Girls' Stuff? Maternal Gender Stereotypes and Their Daughters' Fear.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Gerdes ABM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8770317 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:The so-called "gender-equality paradox" is the fact that gender segregation across occupations is more pronounced in more egalitarian and more developed countries. Some scholars have explained this paradox by the existence of deeply rooted or intrinsic gender differences in preferences that materialize more easily in countries where economic constraints are more limited. In line with a strand of research in sociology, we show instead that it can be explained by cross-country differences in essentialist gender norms regarding math aptitudes and appropriate occupational choices. To this aim, we propose a measure of the prevalence and extent of internalization of the stereotype that "math is not for girls" at the country level. This is done using individual-level data on the math attitudes of 300,000 15-y-old female and male students in 64 countries. The stereotype associating math to men is stronger in more egalitarian and developed countries. It is also strongly associated with various measures of female underrepresentation in math-intensive fields and can therefore entirely explain the gender-equality paradox. We suggest that economic development and gender equality in rights go hand-in-hand with a reshaping rather than a suppression of gender norms, with the emergence of new and more horizontal forms of social differentiation across genders.
| S-EPMC7733804 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Television programs are a central part of children's everyday lives. These programs often transmit stereotypes about gender roles such as "math is for boys and not for girls." So far, however, it is unclear whether stereotypes that are embedded in television programs affect girls' and boys' performance, motivational dispositions, or attitudes. On the basis of research on expectancy-value theory and stereotype threat, we conducted a randomized study with a total of 335 fifth-grade students to address this question. As the experimental material, we used a television program that had originally been produced for a national TV channel. The program was designed to show children that math could be interesting and fun. In the experimental condition, the program included a gender stereotyped segment in which two girls who were frustrated with math copied their math homework from a male classmate. In the control condition, participants watched an equally long, neutral summary of the first part of the video. We investigated effects on boys' and girls' stereotype endorsement, math performance, and different motivational constructs to gain insights into differential effects. On the basis of prior research, we expected negative effects of watching the stereotypes on girls' performance, motivational dispositions, and attitudes. Effects on the same outcomes for boys as well as children's stereotype endorsement were explored as open questions. We pre-registered our research predictions and analyses before conducting the experiment. Our results provide partial support for short-term effects of gender stereotypes embedded in television programs: Watching the stereotypes embedded in the video increased boys' and girls' stereotype endorsement. Boys reported a higher sense of belonging but lower utility value after watching the video with the stereotypes. Boys' other outcome variables were not affected, and there were also no effects on girl's performance, motivational dispositions, or attitudes. Results offer initial insights into how even short segments involving gender stereotypes in television shows can influence girls' and boys' stereotype endorsement and how such stereotypes may constitute one factor that contributes to gender differences in the STEM fields.
| S-EPMC6288401 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Stereotypes exist in the interactions between different social groups, and gender stereotypes are particularly prevalent. Previous studies have suggested that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in the social cognition that plays an important role in gender stereotypes, but the specific causal effect of the mPFC remains controversial. In this study, we aimed to use transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to identify a direct link between the mPFC and gender bias. Implicit stereotypes were measured by the gender implicit association test (IAT), and explicit prejudice was measured by the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI). We found that male and female participants had different behavioral and neural correlates of gender stereotypes. Anodal tDCS significantly reduced male participants' gender D-IAT scores compared with cathodal and sham stimulation, while the stimulation had an insignificant effect in female participants. The reduction in male participants' gender bias mainly resulted from a decrease in the difference in reaction time (RT) between congruent and incongruent blocks. Regarding the explicit bias measurement, male and female participants had distinct attitudes, but tDCS had no effect on ASI. Our results revealed that the mPFC played a causal role in controlling implicit gender stereotypes, which is consistent with previous observations and complements past lesion, neuroimaging, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies and suggests that males and females have different neural bases for gender stereotypes.
| S-EPMC6889476 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Previous work has documented adolescents' gender stereotype endorsement, or the extent to which one believes men or women should embody distinct traits. However, understanding of gender stereotype endorsement in gender diverse adolescents-those who identify as transgender, nonbinary, and/or gender nonconforming-is limited. Gender diverse adolescents' experiences with gender raise the question of whether they endorse gender stereotypes with the same frequency as cisgender adolescents. In this study, we investigated three primary research questions: (1) if gender diverse (N = 144) and cisgender (N = 174) adolescents (13-17 years) and their parents (N = 143 parents of gender diverse adolescents, N = 160 parents of cisgender adolescents) endorse gender stereotypes; (2) whether these groups differed from one another in their endorsement of gender stereotypes; and (3) whether parents' gender stereotyping was related to either their adolescents' stereotyping and/or their adolescents' predictions of their parents' stereotyping. We found (1) that participants showed low amounts of stereotyping; (2) there were no significant differences between gender stereotype endorsement in gender diverse and cisgender adolescents (or between their parents), though parents endorsed stereotypes slightly less than adolescents; and (3) there was a small positive association between adolescents' stereotyping and their parents' gender stereotyping. We discuss the limitations of our methods, and the possibility that rates of explicit stereotype endorsement may be changing over time.
| S-EPMC9197027 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Despite the widely documented influence of gender stereotypes on social behaviour, little is known about the electrophysiological substrates engaged in the processing of such information when conveyed by language. Using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), we examined the brain response to third-person pronouns (lei "she" and lui "he") that were implicitly primed by definitional (passeggera(FEM) "passenger", pensionato(MASC) "pensioner"), or stereotypical antecedents (insegnante "teacher", conducente "driver"). An N400-like effect on the pronoun emerged when it was preceded by a definitionally incongruent prime (passeggera(FEM)--lui; pensionato(MASC)--lei), and a stereotypically incongruent prime for masculine pronouns only (insegnante--lui). In addition, a P300-like effect was found when the pronoun was preceded by definitionally incongruent primes. However, this effect was observed for female, but not male participants. Overall, these results provide further evidence for on-line effects of stereotypical gender in language comprehension. Importantly, our results also suggest a gender stereotype asymmetry in that male and female stereotypes affected the processing of pronouns differently.
| S-EPMC3513306 | biostudies-literature
Project description:STUDY QUESTION:Does maternal age at a daughter's birth predict her subsequent probability of lifelong childlessness? SUMMARY ANSWER:In this study population, women born to older mothers were more likely to be childless. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY:Although maternal age at childbearing is increasing in many countries, there is limited evidence on whether being born to older parents may influence offspring fertility. STUDY DESIGN SIZE AND DURATION:This analysis included 43 135 women from the US-based Sister Study, a cohort study of 50 884 sisters of women with breast cancer recruited between 2003 and 2009. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS:Participants had no breast cancer at baseline. Women were included in the analytic sample if they were born between 1930 and 1964 and were at least 44 years old at enrolment. Median age when reproductive history was last ascertained was 63.8 years. We estimated relative risks (RR) and 95% CI of lifelong childlessness as a function of maternal age at birth, using multivariable log-binomial models, including total number of siblings, birth order, socioeconomic indicators of the family of origin, race and birth cohort. We examined the association in different subgroups and in a sibling-matched analysis including 802 sister pairs discordant for childlessness. MAIN RESULTS AND ROLE OF CHANCE:Compared with women born to 20-24-year-old mothers, those born to mothers aged 25-29, 30-34 and ?35 years were more likely to be childless [RR (95% CI): 1.21 (1.14-1.29), 1.30 (1.22-1.39) and 1.40 (1.31-1.50), respectively]. The association was consistent in strata defined by birth cohort, number of siblings, birth order, and participant's educational level, as well as within sister pairs. Overall, we found weak evidence for an independent contribution of paternal age at birth to the daughter's probability of childlessness. LIMITATIONS REASONS FOR CAUTION:All participants had at least one sister, and all information was self-reported. We had no knowledge of whether childlessness was intentional and found only a modest association between maternal age at birth and self-reported indicators of infertility. Still, the association with childlessness was highly consistent. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDING:Given the widespread tendency to delay childbearing, evaluating the influence of maternal age at birth on offspring fertility is a public health priority. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTERESTS:This research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Programme of the NIH, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (Z01-ES044005). The authors report no conflict of interest.
| S-EPMC6075592 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundAn obstetrical paradox is that maternal smoking is protective for the development of preeclampsia. However, there are no prior studies investigating the risk of preeclampsia in women who were exposed to tobacco smoking during their own fetal period. We aimed to study the subsequent risk of preeclampsia in women who were exposed to tobacco smoke in utero, using a national population-based register.MethodsData were obtained from the Medical Birth Register of Sweden for women who were born in 1982 (smoking data first recorded) or after, who had given birth to at least one child; 153 885 pregnancies were included.ResultsThe associations between intrauterine smoking exposure (three categories: non-smokers, 1-9 cigarettes/day [moderate exposure], and >9 cigarettes/day [heavy exposure]) and subsequent preeclampsia (n = 5721) were assessed using logistic regressions. In models adjusted for maternal age, parity and own smoking, the odds ratios (OR) for preeclampsia were 1.06 [95% CI: 0.99,1.13 for moderate intrauterine exposure, and 1.18, [95% CI: 1.10,1.27] for heavy exposure. Estimates were slightly strengthened in non-smoking women who experienced heavy intrauterine exposure (adjusted OR 1.24 [95% CI: 1.14,1.34]). Results were no longer statistically significant after adjustment for the woman's own BMI, gestational age and birthweight Z-scores.ConclusionThese data revealed some evidence of a possible weak positive association between intrauterine smoking exposure and the risk of subsequent preeclampsia, however, results were not significant over all manifestations of preeclampsia and confounder adjustment. The increased risk might be mediated through exposed women's own BMI or birthweight.
| S-EPMC4667973 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The current study explored the accuracy of consensual moral stereotypes that women and men hold about each other, as well as whether the gender differences in morality found in previous literature replicate on a sample of Pakistani individuals. A sample of 300 was used with an equal number of men and women. Data from 50 of the respondents was collected online, whereas the rest was collected in person from universities. The 30-item Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ30) was used as a measure of five Moral Foundations, which are the basic elements of moral psychology as posited by Moral Foundations Theory. Men and women answered the questionnaire for themselves and then a second time, according to their perception of how a typical member of the other gender would respond which gave a measure of their stereotype. Comparison of actual scores of men and women revealed a statistically significant difference where women scored higher than men on the Harm foundation (p = 0.001). All other foundations, except for the Authority foundation showed the same pattern of differences as the previous literature, although they did not reach statistical significance. Stereotypes about men held by women were inaccurate underestimations on the Harm and Fairness foundations. The stereotype about women, held by men, was accurate on the Fairness foundation and inaccurate on the Authority foundation in the direction of underestimation. This research serves to further the study of Moral Foundations Theory as well as exploring the reasons behind the inaccurate moral stereotypes that men and women hold about each other, and actual gender differences in morality.
| S-EPMC7058411 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Word embeddings are a powerful machine-learning framework that represents each English word by a vector. The geometric relationship between these vectors captures meaningful semantic relationships between the corresponding words. In this paper, we develop a framework to demonstrate how the temporal dynamics of the embedding helps to quantify changes in stereotypes and attitudes toward women and ethnic minorities in the 20th and 21st centuries in the United States. We integrate word embeddings trained on 100 y of text data with the US Census to show that changes in the embedding track closely with demographic and occupation shifts over time. The embedding captures societal shifts-e.g., the women's movement in the 1960s and Asian immigration into the United States-and also illuminates how specific adjectives and occupations became more closely associated with certain populations over time. Our framework for temporal analysis of word embedding opens up a fruitful intersection between machine learning and quantitative social science.
| S-EPMC5910851 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Implicit math = male stereotypes have been found in early childhood and are linked to girls’ disproportionate disengagement from math-related activities and later careers. Yet, little is known about how malleable children’s automatic stereotypes are, especially in response to brief interventions. In a sample of 336 six- to eleven-year-olds, we experimentally tested whether exposure to a brief story vignette intervention with either stereotypical, neutral, or counter-stereotypical content (three conditions: math = boy vs. neutral vs. math = girl) could change implicit math-gender stereotypes. Results suggested that children’s implicit math = male stereotypes were indeed responsive to brief stories that either reinforced or countered the widespread math = male stereotype. Children exposed to the counter-stereotypical stories showed significantly lower (and non-significant) stereotypes compared to children exposed to the stereotypical stories. Critically, exposure to stories that perpetuated math = male stereotypes significantly increased math-gender stereotypes over and above baseline, underscoring that implicit gender biases that are readily formed during this period in childhood and even brief exposure to stereotypical content can strengthen them. As a secondary question, we also examined whether changes in stereotypes might also lead to changes in implicit math self-concept. Evidence for effects on implicit self-concept were not statistically significant.
| S-EPMC9348658 | biostudies-literature