We don’t know how scientists and non-scientists ended up making the same connection between gender and soft science labels. That is, scientists’ levels of sexism, as measured by self-report, were unrelated to their inclination to call fields with many women “soft sciences.” But in scientists, we found no connection between that tendency and their beliefs about women’s ability in science and math. Participants who worked or planned to work in science were just as likely as the rest of the population to use gender as a cue to categorize soft vs. Other studies have found that the same job is seen as deserving a lower salary when positioned in a “female field” than when it is listed in a “male field.” Together, this suggests that the presence of women, and not characteristics of the job or field, is what leads to devaluation and lower pay. When women make up more than 25% of graduate students in a discipline, men – and to a lesser extent women – become less interested in pursuing that discipline, and salaries tend to go down. This finding suggests that exposure to women in your own field can shift the gender stereotypes you hold.īut our studies more closely align with other research suggesting that, rather than reducing gender stereotyping, women’s increased participation results in the devaluation of more heavily female fields. Other research has found that explicit “science equals men” stereotypes were weaker among people who majored in science disciplines with high participation by women, like biological sciences, compared to those who majored in fields with few women, like engineering. What does a ‘scientist’ look like in your mind’s eye? ER Productions Limited/DigitalVision via Getty Images What other research is being done In this way, even science and math can end up in the “ pink collar” category of heavily female fields that are often devalued and underpaid. These stereotypes can lead people to simply devalue the fields in which women participate. Stereotypes about women and STEM persist, even in the face of evidence that women can and do productively participate in STEM fields. Our research suggests this may not be the case. Others have hoped that, as women demonstrate they can be successful in STEM, sexist stereotypes about women’s ability and interest in STEM will erode. This effort is sometimes described as a way to reduce the wage gap.īy encouraging women to enter high-paying fields like science, technology and engineering, advocates hope that women on average will increase their earning power relative to men. Over the past decade, a growing movement has encouraged girls and women to pursue education and careers in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. Moreover, the “soft science” label led people to devalue these fields – describing them as less rigorous, less trustworthy and less deserving of federal research funding. Across studies, participants were consistently more likely to describe a discipline as a “soft science” when they’d been led to believe that proportionally more women worked in the field.
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