EHR

The EHR project examines how witnessing subtle gender bias against women in STEM affects men’s and women’s performance and behavior, specifically focusing on engineering and computer science fields where women are highly under-represented. Using experimental methodology, we will test the hypothesis that exposure to subtle gender bias in one’s STEM environment can serve as an implicit stereotype cue that leads women and men to assimilate to gender-STEM stereotypes. However, recognition of the event as an instance of stereotyping can render it a blatant stereotype cue, leading to counter-stereotypic outcomes. This work highlights the insidious effect of subtle stereotyping going unrecognized on creating climates that are less gender-inclusive and more stereotype-sustaining.

This research has important implications for the STEM climate. When an individual’s behaviors are altered by the subtle activation of gender stereotypes to be gender stereotype-supporting, this can serve to maintain and support a negative climate for women. To the extent that experiencing a negative climate in which gender bias is prevalent, even as a mere witness, activates gender stereotypes, the stereotype-confirming behaviors induced by this activation can actually serve to perpetuate the negative climate. In this way, negative climates for women in STEM can be self-sustaining, particularly when the biases are subtle and people do not perceive them as being caused by societal gender stereotypes.