Gender Bias Research Articles

Digital Transformation, Gender Discrimination, and Female Employment

With the demographic dividend disappearing, the key to achieving high-quality development in China is to promote full employment of the workforce. Women are a significant group in the job market, but they frequently face greater pressure and higher employment thresholds. Ensuring high-quality employment for women will be one of the most important tasks in the future. Based on the China Family Panel Studies data, this paper uses two-way fixed effects models, causal stepwise regression analysis, and structural equation models to study the impact of digital transformation of households on female employment and how it works. The empirical results show that digital transformation of households significantly promotes female employment. For low-security employment and high-security employment, the promotion effect of digital transformation is significant. Further mechanism analysis shows that digital transformation of households mainly increases women’s human capital, improves their search for information, and stimulates improvements in social skills, thus effectively eliminating employment-related gender discrimination and ultimately promoting women’s employment. This paper can provide a significant reference for alleviating female employment pressure, promoting full employment, and achieving high-quality development in the context of digital transformation.

The link between early adolescents' gender discrimination and gender attitudes about peers: Does gender similarity matter?

Gender is one of the most salient social identities, particularly during early adolescence. However, factors related to adolescents' gender attitudes remain underexamined. We examined links between adolescents' gender discrimination, felt-gender similarity, and intergroup gender attitudes. Participants were 270 adolescents in the United States (Mage = 12.95 years, SD = 1.33; 47.4% adolescent girls; 63.7% White, 12.2% Latinx, 10.7% Black, 4.1% Asian, 5.6% multiracial, and 3% indigenous). Path analyses showed that gender discrimination negatively predicted adolescents' attitudes towards own- and other-gender peers. Felt own-gender similarity positively predicted own-gender attitudes as expected, but other-gender similarity did not predict other-gender attitudes. Further, own- and other-gender similarity did not interact to predict adolescents' gender attitudes. However, adolescents' attitudes towards other-gender peers were more negatively impacted by gender discrimination for those who felt highly similar to own-gender peers than for those with average or low own-gender similarity. Findings inform potential strategies to improve adolescents' gender attitudes.

Toward an Expressivist View of Women's Autonomy

Feminists have disagreed about whether women can choose gendered subordination autonomously. Less attention has been paid, however, to the socio-ontological questions that underlie this debate. This article introduces novel cases of ‘thwarted autonomy,’ in which women pursue autonomy but in ways that reinforce gendered subordination, in order to challenge dominant proceduralist and substantivist views, as well as motivate an expressivist view of the social self as a promising foundation for an account of autonomy. On this view, which draws on the Hegelian tradition, agents must embody their desires and values in the social world to achieve self-understanding. Social meanings and norms therefore mediate the form an agent’s expressive activity takes, and the sense of self she develops. An expressivist view, I argue, allows us to reinterpret women’s outward acquiescence to gendered subordination as an attempt to express autonomy in an oppressive social context. It also points towards a robustly social conception of autonomy to aid in the diagnosis and redress of patriarchal oppression.

Patriarchy System in the Accounting Profession in Malaysia From the Perspective of Women Accountants

This paper aimed to explore the patriarchal system in the accounting profession that had prevailed and oppressed female accountants. Women in accounting professions that cantered the organisational structure and education were used in this research, as well as main constructs such as lack of working experience as a woman accountant, gender discrimination between man and woman, and the suitability of women to choose a career as an accountant. The data was collected by distributing questionnaires to 64 female accountants around Malaysia with experience work of more than five years. Findings showed that the discrimination of gender between women and men and the suitability of women to choose a career as an accountant has a significant influence on the patriarchal system in the accounting profession in Malaysia. This study is the first in Malaysia and represents a strong implication for policies and their evaluation. It identifies the patriarchy as a social and ideological structure that sees women as inferior to men (patriarchs). In a society with the unfair power of men and women, Patriarchy imposes stereotypes about masculinity and femininity. Keywords: accountant, patriarchy, profession

Investigating peer recognition across an introductory physics sequence: Do first impressions last?

Students’ beliefs about the extent to which meaningful others, including their peers, recognize them as a strong science student are correlated with their persistence in science courses and careers. Yet, prior work has found a gender bias in peer recognition, in which student nominations of strong peers disproportionately favor men over women, in some instructional science contexts. Researchers have hypothesized that such a gender bias diminishes over time, as determined by students’ academic year: studies have found a gender bias in peer recognition in science courses aimed at first-year students, but not in science courses aimed at beyond first-year students. This hypothesis that patterns of peer recognition change over time, however, has yet to be tested with longitudinal data—previous studies only examine snapshots of different students in different science courses. In this study, we isolate the effect of time on peer recognition by analyzing student nominations of strong peers across a two-semester introductory physics course sequence, containing the same set of students and the same instructor in both semesters, at a mostly women institution. Using a combination of social network analysis and qualitative methods, we find that while many students receive similar levels of peer recognition over time, the four most highly nominated students—the recognition celebrities—exhibit some change between semesters even in this highly controlled setting. Furthermore, we observe that these changes in the celebrities track closely with changes in student outspokenness and that being outspoken is likely more important for gaining recognition than earning a high grade in the class. These findings lend support to prior work’s hypothesis that peer recognition changes over time, but also challenge the generalizability of previous results (i.e., that patterns of recognition are related to students’ academic year). Instead, peer recognition seems highly sensitive to variables such as individual students’ participation and, therefore, may be course specific. We provide recommendations for both when and how instructors may intervene on peer recognition based on our results. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Intersectional injustices: police responses to migrant, Black and minoritised victim-survivors of rape and other sexual offences in England and Wales

ABSTRACT Research has explored how gender discrimination and sexist stereotypes in the form of rape myths permeate police investigations in England. Yet, scant attention has been given to the impact of intersectional structural disadvantages on shaping police responses to rape. Recent quantitative studies reveal a criminal justice gap for Black and minoritised victim-survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, pointing to a troubling policing reality that demands further scrutiny. This paper turns to that by drawing on data from 25 cases from four forces collected between 2021 and 2022 as part of Operation Soteria Bluestone (OSB) through a novel method in which police investigators critically peer review their colleagues’ case files to assess strengths and weaknesses. Our study provides a unique methodological and empirical contribution to the field, as qualitative research on Black and minoritised women’s experiences of policing as victim-survivors of sexual and domestic violence has primarily relied on interviews with police officers, victim-survivors and practitioners. The framework of institutional racism and intersectionality sheds light on how the police may inadequately respond to rape cases and the intersecting needs of migrant, Black and minoritised women. As Black feminists contend, the intersection of multiple categories of oppression both generates and invisibilises specific forms of violence and institutional responses to them. Our findings indicate that migrant, Black and minoritised victim-survivors are being failed on multiple fronts, including police neglect and inaction in rape investigations, ineffective addressing of language needs of migrant victim-survivors involved and a lack of referral to by-and-for specialist support services.

Impact of "intensive parenting attitude" on children's social competence via maternal parenting behavior.

"Intensive parenting" is a tendency to invest parents' time, money, and energy in their child. This also includes some gender bias concerning a mother being the best person to primarily raise her children. Some psychology scholars have pointed out that this attitude causes much stress, anxiety, depression, and a sense of guilt among mothers. However, its effects on children have yet to be revealed using an extensive survey, and this indicates the need to investigate any possible impact of an intensive parenting attitude on children. The aim of this study was to elucidate a link between a maternal intensive parenting attitude and their children's social competence through maternal parenting behavior. This was based on collecting data from 675 Japanese women who were mothers of preschoolers using the Japanese version of the Intensive Parenting Attitude Questionnaire, the Positive and Negative Parenting Scale, and the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. The results showed that the "Essentialism," "Fulfillment," and "Child-centered" components of intensive parenting attitude influenced the "involvement and monitoring" and "positive responsivity" of parenting behavior. Furthermore, these two parenting behaviors affected children's prosocial behavior and hyperactivity/inattention. These findings suggest that an intensive parenting attitude has some impact on children as well as mothers, both positively and negatively, pointing to a serious effect on society.

The Cultural Roots of Gender Bias and Horizontal Hostility in the Workplace

A healthy workplace is an environment where everyone can work peacefully with both sexes, whether they are superiors, subordinates or peers. Unfortunately, this is hardly possible, and the situation is more challenging for women, as they are still minorities in many industries. Studies have revealed that female managers face biased evaluations from their subordinates. Understanding the cultural context is vital to truly interpret the relevance of workplace gender bias. Thus, this study aims to explore the factors shaping employees' manager gender preferences and their prejudices regarding managers' gender from a cultural perspective. To reach the research objectives, an open-ended questionnaire is conducted to 302 people working in Istanbul. The findings reveal a gender bias towards women managers by both sexes. In addition, the study shows that women exhibit even more biased attitudes toward same-gender colleagues and managers. The findings are discussed from a cultural perspective and managerial implications are provided.

SDGs Managers' Assessment Bias and Their Implications for Preventing Violence Against Women in Companies.

This study explores the role of managers' perceptions of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in preventing violence against women in companies. Surveying 673 managers in Lima, Peru, it found gender-based discrepancies in SDG priorities, with men leaning toward industry goals and women toward well-being and gender equality. Socially ingrained gender biases influence prevention strategies: men often comply with mandatory measures, while women opt for noncompulsory strategic actions. Notably, a high valuation of SDG-5 (gender equality) correlates with diverse prevention efforts. The findings highlight the importance of addressing gender bias in company practices and improving business school formation.

INTERSECTIONAL OPPRESSIONS THROUGH LANGUAGE: CASE STUDIES IN RACE, GENDER AND CLASS IN TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD AND MY FAIR LADY

This study aims to investigate the impact of many dimensions on language use in Harper Lee’s To kill a mockingbird and George Cukor’s My fair lady. Regarding the first one, we distinctly focus on racially charged terminology, further exploring gender and class biases portrayed in the second one. Our methodology involves in-depth discourse analysis and critical examination of linguistic nuances, societal implications and narrative contexts within the works. The main hypothesis is that language acts as both a reflection and a catalyst for societal norms, playing a pivotal role in shaping perceptions, either for inclusivity or exclusion within specific communities.

1 + 1 > 2? Information, Humans, and Machines

Our study, conducted through a field experiment with a major Asian microloan company, examines the interaction between information complexity and machine explanations in human–machine collaboration. We find that human evaluators’ loan approval decision-making outcomes are significantly enhanced when they are equipped with both large information volumes and machine-generated explanations, underscoring the limitations of relying solely on human intuition or machine analysis. This blend fosters deep human engagement and rethinking, effectively reducing gender biases and increasing prediction accuracy by identifying overlooked data correlations. Our findings stress the crucial role of combining human discernment with artificial intelligence to improve decision-making efficiency and fairness. We offer specific training and system design strategies to bolster human–machine collaboration, advocating for a balanced integration of technological and human insights to navigate intricate decision-making scenarios efficiently. Specifically, the study suggests that, whereas machines manage borderline cases, humans can significantly contribute by reevaluating and correcting machine errors in random cases (i.e., those without explicitly congruent feature patterns) through stimulated active rethinking triggered by strategic information prompts. This approach not only amplifies the strengths of both humans and machines, but also ensures more accurate and fair decision-making processes.

Teacher value-added and gender gaps in educational outcomes

This paper uses rich administrative data from Chile to estimate teacher value added (TVA) on test scores and on an educational attainment index. We allow each teacher to have a different TVA for male and female students and show that differences in TVA explain an important part of the gender gaps we observe in test scores and postsecondary education trajectories. The gaps in gender-specific teaching effectiveness are especially pronounced in mathematics. Indeed, eliminating within-teacher differences in math test score VA would reduce the gender gap in math performance by 67%. We explore what could be behind these gaps in gender-specific TVA and find no significant differences in what makes teachers effective for male and female students. We do find, however, significant associations between teacher characteristics—e.g., gender and performance in the college admission exam—and practices—e.g., paying attention to low-performing students, congratulating students who improve, and having a good relationship with students—with teacher effectiveness. Finally, we also show that math teachers tend to be biased in favor of male students and that teachers with smaller gender biases are more effective for both, male and female students.

Perpetuation of Gender Bias in Visual Representation of Professions in the Generative AI Tools DALL·E and Bing Image Creator

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based generative imaging systems such as DALL·E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and Adobe Firefly, which work by transforming natural language descriptions into images, are revolutionizing computer vision. In this exploratory and qualitative research, we have replicated requests for images of women in different professions by comparing these representations in previous studies with DALL·E, observing that this model continues to provide in its last version, DALL·E 3, inequitable results in terms of gender. In addition, Bing Image Creator, Microsoft’s free tool that is widely used among the population and runs under DALL·E, has been tested for the first time. It also presents a sexualization of women and stereotypical children’s representations. The results reveal the following: 1. A slight improvement in terms of the presence of women in professions previously shown only with men. 2. They continue to offer biased results in terms of the objectification of women by showing sexualized women. 3. The representation of children highlights another level of gender bias, reinforcing traditional stereotypes associated with gender roles from childhood, which can impact future decisions regarding studies and occupations.

Validation and Measurement Invariance of the German and Spanish Gender Bias Scale for Women Leaders

AbstractGender bias still appears to contribute significantly to the gender disparity observed in upper leadership positions. The present study presents the translation, modification, and validation of the Gender Bias Scale for Women Leaders (GBSWL, Diehl et al., 2020) into German and Spanish. Using data from four samples of full-time employed women from Germany and Spain with and without leadership responsibility (N = 870), we conducted confirmatory factor analyses to establish factorial validity, tested measurement invariance across the different job levels and countries, and tested construct validity. Our results indicate that the original factor structure does not hold in Germany and Spain. Therefore, utilizing the German leader sample as a construction sample, we modified the factor structure and validated the modified version using the remaining three samples. The modified version demonstrated good model fit, had metric measurement invariance across all samples, and resulted in a correlational pattern consistent with theory and the original study. Overall, results suggest that the German and Spanish versions of the GBSWL are reliable and valid instruments that scholars and practitioners can use to advance theory, research, and human resource practice in Germany and Spain.

Influence of Gender Stereotypes in Hiring Decisions

Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of gender stereotypes in hiring decisions. Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library. Findings: The findings reveal that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to the influence of gender stereotypes in hiring decisions. Preliminary empirical review revealed that gender bias significantly influenced hiring processes, favoring male candidates over equally qualified female candidates. Through an analysis of empirical evidence from various studies conducted by scholars, it was evident that gender stereotypes intersected with other forms of discrimination, such as racial or ethnic bias, exacerbating disparities in employment opportunities, particularly for women of color. Despite increasing awareness of the importance of diversity, gender bias persisted, hindering progress towards gender parity in the workplace. Recommendations included implementing blind recruitment processes and diversity training to address bias and promote transparency in hiring practices, facilitating the creation of more equitable and inclusive workplaces. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Social Role Theory, Ambivalent Sexism theory and Intersectionality theory may be used to anchor future studies on influence of gender stereotypes in hiring decisions. The study provided several recommendations that contributed to theory, practice, and policy. It emphasized the need to raise awareness of gender bias, suggested implementing structural changes like blind recruitment, advocated for diversity and inclusion initiatives, highlighted the role of organizational culture, and called for the involvement of policymakers in addressing systemic barriers. These recommendations aimed to promote fairness, equity, and diversity in employment practices within STEM and beyond, contributing to theoretical understanding, informing practical strategies, and shaping policy interventions.

Is there a relationship between internalized misogyny and attitudes towards dating violence in young women?

This study aims to determine the relationship between young women's attitudes towards dating violence and internalized misogyny. This study used descriptive and relational design.The target population of the study was all young women aged between 18 and 24 years who lived in Turkey. A total of 288 individuals were accessed in the study. Data were collected through the “Personal Information Form” developed by the researchers, “Attitudes towards Dating Violence Scales”, and the “Internalized Misogyny Scale”. Participating young women's Attitudes Towards Male Psychological Dating Violence Scale mean score and the Internalized Misogyny Scale mean score demonstrated a positive and medium level relationship (p < 0.01. r:0.412), and a positive and weak correlation was detected with Devaluing of Women (p < 0.01. r:0.374), Distrust of Women (p < 0.01. r:0.341), and gender bias in favor of men (p < 0.01. r:0.321) sub-scale mean scores. This study found that although the level was weak, there was a correlation between internalized misogyny and dating violence, and the increase in internalized misogyny increased the acceptance of dating violence in young women.

Multi-Template Meta-Information Regularized Network for Alzheimer's Disease Diagnosis Using Structural MRI.

Structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) has been widely applied in computer-aided Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnosis, owing to its capabilities in providing detailed brain morphometric patterns and anatomical features in vivo. Although previous works have validated the effectiveness of incorporating metadata (e.g., age, gender, and educational years) for sMRI-based AD diagnosis, existing methods solely paid attention to metadata-associated correlation to AD (e.g., gender bias in AD prevalence) or confounding effects (e.g., the issue of normal aging and metadata-related heterogeneity). Hence, it is difficult to fully excavate the influence of metadata on AD diagnosis. To address these issues, we constructed a novel Multi-template Meta-information Regularized Network (MMRN) for AD diagnosis. Specifically, considering diagnostic variation resulting from different spatial transformations onto different brain templates, we first regarded different transformations as data augmentation for self-supervised learning after template selection. Since the confounding effects may arise from excessive attention to meta-information owing to its correlation with AD, we then designed the modules of weakly supervised meta-information learning and mutual information minimization to learn and disentangle meta-information from learned class-related representations, which accounts for meta-information regularization for disease diagnosis. We have evaluated our proposed MMRN on two public multi-center cohorts, including the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) with 1,950 subjects and the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) with 1,163 subjects. The experimental results have shown that our proposed method outperformed the state-of-the-art approaches in both tasks of AD diagnosis, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) conversion prediction, and normal control (NC) vs. MCI vs. AD classification.

Women and The Journalist Profession (Phenomenological Study of The Professionalism of Women Journalists Within the Samarinda City Government)

The strategic position of journalists in the public sphere must be considered. Besides being increasingly in demand, this profession has become a promising profession and has a career path. This study aims to understand the challenges and strategies used by women journalists in the Samarinda City Government in carrying out their role as professionals. The research method used is qualitative research with a phenomenological approach, which helps to describe the reality that occurs in society. Four female journalists who met the research criteria were interviewed and observed to collect data. The results showed that women journalists in the Samarinda City Government face challenges from their surroundings. These challenges include the empowerment of normative rights that have not been optimal, difficulties in obtaining sources, including their different characteristics, the existence of fake journalists, and gender bias in the newsroom and the field. In addition, the double burden of carrying out their profession is also a problem they need help with. Despite this, these female journalists still try to maintain their professionalism. They construct themselves as professional journalists by understanding that their profession is a form of responsibility and commitment. They maintain standards of professionalism by prioritizing the code of ethics, ethical awareness, knowledge, and competencies possessed. In this way, they strive to stay relevant and in a professional carriage in the face of the ever-growing flow of news.

D66. Linguistic Analysis of Race and Gender Bias in Narrative Letters of Recommendation for Plastic Surgery Residency Applicants

D66. Linguistic Analysis of Race and Gender Bias in Narrative Letters of Recommendation for Plastic Surgery Residency Applicants

THE INFLUENCE OF SENIOR AUTHOR GENDER ON RESEARCH PRACTICE IN EXERCISE AND SPORTS SCIENCE

INTRODUCTION &amp; AIMS Sex and gender bias have been continually documented in sport and exercise science. There are disparities in both participants and authorship, including those leading the research. Examples from medical research show senior author gender influences practices (e.g., disaggregation of data by sex). We examined the relationship between senior author gender and research practices in sport and exercise science. METHODS For this analysis we have included all papers published in the first issue of 2023 of the top 10 sports science journals, according to SJR Sports Science rankings. We extracted senior author gender and data on research practices including study type, exercise modality, and population. This is part of a larger ongoing study. RESULTS Our preliminary results include 182 studies from 10 journals. Men represented 84% of all senior authors. Percentage of senior author gender ranged from 100% men as senior authors in Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, and Arthroscopy (45 papers led by men, 0 led by women), to 66% women senior authorship in Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health (6 papers led by women, 3 by men). When the senior author was a man, they were more likely to conduct observational research, including cross sectional, retrospective, and epidemiological research. When women were senior authors, they were more likely to conduct qualitative research. Less than 4% of all letters to the editor were led by women. Approximately 25% of all studies focused on Sport. Within this category, 75% of these studies had men senior authors. Approximately 65% of all studies had a clinical focus. Within this category, 86% of these studies had men senior authors. CONCLUSIONS This preliminary data indicates some differences in research practices by senior author gender. This research also highlights differences by journal in their inclusion of research led by women.