Gender Stereotypes In STEM

Traditionally, it is found that there are few women in STEM ( science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, both academically and professionally. Although the number of women in STEM fields are increasing, the disparity between men and women in STEM educational and professional fields is still glaringly high (as cited in Haussman, 2014). Many researchers have explored the role of negative stereotypes behind fewer women in STEM fields. Cundiff, Vescio, Loken and Lo (2012) argued that ‘ stereotypes signal thoughts about who does and who does not belong in particular settings’ (p.542). Researchers Hill, Corbett and Rose (2010) argued that there are two main negative stereotypes about women in STEM: women are not skilled at math as

Spencer et al. (1999) found in a study that women perform significantly worse than men in a math test when they are told beforehand that the test records had shown gender differences in the past ( as cited in Shapiro & Williams, 2011). Negative stereotypes tend to activate “stereotype threat” which was defined by Aronson and McGlone (2009) as ‘‘the phenomenon of decreased performance by a group of people when their group membership has been activated, provided that this group is stereotyped as lacking skill at the task at hand’’ ( as cited in Shenouda, 2014). Similarly, Danaher and Crandall’s 2008 study found that women’s performance in a Calculus test is reduced when they are asked to report their gender prior to the test, due to the stereotypes associated with women having inefficacy in math ( as cited in Shapiro & Williams,

Evidently, as negative gender stereotypes make women less interested in STEM and hinder their performances in STEM fields, women are dissuaded from pursuing educational or career options in STEM fields. A study by a group of researchers Cundiff et al. (2012) found that women with stronger gender–science stereotypes had weaker science identification and, in turn, had weaker science career aspirations ( p.550). Hence, gender stereotypes often dictate women to not pursue any career aspiration in STEM. A group of researchers from Cornell University, Ellis, Fosdick, and Rasmussen (2015) analyzed that while controlling for academic preparedness, career intentions, and instruction, a woman is 1.5 times more likely than men to be discouraged from continuing calculus and further pursuing STEM fields for academics and professional fields. They further analyzed that such the main factor behind such dissuasion is lack of math confidence instead of their ability in math (para