Abstract
Despite the ubiquity of harmful math attitudes that disadvantage girls, girls are now performing just as well as boys in math in the U.S. (Hyde et al. 1990; Hyde et al. 2008). At the same time, stark gender disparities remain in who chooses to pursue math-related careers (National Science Foundation 2009). Why have gender disparities persisted in some math-related domains but not others? I suggest that considering the extent to which math-related domains are stereotyped as masculine can help explain why women do not seek out math-related careers, even as they perform just as well in math. Changing current stereotypes of math-related careers to make them less incongruent with the female gender role may help to recruit more women into these careers.
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Preparation of this article was supported by an NSF CAREER award (DRL-0845110). I thank Jenessa Shapiro and Kaiser-Cheryan lab members, especially Cheryl Kaiser and Martin Ryan, for their helpful feedback.
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Cheryan, S. Understanding the Paradox in Math-Related Fields: Why Do Some Gender Gaps Remain While Others Do Not?. Sex Roles 66, 184–190 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-0060-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-0060-z