Abstract
Women often face sexism and stereotypes about their academic ability, and this makes it important to examine the effects of confronting sexism in the college classroom. The current research consisted of 2 studies of how witnessing a confrontation of a sexist stereotype in the classroom affects female students’ perceptions of the confronters and self-reported sexism. The samples consisted of female students from a public college in the Northeastern U.S. who provided their perceptions of teachers described in vignettes as either confronting or not confronting a student’s stereotype of women as unskilled at math. In Study 1 (N = 48) perceptions of the teacher were more positive when confronting the stereotype, and students’ self-reported sexism was reduced when the teacher confronted rather than ignored the stereotype. Study 2 (N = 56) compared the effects of a teacher versus a student confrontation of the same stereotype. Participants perceived the teacher and student more positively when they confronted rather than ignored the stereotype. However, the source of the confrontation yielded no differences in sexism. These results suggest that students want their teachers to respond to bias in the classroom and that teachers should respond to sexist incidents in order to reduce the level of sexism among their students.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Association of University Professors (1987). Statement on professional ethics. Retrieved from http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/policydocs/contents/statementonprofessionalethics.htm.
Araujo, L., & Strasser, J. (2003). Confronting prejudice in the early childhood classroom. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 39, 178–182. doi:10.1080/00228958.2003.10516402.
Ayres, M. M., Friedman, C. K., & Leaper, C. (2009). Individual and situational factors related to young women’s likelihood of confronting sexism in their everyday lives. Sex Roles, 61, 449–460. doi:10.1007/s11199-009-9635-3.
Blanchard, F. A., Lilly, T., & Vaughn, L. (1991). Reducing the expression of racial prejudice. Psychological Science, 2, 101–105. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.1991.tb00108.x.
Blanchard, F. A., Crandall, C. S., Brigham, J. C., & Vaughn, L. (1994). Condemning and condoning racism: A social context approach to interracial settings. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 993–997. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.79.6.993.
Boysen, G. A. (2012a). Teacher and student perceptions of microaggressions in the classroom. College Teaching, 60, 122–129. doi:10.1080/87567555.2012.654831.
Boysen, G. A. (2012b). Teachers’ responses to bias in the classroom: How response type and situational factors affect student perceptions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42, 506–534. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00784.x.
Boysen, G. A., & Vogel, D. L. (2009). Bias in the classroom: Types, frequencies, and responses. Teaching of Psychology, 36, 12–17. doi:10.1080/00986280802529038.
Boysen, G. A., Vogel, D. L., Cope, M. A., & Hubbard, A. (2009). Incidents of bias in college classrooms: Instructor and student perceptions. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 2, 219–231. doi:10.1037/a0017538.
Brinkman, B. G., & Rickard, K. M. (2009). College students’ descriptions of everyday gender prejudice. Sex Roles, 61, 461–475. doi:10.1007/s11199-009-9643-3.
Brinkman, B. G., Garcia, K., & Rickard, K. M. (2011). “What I wanted to do was…” discrepancies between college women’s desired and reported responses to gender prejudice. Sex Roles, 65, 344–355. doi:10.1007/s11199-011-0020-7.
Campbell, B., Schellenberg, E., & Senn, C. Y. (1997). Evaluating measures of contemporary sexism. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 89–101. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00102.x.
Cialdini, R. B., & Goldstein, N. K. (2004). Social influence: Compliance and conformity. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 591–621. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.142015.
Czopp, A. M., & Monteith, M. J. (2003). Confronting prejudice (literally): Reactions to confrontations of racial and gender bias. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 532–544. doi:10.1177/0146167202250923.
Czopp, A. M., Monteith, M. J., & Mark, A. Y. (2006). Standing up for change: Reducing bias through interpersonal confrontation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 784–803. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.90.5.784.
Dardenne, B., Dumont, M., & Bollier, T. (2007). Insidious dangers of benevolent sexism: Consequences for women’s performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 764–779. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.93.5.764.
Dickter, C. L., Kittel, J. A., & Gyurovski, I. I. (2012). Perceptions of non–target confronters in response to racist and heterosexist remarks. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 112–119. doi:10.1002/ejsp.855.
Dodd, E. H., Giuliano, T. A., Boutell, J. M., & Moran, B. E. (2001). Respected or rejected: Perceptions of women who confront sexist remarks. Sex Roles, 45, 567–577. doi:10.1023/A:1014866915741.
Halpern, D. F., Benbow, C. P., Geary, D. C., Gur, R. C., Hyde, J., & Gernsbache, M. (2007). The science of sex differences in science and mathematics. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 8, 1–51. doi:10.1111/j.1529-1006.2007.00032.x.
Hernández, P., Carranza, M., & Almeida, R. (2010). Mental health professionals’ adaptive responses to racial microaggressions: An exploratory study. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 41, 202–209. doi:10.1037/a0018445.
Hyers, L. L. (2007). Resisting prejudice every day: Exploring women’s assertive responses to anti-Black racism, anti-semitism, heterosexism, and sexism. Sex Roles, 56, 1–12. doi:10.1007/s11199-006-9142-8.
Kaiser, C. R., & Miller, C. T. (2001). Stop complaining! The social costs of making attributions to discrimination. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 254–263. doi:10.1177/0146167201272010.
Kaiser, C. R., Hagiwara, N., Malahy, L. W., & Wilkins, C. L. (2009). Group identification moderates attitudes toward ingroup members who confront discrimination. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 770–777. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2009.04.027.
Keeley, J., Smith, D., & Buskist, W. (2006). The teacher behaviors checklist: Factor analysis of its utility for evaluating teaching. Teaching of Psychology, 33, 84–91. doi:10.1207/s15328023top3302_1.
Kiefer, A. K., & Sekaquaptewa, D. (2007a). Implicit stereotypes and women’s math performance: How implicit gender-math stereotypes influence women’s susceptibility to stereotype threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 825–832. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2006.08.004.
Kiefer, A. K., & Sekaquaptewa, D. (2007b). Implicit stereotypes, gender identification, and math-related outcomes: A prospective study of female college students. Psychological Science, 18, 13–18. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01841.x.
Kranz, P. L., & Lund, N. L. (2004). Successful teaching techniques in a race relations class. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 138, 371–383. doi:10.3200/JRLP.138.4.371-384.
Leaper, C., & Brown, C. (2008). Perceived experiences with sexism among adolescent girls. Child Development, 79, 685–704. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01151.x.
Logel, C., Walton, G. M., Spencer, S. J., Iserman, E. C., von Hippel, W., & Bell, A. E. (2009). Interacting with sexist men triggers social identity threat among female engineers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 1089–1103. doi:10.1037/a0015703.
Mallett, R. K., & Wagner, D. E. (2011). The unexpectedly positive consequences of confronting sexism. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 215–220. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2010.10.001.
Marcus, A., Mullins, L. C., Brackett, K. P., Tang, Z., Allen, A. M., & Pruett, D. W. (2003). Perceptions of racism on campus. College Student Journal, 37, 611–626.
National Science Foundation. (2009). Women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in science and engineering. Arlington: Author. Retrieved from http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/.
Pornpitakpan, C. (2004). The persuasiveness of source credibility: A critical review of five decades’ evidence. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 34, 243–281. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2004.tb02547.x.
Rankin, S. (2003). Campus climate for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people: A national perspective. Washington, DC: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
Rasinski, H. M., & Czopp, A. M. (2010). The effect of target status on witnesses’ reactions to confrontations of bias. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 32, 8–16. doi:10.1080/01973530903539754.
Shapiro, J. R., & Williams, A. M. (2012). The role of stereotype threats in undermining girls’ and women’s performance and interest in STEM fields. Sex Roles, 66, 175–183. doi:10.1007/s11199-011-0051-0.
Shelton, J., & Stewart, R. E. (2004). Confronting perpetrators of prejudice: The inhibitory effects of social costs. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 28, 215–223. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.2004.00138.x.
Steele, J., James, J. B., & Barnett, R. (2002). Learning in a man’s world: Examining the perceptions of undergraduate women in male-dominated academic areas. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26, 46–50. doi:10.1111/1471-6402.00042.
Sue, D. W., Lin, A. I., Torino, G. C., Capodilupo, C. M., & Rivera, D. P. (2009). Racial microaggressions and difficult dialogs on race in the classroom. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 15, 183–190. doi:10.1037/a0014191.
Swim, J. K., & Cohen, L. L. (1997). Overt, covert, and subtle sexism: A comparison between the attitudes toward women and modern sexism scales. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 103–118. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00103.x.
Swim, J. K., & Hyers, L. L. (1999). Excuse me—What did you just say?!: Women’s public and private responses to sexist remarks. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 68–88. doi:10.1006/jesp.1998.1370.
Swim, J. K., Hyers, L. L., Cohen, L. L., & Ferguson, M. J. (2001). Everyday sexism: Evidence for its incidence, nature, and psychological impact from three daily diary studies. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 31–53. doi:10.1111/0022-4537.00200.
Tajfel, H. (1982). Social psychology of intergroup relations. Annual Review of Psychology, 3, 1–39.
Wellman, J. A., Czopp, A. M., & Geers, A. L. (2009). The egalitarian optimist and the confrontation of prejudice. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 389–395. doi:10.1080/17439760902992449.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Boysen, G.A. Confronting Math Stereotypes in the Classroom: Its Effect on Female College Students’ Sexism and Perceptions of Confronters. Sex Roles 69, 297–307 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-013-0287-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-013-0287-y