search bar obscuring her mouth and autocomplete results for the incomplete phrase “women need to…” These include “women need to be put in their place”, “women need to know their place”, “women need to be controlled”, and “women need to be disciplined”. The small print of each ad also reads “Actual Google search on 09/03/13.” UN Women successfully uses these results to illustrate the still- present ideas of sexual discrimination. However, an analysis and synthesis between this campaign ad and articles related to the plight and progress of women show that the presence of gender prejudices can one day be an antiquated ideology,

    Read More

  • The Causes of Stereotypes

    940 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the modern era, stereotypes seem to be the ways people justify and simplify the society. Actually, “[s]tereotypes are one way in which we ‘define’ the world in order to see it” (Heilbroner 373). People often prejudge people or objects with grouping them into the categories or styles they know, and then treat the types with their experiences or just follow what other people usually do, without truly understand what and why. Thus, all that caused miscommunication, argument or losing opportunities to broaden the life experience. Stereotypes are usually formed based on an individual’s appearance, race, and gender that would put labels on people.

    Read More

  • Stereotypes: Consequences and Controversies

    2114 Words  | 5 Pages

    Sex or gender discrimination is treating individuals differently just because an individual is a female (woman) or male (man). One issue in today’s job market is gender stereotypes in the workplace and hiring. Gender plays an important role in the workplace. Gender stereotype play a large factor in the workplace. It is evident that females, when compared to males in the workplace, take more subservient roles. Gender stereotypes in the workplace stemmed from the assumption that women belong at home taking care of the children, while men work and make money to support the family. Despite reductions in blatant forms of discrimination, women continue to experience subtler forms discrimination, such as having their input in groups ignored and having their performances devalued (Ridgeway and Correll 2004; Valian 1999). Although many presumes that gender stereotypes targets women, there are just as many stereotypes geared toward men. Both men and women have legal protection against gender discrimination in the hiring process or workplace. Gender stereotypes do exist and influence perceptions of both men and women in everyday life. Sometimes gender bias in job descriptions can deter women that qualifies for the job from applying for the positions. There were many studies that proved that gender and racial biases can affect how employers evaluate potential candidates’ applications, leading employers to favor white male applicants more over equally qualifies women and people of color. The impact of gender bias in the hiring process is implausible. For example, in a double-blind study, science faculty members were asked to evaluate a fictitious student application who was randomly assigned a male or female name for a laboratory manager position. The applicants name was either John or Jennifer. Although both applicants had the same qualifications and experience, the results from the study showed that the faculty members

    Read More

  • Standardized Testing

    1634 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ryan, Katherine E., and Allison M. Ryan. "Psychological Processes Underlying Stereotype Threat And Standardized Math Test Performance." Educational Psychologist 40.1 (2005): 53-63. Education Research Complete. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.

    Read More

  • Sexism and Stereotypes

    567 Words  | 2 Pages

    You are at an interview, the interviewer says that you are not qualified for the job because of your gender. What would you say? Sexism has caused stereotypes, and harassment in the workforce, and professional sports, therefore people should know more about sexism. Media is a powerful tool of communication, it produces both negative and positive impacts on society.

    Read More

  • The Threat of a Stereotype

    1376 Words  | 3 Pages

    Stereotype threat is present in our everyday lives and it prevents people from doing things to their fullest abilities. It is the fear of confirming a negative stereotype about you resulting in weaker performance. An example where stereotype threat exists is in the case where African Americans do poorly on tests compared to Caucasian individuals. This occurs because the stereotype is that African Americans are intellectually inferior to Caucasian people. In a setting where the negative stereotype is brought to mind, African Americans will perform poorly on tests when in fact they are able to perform equally as well if not better than Caucasian individuals. (Article 1) Stereotype threat limits individuals in their performance in academics, sports or even something like driving. By reducing stereotype threat, performance in many areas can improve and people can perform tasks to their fullest potentials. Stereotype threat leads to underachievement in academic and work related situations. People may feel they cannot rise above the stereotype and become limited in their successes. (article 1 I think) The purpose of this paper is to inform on stereotype threat and how to reduce it, as well as to introduce my own investigation aimed at reducing stereotype threat.

    Read More

  • Second Class Citizenship Essay

    729 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rosser, S. V. (1998). Applying feminist theories to women in science programs. Signs, 24, 71-200.

    Read More

  • Subconscious Gender Biases

    369 Words  | 1 Pages

    Subconscious gender biases can influence women’s perceptions of themselves, their potential, and their abilities. Negative stereotypes of women’s abilities in math can be diffused into preschool and elementary girls’ minds by their parents and teachers (Gunderson, Ramirez, Levine, Beilock, 2011). It is important to examine these gender-biased underpinnings in order to be able to support women in modern day society without undermining their own self-concept. Stereotype threat may diminish a woman’s confidence in her own abilities and may affect willingness to accept help. Gunderson et al. (2011) also raised the issue of disconnect between similar math achievement test scores between boys and girls and the lack of representation of girls in math

    Read More

  • What Is The Gender Gap In STEM

    1702 Words  | 4 Pages

    STEM is best known as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM for many years has been primarily seen as and stereotyped into a masculine work field. But as of recent years, while it expands, more and more women have been rising in these fields. However, there is still a tremendous gender gap between men and women in these fields and areas of work. The gender gap between men and women in STEM is alive and well. There is no denying that the gender gap between men and women in STEM is immense. But there instead are many sufficient reasons as to why there is such a huge gap between men and women within in fields. Some probable causes for the lack of women seen in these areas are biased towards women, unconscious bias girls receive

    Read More

  • Gender Stereotyping: The Negative Impacts Of Gender Stereotypes

    1497 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gender stereotyping has been ongoing throughout history. The media has been distorting views by representing gender unrealistically and inaccurately. It created an image of what "masculinity" or "femininity" should be like and this leads to the image being "naturalized" in a way (Gail and Humez 2014). The media also attempts to shape their viewers into something ‘desirable’ to the norm. This essay will focus on the negative impacts of gender-related media stereotypes by looking at the pressures the media sets on both women and men, and also considering the impacts on children.

    Read More

  • Women and Engineering

    1367 Words  | 3 Pages

    Carol B. Muller, “The Underrepresentation of Women in Engineering and Related Sciences: Pursuing Two Complementary Paths to Parity.” National Academies Press (US); Web. 2003.

    Read More

  • Rose Guilbault's 'The Untranslatable Word Macho'

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    Girls are seen as caring, nurturing, quiet, and helpful. They place other’s needs above their own. Girls get ahead by hard work, not by being naturally gifted. Boys are seen as lazy, but girls are seen as not capable. In class, teacher will call on boys more than they call on girls. Boys are seen as better at math and science; while girls are better at reading and art. This bias is still at work even out of the classroom. There are more males employed at computer firms than women. The ratio of male to female workers in STEM fields is 3-1. In college, more women major in the humanities than in the sciences. In education, women are often seen as lesser than; even though 65% of all college degrees are earned by women. Women are still often seen as needing to be more decorative than intellectual, as represented by the Barbie who included the phrase, “Math is hard!” and the shirt that JC Penneys sold that said, “I’m too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me.” While there was a backlash on both items, it points out that there is a great deal of work to do on the educational gender bias to be

    Read More

More about how stereotype threat may cause poor performance in women

Open Document