The Perseverance of Gender Stereotype

Numerous studies have observed unequal representation of gender stereotypes across different areas. However, some of the studies featured in this body of research were focused on using direct measures of implicit associations to understand how students are influenced by gender stereotypes when deciding their work area. This study demonstrates gender stereotypes and their impact, in particular the impact on the number of women in technical fields (e.g. computer science). We present a within-subject experiment, which investigates implicit and explicit gender stereotypes for two areas (exact sciences, and art and humanities). Our results from this study involving 41 students revealed a predisposition to unconsciously attribute men to exact sciences fields (e.g., computer science) and women to arts and humanities, but consciously we observed that in exact sciences, gender attributions were balanced.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Sara Tranquada

Nuno Correia

Conference

Publication date: July 2018

Publication date (Print): July 2018

Pages: 1-6

Affiliations

[0001]FCT, M-ITI

Portugal

[0002]NOVA Lincs, FCT

Portugal

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2018.163

SO-VID: f082d0cd-5119-409c-9237-8138f47e8751

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of the 32nd International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference

Conference acronym: HCI

Conference number: 32

Conference location: Belfast, UK

Conference date: 4 - 6 July 2018

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Human Computer Interaction Conference

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2018.163

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

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K.D. Beddoes 2012 Feminist Scholarship in Engineering Education Challenges and Tensions Eng. Stud 4 205 232 http://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2012.693932
A.S. Bix 2004 From &quot;Engineeresses&quot; to &quot;Girl Engineers&quot; to &quot;Good Engineers&quot;: A History of Women’s U.S. Engineering Education NWSA J 16 27 49 http://doi.org/10.1353/nwsa.2004.0028
J.E.O. BlakemoreR.E. Centers 2005 Characteristics of Boys’ and Girls’ Toys Sex Roles 53 619 633 http://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-7729-0
clark J. Blickenstaff 2005 Women and science careers: leaky pipeline or gender filter? Gend Educ. 17 369 386 http://doi.org/10.1080/09540250500145072
S.G. BrainardL. Carlin 1998 A six-year longitudinal study of undergraduate women in engineering and science. J. Eng. Educ 87 369 375
K.L. Dryden 2013 Implicit and Explicit Gender Stereotypes and Their Relationship to Self-Concept University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
W. Faulkner 2009 Doing gender in engineering workplace culturesII Gender in/authenticity and the in/visibility paradox. Eng. Stud. 1 169 189 http://doi.org/10.1080/19378620903225059
W. Faulkner 2007 Nuts and Bolts and People’: Gender-Troubled Engineering Identities Soc. Stud. Sci 37 331 356 http://doi.org/10.1177/0306312706072175
W. Faulkner 2000. Dualisms, Hierarchies and Gender in Engineering. Soc. Stud. Sci. 30, 759 792 http://doi.org/10.1177/030631200030005005
L.D. GettysA. Cann 1981 Children’s perceptions of occupational sex stereotypes Sex Roles 7 301 308
A.G. GreenwaldD.E. McGheeJ.L. Schwartz 1998 Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: the implicit association test J. Pers. Soc. Psychol 74 1464
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M.J. WhiteG.B. White 2006 Implicit and Explicit Occupational Gender Stereotypes Sex Roles 55 259 266 http://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9078-z

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] A.-J. Berg 1995 A Gendered Socio-Technical Construction: The Smart House Keele University [WWW Document]. URL-J. http://lists.lib.keele.ac.uk/items/953E16B6-4924-FE6B-81C5-647E37231CB6.html (accessed 6.4.18

[2] R. Barlow 2014 BU Research: A Riddle Reveals Depth of Gender Bias [WWW Document] BU Today URL http://www.bu.edu/today/2014/bu-research-riddle-reveals-the-depth-of-gender-bias/ (accessed 1.26.17

[3] K.D. Beddoes 2012 Feminist Scholarship in Engineering Education Challenges and Tensions Eng. Stud 4 205 232 http://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2012.693932

[4] A.S. Bix 2004 From &quot;Engineeresses&quot; to &quot;Girl Engineers&quot; to &quot;Good Engineers&quot;: A History of Women’s U.S. Engineering Education NWSA J 16 27 49 http://doi.org/10.1353/nwsa.2004.0028

[5] J.E.O. BlakemoreR.E. Centers 2005 Characteristics of Boys’ and Girls’ Toys Sex Roles 53 619 633 http://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-7729-0

[6] clark J. Blickenstaff 2005 Women and science careers: leaky pipeline or gender filter? Gend Educ. 17 369 386 http://doi.org/10.1080/09540250500145072

[7] S.G. BrainardL. Carlin 1998 A six-year longitudinal study of undergraduate women in engineering and science. J. Eng. Educ 87 369 375

[8] K.L. Dryden 2013 Implicit and Explicit Gender Stereotypes and Their Relationship to Self-Concept University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

[9] W. Faulkner 2009 Doing gender in engineering workplace culturesII Gender in/authenticity and the in/visibility paradox. Eng. Stud. 1 169 189 http://doi.org/10.1080/19378620903225059

[10] W. Faulkner 2007 Nuts and Bolts and People’: Gender-Troubled Engineering Identities Soc. Stud. Sci 37 331 356 http://doi.org/10.1177/0306312706072175

[11] W. Faulkner 2000. Dualisms, Hierarchies and Gender in Engineering. Soc. Stud. Sci. 30, 759 792 http://doi.org/10.1177/030631200030005005

[12] L.D. GettysA. Cann 1981 Children’s perceptions of occupational sex stereotypes Sex Roles 7 301 308

[13] A.G. GreenwaldD.E. McGheeJ.L. Schwartz 1998 Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: the implicit association test J. Pers. Soc. Psychol 74 1464

[14] R. Hains 2015 The problem with separate toys for girls and boys - The Boston Globe [WWW Document] BostonGlobe.com. URL http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2015/02/27/the-problem-with-separate-toys-for-girls-and-boys/2uI7Qp0d3oYrTNj3cGkiEM/story.html (accessed 1 26 17

[15] S. Henn 2014 When Women Stopped Coding [WWW Document] NPR.org. URL http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-women-stopped-coding (accessed 1 17 17

[16] J. Jorgenson 2002 Engineering selves negotiating gender and identity in technical work Manag. Commun 15 350 380

[17] J.S. Light 1999 When Computers Were Women ResearchGate 40 455 483 http://doi.org/10.1353/tech.1999.0128

[18] Literary Devices 2015 Riddle - Examples and Definition of Riddle [WWW Document] Lit. Devices. URL http://literarydevices.net/riddle/ (accessed 1 26 17

[19] CBC 2017 How to overcome your unconscious biases CBC Radio [WWW Document] CBC. URL http://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/facing-our-shadows-1.4037913/how-to-overcome-your-unconscious-biases-1.4038641 (accessed 3 9 18

[20] L.A. McLoughlin 2005 Spotlighting: Emergent gender bias in undergraduate engineering education J. Eng. Educ 94 373

[21] L. MillerJ. Budd 1999 The Development of Occupational Sex‐role Stereotypes, Occupational Preferences and Academic Subject Preferences in Children at Ages 8, 12 and 16 Educ. Psychol 19 17 35 http://doi.org/10.1080/0144341990190102

[22] B.A. NosekM. BanajiA.G. Greenwald 2002 Harvesting implicit group attitudes and beliefs from a demonstration web site

[23] Group Dyn Theory Res Pract 6 101 115 http://doi.org/10.1037//1089-2699.6.1.101

[24] E.S. O’KeefeJ.S. Hyde 1983 The development of occupational sex-role stereotypes: The effects of gender stability and age Sex Roles 9 481 492

[25] ProjectImplicit [WWW Document] 2011 URL http://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ (accessed 1 26 17

[26] K.L. Tonso 2006 Student Engineers and Engineer Identity: Campus Engineer Identities as Figured World Cult. Stud. Sci. Educ 1 273 307 http://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-005-9009-2

[27] K.L. Tonso 1998 Engineering Gender–Gendering Engineering: What About Women in Nerd-Dom?

[28] M. Wapman 2014 Riddle me this Mothers Nat

[29] M.J. WhiteG.B. White 2006 Implicit and Explicit Occupational Gender Stereotypes Sex Roles 55 259 266 http://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9078-z

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