Through the Looking-Glass Ceiling...
Anthony Lo Sasso, Michael Richards, Chiu-Fang Chou & Susan Gerber
Health Affairs, February 2011, Pages 193-201
Abstract:
Prior research has suggested that gender differences in physicians' salaries can be accounted for by the tendency of women to enter primary care fields and work fewer hours. However, in examining starting salaries by gender of physicians leaving residency programs in New York State during 1999-2008, we found a significant gender gap that cannot be explained by specialty choice, practice setting, work hours, or other characteristics. The unexplained trend toward diverging salaries appears to be a recent development that is growing over time. In 2008, male physicians newly trained in New York State made on average $16,819 more than newly trained female physicians, compared to a $3,600 difference in 1999.
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The Jackie (and Jill) Robinson Effect: Why Do Congresswomen Outperform Congressmen?
Sarah Anzia & Christopher Berry
American Journal of Political Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
If voters are biased against female candidates, only the most talented, hardest working female candidates will succeed in the electoral process. Furthermore, if women perceive there to be sex discrimination in the electoral process, or if they underestimate their qualifications for office, then only the most qualified, politically ambitious females will emerge as candidates. We argue that when either or both forms of sex-based selection are present, the women who are elected to office will perform better, on average, than their male counterparts. We test this central implication of our theory by studying the relative success of men and women in delivering federal spending to their districts and in sponsoring legislation. Analyzing changes within districts over time, we find that congresswomen secure roughly 9 percent more spending from federal discretionary programs than congressmen. Women also sponsor and cosponsor significantly more bills than their male colleagues.
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Who Does More Housework: Rich or Poor? A Comparison of 33 Countries
Jan Paul Heisig
American Sociological Review, February 2011, Pages 74-99
Abstract:
This article studies the relationship between household income and housework time across 33 countries. In most countries, low-income individuals do more housework than their high-income counterparts; the differences are even greater for women's domestic work time. The analysis shows that the difference between rich and poor women's housework time falls with economic development and rises with overall economic inequality. I use a cross-national reinterpretation of arguments from the historical time-use literature to show that this is attributable to the association between economic development and the diffusion of household technologies and to the association between economic inequality and the prevalence of service consumption among high-income households. Results for a direct measure of technology diffusion provide striking evidence for the first interpretation. The findings question the widespread notion that domestic technologies have had little or no impact on women's housework time. On a general level, I find that gender inequalities are fundamentally conditioned by economic inequalities. A full understanding of the division of housework requires social scientists to go beyond couple-level dynamics and situate households and individuals within the broader social and economic structure.
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Out of Control: Delegates' Information Sources and Perceptions of Female Candidates
Angela Bos
Political Communication, January 2011, Pages 87-109
Abstract:
Using survey data from statewide political party convention delegates in four states, I investigate whether and how gender stereotypes influence nomination choice. I examine whether gaining candidate information from different sources differentially influences gender stereotypes and the likelihood of supporting both a female and a male nominee. I argue that information sources outside a candidate's control-delegates' discussions with other delegates-versus sources candidates can control (e.g., campaign contacts and personal contact with the candidate) work against female candidates' nomination. Specifically, when delegates learn about candidates via the most controlled sources, they will be more likely to view the candidates as possessing both masculine and feminine traits and issue competencies. As a result, they should be more likely to support the candidate. In contrast, information from sources outside candidate control functions differently for male and female candidates: These sources confirm delegates' stereotype expectations, negatively affecting perceptions of a female candidate's masculine strengths, which then negatively relate to supporting her nomination. The results generally support these ideas: Delegates receiving information from the most controlled sources form balanced views of the female candidate, but the positive effects of information from these sources on nomination choice are not mediated by stereotypes. In contrast, delegates gaining information from other delegates confirm their stereotypes of the candidate and are then less likely to support her. More broadly, gender stereotypes, particularly those regarding female candidates' masculine traits and feminine issue competencies relative to the candidate's male opponent, directly and positively relate to delegates' likelihood of supporting her.
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Scholars' awards go mainly to men
Anne Lincoln, Stephanie Pincus & Phoebe Leboy
Nature, 27 January 2011, Page 472
Abstract:
The proportion of women receiving service or teaching awards in the past two decades is roughly equivalent to the proportion of women within the cohort-adjusted PhD pool in that discipline, but only half of these have won scholarly awards. Using data in the public domain on 13 disciplinary societies, we found that the proportion of female prizewinners in ten of these was much lower than the proportion of female full professors in each discipline.
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When What You See Is What You Get: The Consequences of the Objectifying Gaze for Women and Men
Sarah Gervais, Theresa Vescio & Jill Allen
Psychology of Women Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research examined the effects of the objectifying gaze on math performance, interaction motivation, body surveillance, body shame, and body dissatisfaction. In an experiment, undergraduate participants (67 women and 83 men) received an objectifying gaze during an interaction with a trained confederate of the other sex. As hypothesized, the objectifying gaze caused decrements in women's math performance but not men's. Interestingly, the objectifying gaze also increased women's, but not men's, motivation to engage in subsequent interactions with their partner. Finally, the objectifying gaze did not influence body surveillance, body shame, or body dissatisfaction for women or men. One explanation for the math performance and interaction motivation findings is stereotype threat. To the degree that the objectifying gaze arouses stereotype threat, math performance may decrease because it conveys that women's looks are valued over their other qualities. Furthermore, interaction motivation may increase because stereotype threat arouses belonging uncertainty or concerns about social connections. As a result, the objectifying gaze may trigger a vicious cycle in which women underperform but continue to interact with the people who led them to underperform in the first place. Implications for long-term consequences of the objectifying gaze and directions for future research are discussed.
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Modern women match men on Raven's Progressive Matrices
James Flynn & Lilia Rossi-Casé
Personality and Individual Differences, April 2011, Pages 799-803
Abstract:
Raven's Progressive Matrices data of high quality from five advanced nations show that females matched males both below and above the age of 14. This counts against hypotheses that genetic factors cause general intelligence differences between the genders. Evidence unfriendly to gender parity at mature ages is based on suspect samples. At ages 15-18, more males than females are school dropouts. At ages 18-24, female deficits among university students may be caused by an IQ/academic achievement gap.
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Stereotype Threat in the Marketplace: Consumer Anxiety and Purchase Intentions
Kyoungmi Lee, Hakkyun Kim & Kathleen Vohs
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
How do consumers react when they believe that a transaction partner will view them through the lens of a stereotype? We predicted and found that being aware of a negative stereotype about a group to which one belongs (e.g., gender) made consumers sensitive to whether service providers were ingroup versus outgroup members, and lowered purchase intentions when the provider was an outgroup member. We observed stereotype threat effects across diverse marketplace settings: financial services (experiment 1), automobile repairs (experiment 2), and automobile purchases (experiment 3). Furthermore, we found that reluctance to purchase from outgroup (versus ingroup) members was caused by heightened anxiety. The presence of a soothing scent, as a situational factor to alleviate anxiety, mitigated stereotype threat effects on marketplace decisions.
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Understanding current causes of women's underrepresentation in science
Stephen Ceci & Wendy Williams
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 22 February 2011, Pages
3157-3162
Abstract:
Explanations for women's underrepresentation in math-intensive fields of science often focus on sex discrimination in grant and manuscript reviewing, interviewing, and hiring. Claims that women scientists suffer discrimination in these arenas rest on a set of studies undergirding policies and programs aimed at remediation. More recent and robust empiricism, however, fails to support assertions of discrimination in these domains. To better understand women's underrepresentation in math-intensive fields and its causes, we reprise claims of discrimination and their evidentiary bases. Based on a review of the past 20 y of data, we suggest that some of these claims are no longer valid and, if uncritically accepted as current causes of women's lack of progress, can delay or prevent understanding of contemporary determinants of women's underrepresentation. We conclude that differential gendered outcomes in the real world result from differences in resources attributable to choices, whether free or constrained, and that such choices could be influenced and better informed through education if resources were so directed. Thus, the ongoing focus on sex discrimination in reviewing, interviewing, and hiring represents costly, misplaced effort: Society is engaged in the present in solving problems of the past, rather than in addressing meaningful limitations deterring women's participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers today. Addressing today's causes of underrepresentation requires focusing on education and policy changes that will make institutions responsive to differing biological realities of the sexes. Finally, we suggest potential avenues of intervention to increase gender fairness that accord with current, as opposed to historical, findings.
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Julie Kmec
Social Science Research, March 2011, Pages 444-459
Abstract:
Research has confirmed a motherhood penalty and fatherhood bonus at work. Employers, it appears, regard mothers and fathers differently from one another and differently from non-parents. We have yet to systematically explore whether mothers exhibit fewer pro-work behaviors than fathers and non-parents or whether fathers engage in more of them than mothers and non-parents. This article draws on nationally representative data from full-time employed adults to investigate mother, father, and non-parent differences in work effort, work intensity, job engagement, and four measures of work enhancement from home. Mothers and fathers are similar on five out of seven outcomes tapping pro-work dimensions. When they differ, mothers report greater job engagement and work intensity than fathers. Mothers are no different from non-parents on all outcomes. All findings hold net of individual, job, and family controls. I conclude that reducing workplace gender inequality will require organizational changes that pay explicit attention to workers' care-giving responsibilities.
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The Mommy Track Divides: The Impact of Childbearing on Wages of Women of Differing Skill Levels
Elizabeth Ty Wilde, Lily Batchelder & David Ellwood
NBER Working Paper, December 2010
Abstract:
This paper explores how the wage and career consequences of motherhood differ by skill and timing. Past work has often found smaller or even negligible effects from childbearing for high-skill women, but we find the opposite. Wage trajectories diverge sharply for high scoring women after, but not before, they have children, while there is little change for low-skill women. It appears that the lifetime costs of childbearing, especially early childbearing, are particularly high for skilled women. These differential costs of childbearing may account for the far greater tendency of high-skill women to delay or avoid childbearing altogether.
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Same Work, Different Pay? Evidence from a US Public University
Melissa Binder et al.
Feminist Economics, October 2010, Pages 105-135
Abstract:
This study examines detailed data for faculty at a typical public research university in the United States between 1995 and 2004 to explore whether gender wage differentials can be explained by productivity differences. The level of detail - including the number of courses taught, enrollment, grant dollars, and number and impact of publications - largely eliminates the problem of unmeasured productivity, and the restriction to one firm eliminates unmeasured work conditions that confound investigations of wider labor markets. The authors find that direct productivity measures reduce the gender wage penalty to about 3 percent, only 1 percentage point lower than estimates from national studies of many institutions and with fewer productivity controls. The wage structure for women faculty differs markedly from the wage structure for men. Interpreted against the institutional features of wage setting for this population, the paper concludes that penalties for women arise at the department level.
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Daniel Butler & Richard Butler
Economics of Education Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
The late 1990s saw the introduction and spread of the Internet and email. For social scientists, these technologies lowered communication costs and made inter-department collaboration much easier. Using women in political science as a case study, we show that this change has disproportionately affected women in two ways. First, women have increased the rate at which they co-author journal articles faster than their male counterparts. Second, the lowered communication costs have made women more willing to take jobs at smaller departments because it is now easier to work with colleagues at other universities.
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Hindy Lauer Schachter
Administration & Society, January 2011, Pages 3-21
Abstract:
This article uses archival research to analyze the role of the New York School of Philanthropy as a precursor to the Bureau of Municipal Research (BMR) Training School, which is generally considered the first professional public administration program in America. The article argues that the two organizations had similar curricula and aspirations in the early Progressive period, particularly from 1907 to 1912, but that subsequently their paths diverged; the School of Philanthropy became associated with social work education rather than public administration and policy development. The argument is made that the subsequent divergence aided enforcing stereotypical gender assumptions in both fields and the disappearance of female pioneers from public administration history and textbooks between 1920 and the 1990s. As donor pressure sparked the divergence, the article also contributes to understanding the role of funding agents in setting public administration's research agenda.
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How can we enhance girls' interest in scientific topics?
Sylvie Kerger, Romain Martin & Martin Brunner
British Journal of Educational Psychology, forthcoming
Background: Girls are considerably less interested in scientific subjects than boys. One reason may be that scientific subjects are considered to be genuinely masculine. Thus, being interested in science may threaten the self-perception of girls as well as the femininity of their self-image.
Aims: If scientific topics that are considered to be stereotypically feminine were chosen, however, this potential threat might be overcome which, in turn, might lead to an increase in girls' interest in science.
This hypothesis was empirically tested by means of two studies.
Sample: Participants were 294 (Study 1) and 190 (Study 2) Grade 8 to Grade 9 students.
Method: Gender differences in students' interest in masculine and feminine topics were investigated for a range of scientific concepts (Study 1) as well as for a given scientific concept (Study 2) for four scientific subjects (i.e., biology, physics, information technology, and statistics), respectively.
Results: Both studies indicated that the mean level of girls' scientific interest was higher when scientific concepts were presented in the context of feminine topics and boys' level of scientific interests was higher when scientific concepts were presented in the context of masculine topics.
Conclusion: Girls' interest in science could be substantially increased by presenting scientific concepts in the context of feminine topics. Gender differences as well as individual differences in the level of interest in scientific topics may be taken into account by creating learning environments in which students could select the context in which a certain scientific concept is embedded.
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Female part-time managers: Networks and career mobility
Susan Durbin & Jennifer Tomlinson
Work, Employment & Society, December 2010, Pages 621-640
Abstract:
The promotional prospects, career mobility and networking experiences of 16 female part-time managers are explored in this article. It attempts to explain the labour market position of female part-time managers, comparing their employment experiences, career progression and networking while working full and part-time. The majority had successful career histories while full-time but these careers stalled once a transition to part-time work was made. Many voiced frustration with their employment prospects in terms of mobility and promotion, which were limited given the perceived lack of quality jobs at managerial level in the external labour market. There was recognition that networking had made an important contribution to career progression but for most women, the transition into part-time employment meant that opportunities to network decreased due to time constraints.
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U-shaped female labor participation with economic development: Some panel data evidence
Henry Tam
Economics Letters, February 2011, Pages 140-142
Abstract:
Using a panel data of about 130 countries from 1950 to 1980, we use dynamic panel data estimation to demonstrate that the U-shaped relationship between feminization of the labor force and real GDP per capita holds up as an intertemporal relationship.
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Meg Lovejoy & Pamela Stone
Gender, Work & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
Limited research on professional women's labour force re-entry after a career break (so-called ‘opting out') finds that women redirect away from former careers. Little is known about why this occurs. Our study, based on in-depth interviews with 54 at-home mothers, extends prior research to address this question. We find that among women who intended to return to work (who constitute the majority), most planned to pursue alternative careers, typically in traditionally female-dominated professions or were uncertain about their career direction; few planned to return to their former employers. The reasons for this redirection were women's negative experiences in family inflexible occupations, skill depreciation and perceived age discrimination. Equally or more important, however, was their adaptation to new constraints and opportunities at home (such as increased involvement in mothering and community work), which engendered an aspirational shift towards new, care-oriented professions that were lower paid and had lower status. We discuss the policy implications of these findings.
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María del Carmen Triana
Journal of Business and Technology, March 2011, Pages 71-86
Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate how gender role incongruence in terms of women being primary wage earners and males being secondary wage earners in their families could affect them at work. Using an experimental design and a sample of 306 college students, I explored how females who are the primary wage earners in their families and males who are the secondary wage earners are perceived and evaluated in a work setting. I proposed, and found, that female primary wage earners are seen as the least overqualified and are given lower reward recommendations than equally qualified male peers (i.e., peers with exactly the same credentials and job performance). Male secondary wage earners are seen as being the most overqualified and are given higher reward recommendations than equally qualified female peers. Results demonstrate how the lack of fit model, which has been shown to penalize women who succeed in traditionally masculine domains (Dipboye, Acad Manag Rev 10:16-127, 1985; Heilman, Res Organ Behav 5:269-298, 1983, J Soc Issues 57:657-674, 2001), can be applied to situations where gender-incongruent behavior exists in the form of women being primary wage earners in their families. I refer to this phenomenon as "home-related spillover discrimination," named after the spillover effects that derive from societal expectations that are transferred into employment situations (Nieva and Gutek, Acad Manag Rev 5:267-276, 1980). The practical implication of this finding is that this may present a new form of sex discrimination against women that has not yet been considered. This is the first study to show how violating stereotypical roles in terms of family wage earner status can influence outcomes in work settings.
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Inverse gender gap in Germany: Social dominance orientation among men and women
Beate Kupper & Andreas Zick
International Journal of Psychology, February 2011, Pages 33-45
Abstract:
Across cultures studies show that men score higher on social dominance orientation than women. This gender gap is considered invariant, but conflicting explanations are discussed: Some authors refer to evolutionary psychology and perceive the gender gap to be driven by sociobiological factors. Other authors argue that social roles or gender-stereotypical self-construals encouraged by intergroup comparisons are responsible for attitudinal gender difference. In Study 1 we analyzed sex differences in social dominance orientation in three German probability surveys (each n > 2300). Unexpectedly, the analyses yielded an inverse gender gap with higher values for social dominance orientation in women than in men. Interactions with age, education, political conservatism, and perceived inequity indicated that the inverse gender gap can be mainly attributed to older, conservative, (and less educated) respondents, and those who feel they get their deserved share. In Study 2 we replicated the well-known gender gap with men scoring higher than women in social dominance orientation among German students. Results are interpreted on the basis of biocultural interaction, which integrates the sociobiological, social role, and self-construal perspectives. Our unusual findings seem to reflect a struggle for status by members of low-status groups who consider group-based hierarchy the most promising option to improve their status. While younger women take advantage of a relational, feminine self-construal that leads to lower social dominance orientation in young women than in young men, older women are supposed to profit from an agentic self-construal that results in stronger social dominance orientation values. Specific characteristics of the culture in Germany seem to promote this strategy. Here, we discuss the female ideal of the national socialist period and the agentic female social role in the post-war era necessitated by the absence of men.
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Ingrid Verheula, Roy Thurik, Isabel Grilo & Peter van der Zwan
Journal of Economic Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper investigates an essential aspect of the entrepreneurial personality: why women's self-employment rates are consistently lower than those of men. It has three focal points. It discriminates between the preference for self-employment and actual involvement in self-employment using a two (probit) equation model. It makes a systematic distinction between different ways in which gender influences the preference for and actual involvement in self-employment (mediation and moderation). It includes perceived ability as a potential driver of self-employment next to risk attitude, self-employed parents and other socio-demographic drivers. A representative data set of more than 8,000 individuals from 29 countries (25 EU Member States, US, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) is used (the 2004 Flash Eurobarometer survey). The findings show that women's lower preference for becoming self-employed plays an important role in explaining their lower involvement in self-employment and that a gender effect remains that may point at gender-based obstacles to entrepreneurship.