Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T18:53:29.642Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - The Gender-Gap Artifact: Women's Underperformance in Quantitative Domains Through the Lens of Stereotype Threat

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Paul G. Davies  and
Steven J. Spencer
Edited by
Ann M. Gallagher  and
James C. Kaufman
Paul G. Davies
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Steven J. Spencer
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo
Ann M. Gallagher
Affiliation:
Law School Admissions Council, Newton, PA
James C. Kaufman
Affiliation:
California State University, San Bernardino
Get access

Summary

Women in the traditionally masculine field of mathematics must contend with stereotypes that allege a sex-based math inability. The threat of being personally reduced to these gender stereotypes can evoke a disruptive state that undermines women's math performance – a situational predicament termed “stereotype threat.” Women are susceptible to stereotype threat whenever they risk fulfilling, or being judged by, a negative gender stereotype that provides a plausible explanation for their behavior in a given domain. This chapter examines the insidious effects that stereotype threat can have on women's performance and aspirations in all quantitative fields.

Picture in your mind the typical computer scientist. Now picture the typical librarian. Is the librarian shy and the computer scientist socially awkward? Do they both wear glasses? Are they both inept at sports? Is the computer scientist a male and the librarian a female? Most people can clearly articulate the content of stereotypes targeted at various groups in our society, and gender stereotypes are no exception. As Brown and Josephs (1999) suggest, stereotypes regarding gender differences in math and science ability still pervade contemporary Western thought. In fact, if you assumed that the direction of those gender differences benefited men, you have just displayed personal knowledge of some of the negative stereotypes targeted at women in our culture. This is not meant to imply that you personally endorse those stereotypes – research has shown no relationship between personal beliefs and knowledge of stereotypes (Devine, 1989; Devine & Elliot, 1995).

Type
Chapter
Information
Gender Differences in Mathematics
An Integrative Psychological Approach
 , pp. 172 - 188
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aronson, J., Lustina, M., Good, C., Keough, K., Steele, C., & Brown, J. (1999). When white men can't do math: Necessary and sufficient factors in stereotype threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 29–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aronson, J., Quinn, D., & Spencer, S. (1998). Stereotype threat and the academic underperformance of minorities and women. In J. K. Swim & C. Stangor (Eds.), Prejudice: The target's perspective (pp. 83–103). San Diego, CA: Academic PressCrossRef
Benbow, C. P., & Stanley, J. C. (1980). Sex differences in mathematical ability: Fact or artifact? Science, 210, 1262–1264CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benbow, C. P., & Stanley, J. C. (1983). Sex differences in mathematical reasoning ability: More facts. Science, 222, 1029–1031CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blascovich, J., Spencer, S. J., Quinn, D. M., & Steele, C. M. (2001). Stereotype threat and the cardiovascular reactivity of African-Americans. Psychological Science, 12, 225–229CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R. P., & Josephs, R. A. (1999). A burden of proof: Stereotype relevance and gender differences in math performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 246–257CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crocker, J., Major, B., & Steele, C. M. (1998). Social stigma. In D. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (4th ed.) (pp. 504–553). Boston: McGraw Hill
Croizet, J. C., & Claire, T. (1998). Extending the concept of stereotype threat to social class: The intellectual underperformance of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 588–594CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, P. G., & Spencer, S. J. (2002). Reinforcing the glass ceiling via stereotype threat: Gender-stereotypic media images persuade women to avoid leadership positions. Unpublished manuscript, Stanford University
Davies, P. G., Spencer, S. J., Quinn, D. M., & Gerhardstein, R. (2002). Consuming images: How television commercials that elicit stereotype threat can restrain women academically and professionally. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1615–1628CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devine, P. G. (1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 5–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devine, P. G., & Elliot, A. J. (1995). Are racial stereotypes really fading? The Princeton trilogy revisited. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 1139–1150CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eagly, A. H. (1987). Sex differences in social behavior: A social role interpretation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Eccles, J. S. (1994). Understanding women's educational and occupational choices. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18, 585–609CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzgerald, L. F., & Crites, J. O. (1980). Toward a career psychology of women: What do we know? What do we need to know? Journal of Counseling Psychology, 27, 44–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gonzales, P. M., Blanton, H., & Williams, K. J. (2002). The effects of stereotype threat and double-minority status on the test performance of Latino women. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 659–670CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hewitt, N. M., & Seymour, E. (1991). Factors contributing to high attrition rates among science and engineering undergraduate majors. A report submitted to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Hyde, J. S., Fennema, E., & Lamon, S. J. (1990). Gender differences in mathematical performance: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 139–155CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Inzlicht, M., & Ben-Zeev, T. (2000). A threatening intellectual environment: Why females are susceptible to experiencing problem-solving deficits in the presence of males. Psychological Science, 11, 365–371CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kessel, C., & Linn, M. C. (1996). Grades or scores: Predicting future college mathematics performance. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 15, 10–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimball, M. M. (1989). A new perspective on women's math achievement. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 198–214CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kunda, Z. (1999). Social cognition: Making sense of people. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press
Lefevre, J., Kulak, A., & Heymans, S. (1992). Factors influencing the selection of university majors varying in mathematical content. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 24, 276–289CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leyens, J. P., Désert, M., Croizet, J. C., & Darcis, C. (2000). Stereotype threat: Are lower status and history of stigmatization preconditions of stereotype threat? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1189–1199CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Major, B., Spencer, S., Schmader, T., Wolfe, C., & Crocker, J. (1998). Coping with negative stereotypes about intellectual performance: The role of psychological disengagement. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24(1), 34–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osborne, J. W. (2001). Testing stereotype threat: Does anxiety explain race and sex differences in achievement? Contemporary Educational Psychology, 26, 291–310CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Quinn, D. M., & Spencer, S. J. (2001). The interference of stereotype threat with women's generation of mathematical problem-solving strategies. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 55–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shih, M., Pittinsky, T. L., & Ambady, N. (1999). Stereotype susceptibility: Identity salience and shifts in quantitative performance. Psychological Science, 10, 80–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spencer, S. J., Steele, C. M., & Quinn, D. M. (1999). Stereotype threat and women's math performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 4–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stangor, C., Carr, C., & Kiang, L. (1998). Activating stereotypes undermines task performance expectations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 1191–1197CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stangor, C., & Sechrist, G. B. (1998). Conceptualizing the determinants of academic choice and task performance across social groups. In J. K. Swim & C. Stangor (Eds.) Prejudice: The target's perspective (pp. 105–124). San Diego, CA: Academic PressCrossRef
Steele, C. M. (1992, April). Race and the schooling of Black Americans. The Atlantic Monthly, 68–78
Steele, C. M. (1997). A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. American Psychologist, 52, 613–629CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 797–811CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steele, C. M., Spencer, S. J., & Aronson, J. (2002). Contending with group image: The psychology of stereotype and social identity threat. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 34) (pp. 379–440). San Francisco: Academic PressCrossRef
Steele, C. M., Spencer, S. J., Davies, P. G., Harber, K., & Nisbett, R. E. (2002). African American college achievement: A “wise” intervention. Unpublished manuscript, Stanford University
Stone, J., Lynch, C. I., Sjomeling, M., & Darley, J. M. (1999). Stereotype threat effects on Black and White athletic performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1213–1227CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stricker, L. J. (1998). Inquiring about examinees' ethnicity and sex: Effects on AP calculus AB examination performance. (College Board Rep. 98–1;l ETS Research Rep. No. 98–5). New York: College Entrance Examination BoardCrossRef
Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2003). Stereotype lift. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 456–467CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yee, D. K., & Eccles, J. S. (1988). Parent perceptions and attributions for children's math achievement. Sex Roles, 19, 317–333CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×