Fairer Sex
Deborah Jordan Brooks
Journal of Politics, April 2011, Pages 597-615
Abstract:
Many have speculated that voters hold double standards for male and female political candidates that disadvantage women. One common assumption is that female candidates are penalized disproportionately for displays of crying and anger; however, the field lacks a theoretical or empirical foundation for examining this matter. The first half of this article establishes the theoretical basis for how emotional displays are likely to influence evaluations of female versus male candidates. Using a large-N, representative sample of U.S. adults, the second half tests these dynamics experimentally. The main finding is that, contrary to conventional wisdom, no double standard exists for emotionality overall: male and female candidates are similarly penalized for both anger and crying. There are, however, different responses to the tears of male and female candidates depending on whether the respondent is a man or woman.
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The Novelty Impact: The Politics of Trailblazing Women in Gubernatorial Elections
Valerie O'Regan & Stephen Stambough
Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, Spring 2011, Pages 96-113
Abstract:
Although women candidates for public office have experienced greater success recently, women candidates for executive offices are still considered to be a novelty in much of the country. This study examines the electoral impact of novelty status for female gubernatorial candidates. We propose that the novelty of female gubernatorial candidates negatively affects the level of support women candidates receive from voters and their likelihood of winning the gubernatorial election. We develop the concept of novelty status and test its impact on female gubernatorial candidates by examining female-male gubernatorial elections from 1980 to 2006. Our findings suggest that novelty status negatively impacts the success of women candidates for governor. These results are important as we continue to develop our understanding of the barriers women face when they seek elective office and how this situation might change when a woman's candidacy is no longer considered a novel event.
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"Girls will be Girls" - Especially among Boys: Risk-taking in the "Daily Double" on Jeopardy
Gabriella Sjögren Lindquist & Jenny Säve-Söderbergh
Economics Letters, forthcoming
Abstract:
Exploiting a natural experiment in Jeopardy we find that, despite no strategic gain, females switch to a more conservative wagering if playing against men only. Our findings complement experimental findings highlighting how gender differences in risk-taking can be socially driven.
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Anticipatory Sorting and Gender Segregation in Temporary Employment
Isabel Fernandez-Mateo & Zella King
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examine the roots of gender segregation in the screening process by using a longitudinal data set of candidates considered for temporary projects at a staffing firm and following their progress through the hiring pipeline. Theories invoked to explain gender segregation across jobs traditionally rely on firm-specific human capital and expectations of future commitment to explain this phenomenon. These do not apply in this setting. Yet we find that the staffing firm is more likely to shortlist women for low-paid projects and less likely to do so for high-paid ones. These effects are due to women being considered for different projects than men, and associated at least partially to the level of competition within vacancies. Although client companies also exhibit some gender-sorting behavior in the later steps of the hiring process, they are more likely to prefer women and less likely to sort them into lower-paid projects. Our findings are consistent with "anticipatory gender-sorting" mechanisms, by which first screeners generate segregation when narrowing down the pool of candidates for later decision makers. We discuss the implications of this case for theories of gender stratification and workplace inequality, especially in mediated labor markets.
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Stemming inequality? Employment and pay of female and minority scientists and engineers
Seong Soo Oh & Gregory Lewis
Social Science Journal, June 2011, Pages 397-403
Abstract:
When white men overwhelmingly dominated the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) work force, the high pay in STEM occupations was a major source of gender and race inequality in the U.S. economy. As women, Blacks, and Latinos increasingly study STEM fields, new possibilities for achieving pay equality are opening. We test whether the reality matches the promise using two large data sets. Analysis of a five percent Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) of the 2000 Census and the 2001-06 American Community Surveys shows that women and minorities earn more, relative to comparable white men, in STEM than in non-STEM fields. This general pattern persists in analysis of a 1% sample of federal personnel records, which include better measures of work experience and education. Thus, federal efforts to increase the representativeness of the STEM workforce should increase pay equality in the economy by moving women and minorities into traditionally high-paying fields.
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Attitudes towards economic risk and the gender pay gap
Anh Le et al.
Labour Economics, August 2011, Pages 555-561
Abstract:
This paper examines the links between gender differences in attitudes towards economic risk and the gender pay gap. Consistent with the literature on the socio-economic determinants of attitudes towards economic risk, it shows that females are much more risk averse than males. It then extends this research to show that workers with more favorable attitudes towards risk are associated with higher earnings, and that gender differences in attitudes towards economic risk can account for a small, though important, part of the standardized gender pay gap.
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A longitudinal study of sex differences in intelligence at ages 7, 11 and 16 years
Richard Lynn & Satoshi Kanazawa
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper presents the results of a longitudinal study of sex differences in intelligence as a test of Lynn's (1994) hypothesis that from the age of 16 years males develop higher average intelligence than females. The results show that at the ages of 7 and 11 years girls have an IQ advantage of approximately 1 IQ point, but at the age of 16 years this changes in the same boys and girls to an IQ advantage of 1.8 IQ points for boys.
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The effects of motherhood timing on career path
Amalia Miller
Journal of Population Economics, July 2011, Pages 1071-1100
Abstract:
This paper estimates the effects of motherhood timing on female career path, using biological fertility shocks to instrument for age at first birth. Motherhood delay leads to a substantial increase in earnings of 9% per year of delay, an increase in wages of 3%, and an increase in work hours of 6%. Supporting a human capital story, the advantage is largest for college-educated women and those in professional and managerial occupations. Panel estimation reveals both fixed wage penalties and lower returns to experience for mothers, suggesting that a "mommy track" is the source of the timing effect.
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Mayoral Selection and the Demand and Supply of Women Mayors
Amy Alexander
Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, Spring 2011, Pages 114-135
Abstract:
Few studies consider the effect of selection procedures on women's attainment of mayoral office. This article begins to fill this gap through analysis of more than 100 cities in California. The results show that selection method of mayor by popular vote exerts a substantial negative effect on whether a woman holds the office of mayor. The study then explores the negative effect of popular vote on women's attainment of mayoral office. There are two possibilities for exploring this effect: (1) popular vote creates more opportunity for the negative influence of stereotyping and role socialization on women's recruitment and election to mayoral office or (2) alternatively, popular vote increases the negative influence of sex differences in political motivation on women's attainment of mayoral office. The analyses support the second interpretation of the negative effect of popular vote on women's mayoral office-holding.
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Gender Differences in Estimated Salaries: A UK study
Adrain Furnham & Emma Wilson
Journal of Socio-Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
In all 294 British participants completed a two page questionnaire entitled "How much do people earn?" Using a between-subjects design, participants either completed the male or female target questionnaire. Specifically, they were given names and age ranges (Range 35-43) of people in 16 gender-neutral jobs from Accountant to Veterinarian and asked to estimate their current average annual salary. Supporting previous research, the "salary estimation effect" was found with males assumed to earn more than their female counterparts in a range of occupations, most notably in unskilled/semi-skilled jobs. Participants also demonstrated good awareness of the current average annual salary in the UK and over half of participants believed wage disparities to exist between men and women; whites and blacks. Implications for salary decision-making and perpetuation of the differential salaries afforded to men and women are discussed.
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Joost de Laat & Almudena Sevilla-Sanz
Feminist Economics, Spring 2011, Pages 87-119
Abstract:
One effect of Southern Europe's rapid fertility decline is the emergence of a positive cross-country correlation between women's labor force participation and fertility across developed countries, despite the continuing negative correlation between these factors within countries. This study uses individual-level data for several OECD countries to examine how men's participation in home production can explain the positive relationship between fertility and women's labor force participation at the cross-country level. It finds that women living in countries where men participate more in home production are better able to combine having children with market work, leading to greater participation in the labor force at relatively high fertility levels. Within each country however, women with higher relative wages continue to have lower fertility and to participate more in the labor force than lower-paid women due to the higher opportunity cost of remaining at home. This finding on men's home production can thus explain the positive cross-country correlation between female labor force participation and fertility.
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Sex Differences in Semantic Categorization
Vickie Pasterski, Karolina Zwierzynska & Zachary Estes
Archives of Sexual Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Sex differences in certain cognitive abilities, including aspects of semantic processing, are well established. However, there have been no reports investigating a sex difference in semantic categorization. A total of 55 men and 58 women each judged 25 exemplars of natural categories (e.g., FRUITS) and 25 of artifact categories (e.g., TOOLS) as a nonmember, partial member, or full member of the given category. Participants also rated confidence for each judgment. Women provided a greater number vague (partial member) judgments, whereas men provided more inclusive (full member) judgments of artifacts but more exclusive (nonmember) judgments of natural categories. The sex difference in vagueness was observed across domains (Cohen's d = .56). Confidence predicted categorization among both men and women, such that more confident participants exhibited fewer vague category judgments. However, men and women were equally confident in their category judgments, and confidence failed to explain the sex difference in categorization. Men and women appear to categorize the same common objects in systematically different ways.
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Family Structure and the Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Ideology
Daniel Carlson & Chris Knoester
Journal of Family Issues, June 2011, Pages 709-734
Abstract:
Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households, this study explores how single-parent, stepparent, and two-parent biological family structures may affect the transmission of gender ideology from parents to their adult children. Results indicate that biological parents' ideologies are strong predictors of their children's ideologies. Stepparents' ideologies are predictive of their stepchildren's only when they have high-quality relationships. Parent-child gender heterogeneity, performance of traditional parenting roles, and relationship quality are related to high similarity scores. The authors find evidence of converging ideologies between mothers and sons and diverging ideologies for fathers and daughters - especially in stepfamilies. Finally, their results suggest that high-quality relations with a stepparent enhance transmission between same-sex biological parent-child dyads but high-quality relations with a spouse in two-parent biological families produce a competing role-model dynamic.
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Welmoed Reitsma et al.
Journal of Sexual Medicine, forthcoming
Introduction: Physicians are increasingly presented with women requesting a labia minora reduction procedure.
Aim: To assess the influencing factor of personal predisposition in general practitioners, gynecologists, and plastic surgeons to labia minora appearance in relation to their willingness to refer for, or perform, a surgical labia minora reduction.
Methods: Cross-sectional self-administered questionnaire survey. Between May 2009 and August 2009, 210 physicians were surveyed. Primary care: general practitioners working in the north of the Netherlands. Secondary care:
gynecologists and plastic surgeons working in five hospitals in the north of the Netherlands.
Main Outcome Measures: A five-point Likert scale appraisal of four pictures showing a vulva, each displaying different sizes of labia minora, indicating a physician's personal predisposition, manifesting as willingness to refer for, or perform, a labia minora reduction.
Results: A total of 164/210 (78.1%) physicians completed the questionnaire, consisting of 80 general practitioners, 41 gynecologists, and 43 plastic surgeons (96 males, 68 females). Ninety percent of all physicians believe, to a certain extent, that a vulva with very small labia minora represents society's ideal (2-5 on the Likert scale). More plastic surgeons regarded the picture with the largest labia minora as distasteful and unnatural, compared with general practitioners and gynecologists (P < 0.01), and regarded such a woman as a candidate for a labia minora reduction procedure (P < 0.001). Irrespective of the woman's labia minora size and the absence of physical complaints, plastic surgeons were significantly more open to performing a labia minora reduction procedure than gynecologists (P < 0.001). Male physicians were more inclined to opt for a surgical reduction procedure than their female colleagues (P < 0.01).
Conclusions: The personal predisposition of physicians (taking account of their specific gender and specialty) concerning labia minora size and appearance influences their clinical decision making regarding a labia minora reduction procedure. Heightened awareness of one's personal predisposition vis-à-vis referral and willingness to operate is needed.