The Effect of Gender on Attributions for Women’s Anxiety and Doubt in a Science Narrative

Although the effect of biases and stereotype threat on women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields is well documented, less is known about how men and women attribute an undergraduate woman’s anxieties in a STEM class. We examined how undergraduate men and women perceive a woma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychology of women quarterly 2018-06, Vol.42 (2), p.178-191
Main Authors: Freedman, Gili, Green, Melanie C., Flanagan, Mary, Fitzgerald, Kaitlin, Kaufman, Geoff
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
Attributes
Attribution
Bias
Emotional responses
Feminism
Feminist psychology
Gender differences
Gender stereotypes
Life experiences
Narratives
Physics
Psychology
Science and technology
STEM education
Systematic review
Technology
Women
Womens studies
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Summary:Although the effect of biases and stereotype threat on women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields is well documented, less is known about how men and women attribute an undergraduate woman’s anxieties in a STEM class. We examined how undergraduate men and women perceive a woman facing emotional struggles in a physics class (Study 1, N = 309; Study 2, N = 271) and having her contributions ignored in an environmental science class (Study 3, N = 344) in three studies and an internal meta-analysis. Across the studies and meta-analysis, we found gender differences in reactions to the stories. Men were less likely than women to attribute the student’s anxiety to bias-related factors, such as awareness of stereotypes or instructor treatment, and more likely than women to attribute the anxiety to the student’s lack of preparation. Women were more likely to view the narratives as reflecting real-life experiences of women in STEM. The results indicate a lack of awareness, on the part of undergraduate men, of the difficulties faced by women in STEM classes. Based on the current findings, educators and researchers should consider the role that gender plays in how women’s emotional responses in STEM contexts are interpreted. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ’s website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0361684318754528
ISSN:0361-6843
1471-6402
DOI:10.1177/0361684318754528