,

1. How women’s
unconscious process
are effected in Gender
Situations
Tatiana Christofi

2. Presentation Contents
1. Gender Stereotypes and Assessments of task
competence
2. Two ways that stereotypes influence Self-
Assessment
3. How do stereotypes impact Performance
4. What can be done – Previous studies -
5. How organisations can help
6. Statistics
7. References
8. Questions ?

3. ‘‘Many young men and women in vocational
schools and general secondary education
still opt for career choices reflecting
traditional gender roles. Better vocational
guidance is needed to address this issue and
for career advisers to be more gender aware
and thus more able to challenge
stereotypes.’’
(European Commission – 2010)

4. While there are many reasons why
individuals might prefer one career to
another…
…as a minimum, individuals must believe they
have the skills necessary for a given career in
order to develop preferences for that career.
Shelley J. Correll, 2006

5. Assessment Aspiration
Stereotypic
of &
Beliefs
Competence Decisions

6. Gender Stereotypes and Assessments
of task competence.
• gender stereotypes affect assessments we
make our own competence Self Assessment
• gender stereotypes affect assessment others
make of our competence Other’s
Assessments
Shelley J. Correll, 2006

7. Two ways that stereotypes influence
Self-Assessment
• Negative stereotypes lead to decreased task
performance
• Negative stereotypes lead individuals to judge
their performance by a harsher standard
Shelley J. Correll, 2006

8. How do stereotypes impact performance?
‘Stereotype threat’)
‘‘Stereotype threat refers to being at risk of
confirming, a negative stereotype about one's
group’’ Steele & Aronson, 1995
(Stereotype Threat and women’s Math Performance by
Spencer S., 1998)
• Main finding is that negative stereotypes lead
to decreased task performance
• When salient, stereotypes interfere with
working memory capacity

9. How do stereotypes impact performance?
‘Stereotype threat’)
The effect often occurs out of awareness.
• ‘‘Stereotype threat inquiring about task takers’
ethnicity and gender and standardised test
performance’’
Stricker and Wood, 2004.
• ‘‘Neural basis of stereotype – included shift in women’s
mental rotation performance’’
Wraga, Helt, Jacobs and Sullivan, 2006
• ‘‘Stereotypes Susceptibility: identify salience and
shifts in qualitative performance.’’
Shih, Pittinsky and Ambady, 1999.

10. ‘‘Stereotype threat inquiring about task `takers’
ethnicity and gender and standardised test
performance’’
More Details: Stricker and Ward, 2004.
• Tetris like game
• Half of them were exposed to a negative stereotype and
half of them were exposed to a positive stereotype
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) brain scan
Main Findings:
• Women exposed to a negative stereotype made 40% more
errors -> decrease performance
• Women exposed to a negative stereotype, the portion of
their brain that use to solve problems was not being
recruited as heavily as for women in the other condition.
• Occurs out of awareness

11. ‘‘Neural basis of stereotype – included shift in
women’s mental rotation performance’’
Wraga, Helt, Jacobs and Sullivan, 2006.
More Details:
• Previous A.P. Calculus test
• Complete Demographic Information before or
after the test
Main Findings:
• 47.000 women in the US would have gone the
AP Calculus credit

12. ‘‘Stereotypes Susceptibility: identify salience and
shifts in qualitative performance.’’
Shih, Pittinsky and Ambady, 1999.
More Details:
• Asian Women to the laboratory
• Gender and Mathematic stereotype(negative
stereotype), Asian and Mathematics stereotypes (positive
stereotype)and a control condition were they were
exposed to no stereotypes
Main Findings:
• Women in exposed to the negative stereotype had a
decrease performance compared to the control group.
Women exposed to the positive stereotype had a
stereotype lift performance
• Stereotypes that are in our local environment makes the
difference.

13. What can be done?
• Stereotypic bias often occur out of awareness
• Biases are more extreme in uncertain
situations
• The impact of stereotype change when beliefs
in the local setting change.
• Stereotypes also bias the standards of
gatekeepers use to access competence.

14. What can be done?
• ‘‘Signaling Threat: How Signaling Cues Affect Women in
Math, Science and Engineering Settings.’’
Murphy, Steele and Gross, 2007
More Details:
- SEM major student from Stanford University – highly identified with
mathematic abilities
- Leadership conference
- Gender balanced and unbalanced video
- Looking for students to attend
Main Findings:
- Women in the balanced video showed significant more interest in
going to the conference
- Importance to portray image that suggest people belong

15. What can be done?
• ‘‘ Unlock the Clubhouse: Women in Computing.’’
Margolis and Fisher, 2003
More Details:
- Geek picture of Computer Science and then they asked
people if that image describes them
Main Findings:
- 3/4 of men said yes
- 1/3 of women said yes
- We don’t need to fit women into Computer Science we
need to change Computer Science
- Expand the image of what computer science is

16. What can be done?
Organisations need to….
• Control the message: what are the gender
beliefs that are operating in the organisation?
How hoes the organisation presents itself?
• Make performance clearer and communicate
them clearly. Teach tacit knowledge.
• Hold gatekeepers accountable for gender
disparities. It is important to keep thinking
about how our policies and procedures affect
career relevant decisions.

17. Bachelor’s Degrees Earned by Women
in Selected Fields 1966-2006

18. Women and men in Science, Engineering and Technology:
the UK statistics guide 2010. UCRC
Key statistics on STEM GCSEs in 2009
• Girls do well in STEM GCSEs. In 2009, girls outperformed boys in grades A* to C
(pass rate) in six out of twelve STEM GCSE subjects.
• Girls and boys enter exams in STEM GCSEs in almost equal numbers, with girls
accounting for 48.8 per cent of all STEM exam entries.
• The overall proportional representation of girls in STEM GCSE subjects has slightly
improved in the recent years, particularly in physics, chemistry and biology.
Key statistics on A evel STEM subjects in 2009
• Fewer girls than boys take STEM subjects at A level. Girls accounted for 42.2 per
cent of all A level STEM exam entries in 2009. They were only 9.6 per cent of
students in computing and 22.2 per cent in physics.
• Girls are a smaller proportion of entrants to most STEM subjects at A level than they
are in STEM GCSE exams.
• In recent years the increase in the numbers of girls taking mathematics, further
mathematics, technology, physics, and science subjects at A level has been
proportionately greater than that for boys.
• Girls perform well in A level STEM subjects. In 2009, girls outperformed boys in A
grade attainment in all but two A level STEM subjects.
• Girls also had a slightly better pass rate (grades A – E) than boys in all A level STEM
subjects.

19. References
• AAUW, (2010). Why so Few? Women in Science. Technology, Engineer and
Mathematics. Available at
http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/upload/whysofew_execsummary.pdf. Last
accessed 24/05/2012.
• Correll S., (2006) Gender stereotypes and the career choice process: Implications
for graduate education in computer science, Cornell University
• Kirkup, G., Zalevski, A., Maruyama, T. and Batool, I. (2010). Women and men in
science, engineering and technology: the UK statistics guide 2010. Bradford: the
UKRC
• Europian Commission, (2010). Gender Differences in Educational Outcomes:
Traditional stereotypes are the biggest challenge for gender equality in education.
Available online at :
http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/thematic_reports/120
EN_HI.pdf Last accessed 20/05/2012.
• Margolis J. and Fisher A., (2003). Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing.
The MIT Press, USA.

20. References
• Murphy M. C., Steele, C. M. & Gross, J. J. (2007). Signaling threat: How
situational cues affect women in math, science, and engineering
settings. Psychological Science, 18
• Shih, M., Pittinsky, T. L., & Ambady, N. (1999). Stereotype susceptibility:
Identity salience and shifts in qualitative performance. Psychological
Science, 10
• Spencer S., et. al., (1999). Stereotype Threat and Women’s Math
Performance. University of Waterloo
• Steele, C.M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype Threat and the
intellectual test-performance of African-Americans. Journal of
personality and Social Psychology, 69 (5): 797-811.
• Wraga, M.; Helt, M.; Jacobs, E.; Sullivan, K. (2006). "Neural basis of
stereotype-induced shifts in women's mental rotation performance".
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 2 (1)
• Stricker LJ, Ward WC. Stereotype threat, inquiring about test takers'
ethnicity and gender, and standardized test performance. Journal of
Applied Social Psychology. 2004