Gender Differences In Ability Research Articles

How Effective are Female Role Models in Steering Girls Towards STEM? Evidence from French High Schools

Abstract We show in a large-scale field experiment that a brief exposure to female role models working in scientific fields affects high school students’ perceptions and choices of undergraduate major. The classroom interventions reduced the prevalence of stereotypical views on jobs in science and gender differences in abilities. They also made high-achieving girls in grade 12 more likely to enrol in selective and male-dominated science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs in college. Comparing treatment effects across the 56 role model participants, we find that the most effective interventions are those that improved students’ perceptions of science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers without overemphasising women’s under-representation in science.

An examination of gender differences in spatial skills and math attitudes in relation to mathematics success: A bio-psycho-social model

There are extensive controversies about: (1) whether any gender differences in math exist, (2) what factors might contribute to any gender differences, and (3) whether gender differences in abilities and attitudes are likely to impact the substantially smaller number of women in math intensive Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. We provide a review of gender differences in math, describing the inconsistencies and disagreements in the literature, which we propose can often be tied to the population being studied or to features relating to the math measures being used. Then we address two potential areas of gender differences (spatial skills and math attitudes), which may be critical in influencing gender differences in math within certain populations and types of math skills. Next, this article compares key gender-math theories, analyzing them from a bio-psycho-social framework. These findings are discussed within the context of our bio-psycho-social theory of gender differences in both math skills and STEM fields. In an overview of our bio-psycho-social theory, we propose that it is relative tilt in patterns of brain organization relating to spatial versus verbal abilities (rather than math versus verbal abilities tilt) that leads to gender differences in math behaviors and attitudes. This relative spatial-verbal tilt is likely a key player in influencing math skills/careers. At the end of the article, the educational implications are addressed including implications for interventions.

Women in STEM: Ability, preference, and value

Women are underrepresented in both STEM college majors and STEM jobs. Even with a STEM college degree, women are significantly less likely to work in STEM occupations than their male counterparts. This paper studies the determinants of the gender gap in college major choice and job choice between STEM and non-STEM fields and quantifies how much the gender wage gap can be explained by these choices using an extended Roy Model. I find that men’s ability sorting behavior is statistically stronger than women’s in major choice, yet gender differences in ability and ability sorting together explain only a small portion of the gender gap in STEM majors. The gender gap in STEM occupations cannot be explained by the gender differences in ability or ability sorting. Instead, a part of the gender gap in STEM occupations can be explained by the fact that women are more represented in less Math-intensive STEM majors and graduates from those majors are more likely to be well-matched to and to take jobs in non-STEM occupations. The other part of the gender gap in STEM occupations can be explained by women’s preference over work-life balance and women’s home location. The counterfactual analysis shows that about 13.7% of the gender wage gap among college graduates can be explained by the returns to STEM careers among the non-STEM women in the top 6.7% of the ability distribution.

Stewart-Williams and Halsey argue persuasively that gender bias is just one of many causes of women’s underrepresentation in science

Stewart-Williams and Halsey provide an unusually broad synthesis of the enormous literature on gender gaps in hiring, letters of recommendation, mathematical and spatial abilities, email appointment-making, people vs things orientation, within-gender variability, salaries, occupational preferences, and employment discrimination. They argue that sociocultural factors, while important, cannot by themselves account for the entirety of these gaps. In addition, they argue that factors resulting from evolutionary origins, cognitive ability gaps at the extreme right tail of the distribution, and underlying gender differences in abilities, preferences, and values are needed to explain why women are less well represented in the most math-intensive fields. In our commentary, we reprise our own recent synthesis (unpublished) of gender gaps in six domains (letters of recommendation, academic hiring, salaries, teaching evaluations, journal acceptance rates, grant funding success) and put our results in the context of these authors' arguments.

Who shines most among the brightest?: A 25-year longitudinal study of elite STEM graduate students.

In 1992, the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) surveyed 714 first- and second-year graduate students (48.5% female) attending U.S. universities ranked in the top-15 by science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field. This study investigated whether individual differences assessed early in their graduate school career were associated with becoming a STEM leader 25 years later (e.g., STEM full professors at research-intensive universities, STEM CEOs, and STEM leaders in government) versus not becoming a STEM leader. We also studied whether there were any important gender differences in relation to STEM leadership. For both men and women, small to medium effect size differences in interests, values, and personality distinguished STEM leaders from nonleaders. Lifestyle and work preferences also distinguished STEM leaders who were more exclusively career-focused and preferred to work-and did work-more hours than nonleaders. Also, there were small to large gender differences in abilities, interests, and lifestyle preferences. Men had more intense interests in STEM and were more career-focused. Women had more diverse educational and occupational interests, and they were more interested in activities outside of work. Early in graduate school, therefore, there are signs that predict who will become a STEM leader-even among elite STEM graduate students. Given the many ways in which STEM leadership can be achieved, the gender differences uncovered within this high-potential sample suggest that men and women are likely to assign different priorities to these opportunities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Do Female Role Models Reduce the Gender Gap in Science? Evidence from French High Schools

We show in a large-scale field experiment that a brief exposure to female role models working in scientific fields affects high school students’ perceptions and choice of undergraduate major. While the classroom interventions generally reduce the prevalence of stereotypical views on jobs in science and gender differences in abilities, the effects on educational choices are concentrated among high-achieving girls in Grade 12. They are more likely to enroll in selective and male-dominated STEM programs in college. The most effective role model interventions are those that improved students’ perceptions of STEM careers without overemphasizing women’s underrepresentation in science.

Putting a stereotype to the test: The case of gender differences in multitasking costs in task-switching and dual-task situations.

According to a popular stereotype, women are better at multitasking than men, but empirical evidence for gender differences in multitasking performance is mixed. Previous work has focused on specific aspects of multitasking or has not considered gender differences in abilities contributing to multitasking performance. We therefore tested gender differences (N = 96, 50% female) in sequential (i.e., task switching) and concurrent (i.e., dual tasking) multitasking, while controlling for possible gender differences in working memory, processing speed, spatial abilities, and fluid intelligence. Applying two standard experimental paradigms allowed us to test multitasking abilities across five different empirical indices (i.e., performance costs) for both reaction time (RT) and accuracy measures, respectively. Multitasking resulted in substantial performance costs across all experimental conditions without a single significant gender difference in any of these ten measures, even when controlling for gender differences in underlying cognitive abilities. Thus, our results do not confirm the widespread stereotype that women are better at multitasking than men at least in the popular sequential and concurrent multitasking settings used in the present study.

Self-views of African-American Youth are Related to the Gender Stereotypes and Ability Attributions of Their Parents

We examined relations among African-American parents' (N = 196) stereotypes about gender differences in mathematics, science, and reading performance, parents' attributions about their children's academic successes and failures, and their seventh and eighth grade children's academic self-views (domain-specific ability attributions and self-concept). Parents' stereotypes about gender differences in abilities were related to their ability attributions for their children's successes and failures within academic domains. Parents' attributions, in turn, were related to children's attributions, particularly among girls. Parents' attributions of literacy failures to lack of ability were negatively related to boys' literacy self-concepts, and parents' ability attributions for success in math/science were positively related to girls' math/science self-concepts. The influences of parents' beliefs on young adolescents' identity beliefs are discussed.

Conversations: Discover Who You Are

President's column In the past decade, an increasing number of organizations have been creating networks, mentoring programs, and coaching and leadership training for women in the workplace. Today, women represent a significant portion of the educated talent pool in most of the developed and emerging world in a broad range of industries, lead countries and companies, and hold an unprecedented amount of power in their hands and minds. The oil industry is not an exception. From field technicians to engineers and geologists, and to vice presidents and presidents, women are making huge contributions to this historically male-dominated industry. According to the US Labor Department, the women in the US workforce, for the first time surpassed the men by 800,000 in January 2010. Canada achieved this milestone in 2007. And as I am writing this column, four female astronauts are orbiting the earth on the space station, another historical milestone, and a giant step for womankind! While there have been remarkable gains, the number of women in the science and technology industries is less impressive. For example, the share of women employed in the US oil and gas industry stands at a mere 17.5% according to a recent report by Catalyst. Another recent study conducted in the US, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Letitia Corum Memorial Fund, the Mooneen Lecce Giving Circle, and the Eleanor Roosevelt Fund, shows that while the number of women in science and engineering is growing, men continue to outnumber women, especially in the leadership roles. The study also reveals that fewer women than men major in science and technology fields. By graduation, men outnumber women in nearly every science and engineering field, earning only 20% of bachelor’s degrees awarded. The number of women declines further at the graduate level and even more in the transition to the workplace. The same study points at evidence that social and environmental factors contribute to the underrepresentation of women in science and engineering. Many associate science and technology fields with “male” and humanities and arts fields with “female.” The striking disparity between the numbers of men and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics has often been considered as evidence of biologically driven gender differences in abilities and interests! Such perceptions adversely affect women’s decisions to pursue interest in science and technology areas. As I travel the world and speak to SPE members, I have been asked whether our industry provides opportunities for a woman to develop a meaningful professional career. The question is even more alarming when it is posed by female students who are already enrolled in petroleum engineering departments or female young professionals who have been employed and engaged in the industry for some time. We have a challenge to address, one that can seriously limit the industry’s access to a significant talent resource, adversely affect its image, and consequently threaten its ability to grow. I suggest that both women in the industry and the industry itself have important roles to play in resolving these issues.

Gender Difference in Ability Using the Stretch-Shortening Cycle in the Upper Extremities

A gender difference in ability using the stretch-shortening cycle (SSC ability) in the upper extremities has not been studied in detail. This study aimed to devise an index to evaluate SSC ability during powerful elbow flexion and to examine its gender differences. Thirty-three men athletes (19.9 +/- 1.0 years) and 21 women athletes (20.6 +/- 1.2 years) with mastered SSC movements participated in this study. They pulled a 20% load of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) by elbow flexion as quickly as possible with the dominant upper extremity from the following two preliminary conditions: a static relaxed muscle state (SR condition) and using a countermovement (SSC condition). The muscle power was measured accurately by a power measurement device, which adopted the weight loading method. The peak power under both conditions showed significantly higher values in men than in women. In both genders, the peak power showed significantly lower values in the SSC condition than in the SR condition (p < 0.05). The potentiation of using the SSC was not found in the peak power test. However, the initial power showed significantly higher values under the SSC condition (men: 37.2 +/- 6.4 W; women: 17.4 +/- 5.1 W) than in the SR condition (men: 18.3 +/- 4.3 W; women: 11.2 +/- 3.1 W). Hence, assuming a difference between initial muscle power outputs of the SR and SSC conditions as a difference in SSC ability, an SSC index was devised to evaluate the above ability. The SSC index showed significantly higher values in men (50.1 +/- 12.4) than in women (32.1 +/- 23.2). However, the individual difference of SSC ability was very large in women. The ability of women to use SSC in the upper extremities may be inferior to that of men.

Addressing Gender Differences in Computer Ability, Attitudes and Use: The Laptop Effect

The impact of gender on computer related attitudes, ability, and use has been actively documented, but little research has been done examining how to modify and reduce imbalances. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of ubiquitous computing (24-hour access to a laptop and the Internet) on gender differences in pre-service teachers with respect to computer attitudes, ability, and use. Regarding computer attitudes, gender differences before the laptop program were observed in only one of the four constructs assessed: future intentions to use computers (behavioral attitude). There were no significant differences in attitude between males and females after the laptop program. With respect to computer ability, males reported having stronger skills in five of the ten ability constructs assessed before the laptop program (operating systems, database software, creating a web page, and programming). There were no significant gender differences in ability after the laptop program, with the exception of programming which continued to favor males. It is speculated that the gender equalization effect observed in this study could have a significant impact on the extent to which technology is used by future students, especially given recent trends in promoting the use of technology in the classroom.

18.8 Fear of falling and strategies used by older adults tochange travel direction

Background: Significant age and gender differences were found among healthy young and older adult subjects in their abilities to quickly turn or stop in order to avoid obstacles that suddenly appear in the gait path (Cao C, Ashton-Miller JA, Schultz AB, Alexander NB. Abilities to turn suddenly: effects of age, gender and available response time. J Gerontol Med Sci 1997;52A:M88–M93; Cao C, Ashton-Miller JA, Schultz AB, Alexander NB. Abilities to stop suddenly: effects of age, gender, gait phase, and available response time. Submitted for publication, 1997 (also available as a chapter in Cao C. Biomechanics of forward momentum arrest when walking: age and gender differences. PhD Dissertation, University of Michigan, 1996). The present study quantified the extent to which age and gender differences in those subjects' response kinematics affected the total time they needed to suddenly arrest their forward momentum. Methods: Age- and gender-group means of four measures of forward movement of the anterior surface of the abdomen were obtained: the duration of the first post-cue response phase, from the visual cue that initiated the arrest response to reaching peak velocity (T1); acceleration (A1) during this phase; and decelerations (D2 and D3) during two subsequent post-cue response phases. A three-line-segment representation of this forward velocity history was constructed. This representation was used to predict the differences in response time needed (NRT) to suddenly arrest momentum that resulted from measured age and gender differences in each of the four response kinematics measures. Results: The largest contributor to the age group difference found in NRT was the increase in T1 among the older adults. Among the older males, the next largest contributor was their larger value of A1, and among the older females, their substantially smaller value of D2. Among the young adults in sudden turns, no single kinematic parameter seemed primarily responsible for the gender difference found in the NRT. Among the older adults, the gender difference in D2 was almost fully responsible for the gender difference in NRT, in both sudden stops and turns. Conclusions: Much of the older adults' need for longer response times than those of the young was attributable to the lengthened first phase of their responses. Older females, in addition, needed longer response times than young adults or older males because, during the second phase of their responses, their decelerations were substantially smaller. These age and gender differences may have arisen in part from known age and gender differences in abilities to develop lower extremity joint torque strengths rapidly.

Gender differences in planning, attention, simultaneous, and successive (PASS) cognitive processes and achievement.

Gender differences in ability and achievement have been studied for some time and have been conceptualized along verbal, quantitative, and visual-spatial dimensions. Researchers recently have called for a theory-based approach to studying these differences. This study examined 1,100 boys and 1,100 girls who matched the U.S. population using the Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, Successive (PASS) cognitive-processing theory, built on the neuropsychological work of A. R. Luria (1973). Girls outperformed boys on the Planning and Attention scales of the Cognitive Assessment System by about 5 points (d = .30 and .35, respectively). Gender differences were also found for a subsample of 1,266 children on the Woodcock-Johnson Revised Tests of Achievement Proofing (d = .33), Letter-Word Identification (d = .22), and Dictation (d = .22). The results illustrate that the PASS theory offers a useful way to examine gender differences in cognitive performance.

The Gendered Subject: Students' subject preferences and discussions of gender and subject ability

Girls have recently caught up with boys in the sciences in terms of achievements at GCSE, and continue to out-perform boys at languages at this level. However, there remains a sharp divergence in subject choice according to gender at A level and beyond. This paper seeks to discover whether or not there has been a shift in secondary school students' constructions of gender, school subjects, and subject ability. It examines the responses of secondary school students concerning their favourite, and least favourite, subjects according to gender. It also explores their statements concerning gender and ability at school subjects, analysing the various gender narratives reflected in these. It is argued that there has sometimes been a blurring of the gender dichotomy in terms of students' favourite subjects, although their least favourite subjects were more traditionally gendered. Moreover, the majority of students claimed that the sexes have the same ability at all subjects; and of those who argued there are gender differences in ability, the majority argued that girls have greater ability at various subjects.

Sudden turns and stops while walking: kinematic sources of age and gender differences.

Background: Significant age and gender differences were found among healthy young and older adult subjects in their abilities to quickly turn or stop in order to avoid obstacles that suddenly appear in the gait path (Cao C, Ashton-Miller JA, Schultz AB, Alexander NB. Abilities to turn suddenly: effects of age, gender and available response time. J Gerontol Med Sci 1997;52A:M88-M93; Cao C, Ashton-Miller JA, Schultz AB, Alexander NB. Abilities to stop suddenly: effects of age, gender, gait phase, and available response time. Submitted for publication, 1997 (also available as a chapter in Cao C. Biomechanics of forward momentum arrest when walking: age and gender differences. PhD Dissertation, University of Michigan, 1996). The present study quantified the extent to which age and gender differences in those subjects' response kinematics affected the total time they needed to suddenly arrest their forward momentum. Methods: Age- and gender-group means of four measures of forward movement of the anterior surface of the abdomen were obtained: the duration of the first post-cue response phase, from the visual cue that initiated the arrest response to reaching peak velocity (T1); acceleration (A1) during this phase; and decelerations (D2 and D3) during two subsequent post-cue response phases. A three-line-segment representation of this forward velocity history was constructed. This representation was used to predict the differences in response time needed (NRT) to suddenly arrest momentum that resulted from measured age and gender differences in each of the four response kinematics measures. Results: The largest contributor to the age group difference found in NRT was the increase in T1 among the older adults. Among the older males, the next largest contributor was their larger value of A1, and among the older females, their substantially smaller value of D2. Among the young adults in sudden turns, no single kinematic parameter seemed primarily responsible for the gender difference found in the NRT. Among the older adults, the gender difference in D2 was almost fully responsible for the gender difference in NRT, in both sudden stops and turns. Conclusions: Much of the older adults' need for longer response times than those of the young was attributable to the lengthened first phase of their responses. Older females, in addition, needed longer response times than young adults or older males because, during the second phase of their responses, their decelerations were substantially smaller. These age and gender differences may have arisen in part from known age and gender differences in abilities to develop lower extremity joint torque strengths rapidly. Copyright 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.

A psychological perspective on gender differences in computing participation

Any observant teacher of computer science at secondary or post-secondary level in an English-speaking country has probably noticed that there are considerably more boys than girls in the class. Many are concerned that there are able girls who would enjoy the challenge of a computing career who are choosing not to study computer science, students who may be more capable than many of the boys selecting these studies. The aim of this paper is to look at some of the factors which may influences the students' decisions to study computer science: the nature of the workforce, the prevalence of male and female role models, stereotyping of computing careers, culturally specific factors, perceived gender differences in ability, attitudes to computing, the organization of computing classes, approaches to assessment, and mentoring.

Gender Differences in Abilities and Preferences Among the Gifted: Implications for the Math-Science Pipeline

Gender Differences in Abilities and Preferences Among the Gifted: Implications for the Math-Science Pipeline

Gender-Based Factors in Computing Enrollments and Achievement: Evidence from a Study of Tertiary Students

Fewer females than males enroll in secondary and tertiary computing courses. This has implications for both the national economy and for the development of women as individuals. Explanations for gender differences in enrollments place varying emphasis on 1) social learning explanations focusing on the importance of experience, encouragement from significant others, the provision of male role models, and the generalization of pre-existing attitudes to mathematics and science, 2) category-based explanations of computer selection and avoidance, 3) beliefs about gender differences in abilities, and 4) gender differences in attributions for success and failure. Using a sample of 222 Australian first year tertiary students enrolled in a compulsory unit of computer studies, data were collected from questionnaires and the university database. Initial gender differences in computing experience and attitudes were found. Women were less likely to intend to pursue further computing studies, although their achievement was comparable to that of men. Achievement related to computing experience and in the case of men, to mathematics experience. Intentions to pursue further computing studies related to attitudes to computing and, in the case of women to mathematics experience and attitudes to statistics. The results are discussed in terms of the different roles of prior experience and attitudes and the implications for changing women's attitudes to computing.