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Breaking Away From the Male Stereotype of a Specialist: Gendered Language Affects Performance in a Thinking Task.

ABSTRACT: This experimental online-survey study investigated if different written language forms in German have an effect on male bias in thinking. We used answers to the specialist riddle as an indicator for male bias in mental representations of expertise. The difficulty of this thinking task lies in the fact that a gender-unspecified specialist is often automatically assumed to be a man due to gender stereotypes. We expected that reading a text in gender-fair language before processing the specialist riddle helps readers achieve control over automatically activated gender stereotypes and thus facilitates the restructuring and reinterpretation of the problem, which is necessary to reach the conclusion that the specialist is a woman. We randomly assigned 517 native German speakers (68% women) to reading a text on expertise written either in gender-fair language or in masculine generics. Subsequently, participants were asked to solve the specialist riddle. The results show that reading a text in gender-fair language before processing the riddle led to higher rates of answers indicating that the specialist is a women compared to reading a text in masculine generics (44% vs. 33%) in women and men regardless of their self-stereotyping concerning agency and communion. The findings indicate that reading even a very short text in gender-fair language can help people break their gender-stereotype habit and thus reduce male bias in thinking. Our research emphasizes the importance of using gender-fair language in German-language texts for reducing gender stereotypes.

SUBMITTER: Kollmayer M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6018092 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundSignificant disparity in gender distribution exists among medical specialties. Residency program websites are a main source of preliminary program information for candidates, and website content may influence a prospective applicant's sense of belongingness within a particular program. Given the importance of the residency program website as a recruiting tool, this study sought to examine and compare the presence of gendered language and imagery on residency program websites across various specialties.MethodsA list of words considered masculine or feminine was used to evaluate residency program websites of the two most male-dominated specialties (orthopedic and thoracic surgery), female-dominated specialties (pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology), and gender-balanced specialties (dermatology and family medicine) in the United States in 2022. Forty-five residency programs were randomly selected from each specialty across different regions of the US, with the exception of thoracic surgery of which there are only 33 programs. Masculine and feminine words were evaluated using a parsing and scraping program. Representation of female and male-presenting team members in photos on program websites was also evaluated.ResultsMasculine wording occurred more frequently in male-dominated specialties compared to gender-balanced (p = 0.0030), but not female-dominated specialties (p = 0.2199). Feminine language was used more frequently in female-dominated compared to male dominated fields (p = 0.0022), but not gender balanced (p = 0.0909). The ratio of masculine-to-feminine words used was significantly higher in male-dominated specialties compared to both gender-balanced (p < 0.0001) and female-dominated specialties. (p < 0.0001). There was an average of 1, 7, and 10 female-presenting residency team members pictured on each male-dominated, gender balanced, and female-dominated specialty RPW respectively, with significantly more female-presenting team members pictured in the photographs on female-dominated specialty websites when compared to male-dominated and gender-balanced specialty websites (p < 0.0001, p = 0.014).ConclusionsThe use of gendered language and female representation in photographs varies significantly across specialties and is directly correlated with gender representation within the specialty. Given that students' perceptions of specialty programs may be affected by the use of language and photos on residency program websites, programs should carefully consider the language and pictures depicted on their program websites.

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Breaking Away From the Male Stereotype of a Specialist: Gendered Language Affects Performance in a Thinking Task.

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