Ladies First
Sex differences in the right tail of cognitive abilities: A 30 year examination
Jonathan Wai, Megan Cacchio, Martha Putallaz & Matthew Makel
Intelligence, July-August 2010, Pages 412-423
Abstract:
One factor in the debate surrounding the underrepresentation of women in science technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) involves male-female mathematical ability differences in the extreme right tail (top 1% in ability). The present study provides male-female ability ratios from over 1.6 million 7th grade students in the right tail (top 5% in ability) across 30 years (1981-2010) using multiple measures of math, verbal, and writing ability and science reasoning from the SAT and ACT. Male-female ratios in mathematical reasoning are substantially lower than 30 years ago, but have been stable over the last 20 years and still favor males. Over the last two decades males showed a stable or slightly increasing advantage in science reasoning. However, more females scored in the extreme right tail of verbal reasoning and writing ability tests. The potential role of sociocultural factors on changes in the male-female ability ratios is discussed and the introduction of science reasoning as a potential new factor in the debate is proposed. The implications of continued sex differences in math and science reasoning is discussed within the context of the many important interlocking factors surrounding the debate on the underrepresentation of women in STEM.
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Geographic Variation in the Gender Differences in Test Scores
Devin Pope & Justin Sydnor
Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2010, Pages 95-108
Abstract:
The causes and consequences of gender disparities in standardized test scores -- especially in the high tails of achievement -- have been a topic of heated debate. The existing evidence on standardized test scores largely confirms the prevailing stereotypes that more men than women excel in math and science while more women than men excel in tests of language and reading. We provide a new perspective on this gender gap in test scores by analyzing the variation in these disparities across geographic areas. We illustrate that male-female ratios of students scoring in the high ranges of standardized tests vary significantly across the United States. This variation is systematic in several important ways. In particular, states where males are highly overrepresented in the top math and science scores also tend to be states where women are highly overrepresented in the top reading scores. This pattern suggests that states vary in their adherence to stereotypical gender performance, rather than favoring one sex over the other across all subjects. Furthermore, since the genetic distinction and the hormonal differences between sexes that might affect early cognitive development (that is, innate abilities) are likely the same regardless of the state in which a person happens to be born, the variation we find speaks to the nature-versus-nurture debates surrounding test scores and suggests environments significantly impact gender disparities in test scores.
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The Market for College Graduates and the Worldwide Boom in Higher Education of Women
Gary Becker, William Hubbard & Kevin Murphy
American Economic Review, May 2010, Pages 229-233
"Differences in gender means and distributions of abilities, especially non-cognitive abilities, affect the supply of college-educated women compared to college-educated men since the full cost of college is lower for abler persons. It appears that the average non-cognitive abilities of women are higher than the average for men, as measured by average grades in school and standardized test scores, and that the inequality in non-cognitive abilities is lower for women, as measured by the variances in these grades and test scores. Lower inequality of non-cognitive abilities among women than men imply that elasticities of supply to college would be greater for women than men, since heterogeneity in costs of college attendance would be lower for women. Further, greater average non-cognitive abilities of women than men implies that the supply of women to college would be greater than that of men when their benefits were the same. Together, these gender differences explain how the increased demand for college graduates that occurred in most countries during past 30 years would have increased the supply of women by more than the supply of men, leading to women's college attendance surpassing that of men."
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Assessing Gender-Related Portrayals in Top-Grossing G-Rated Films
Stacy Smith, Katherine Pieper, Amy Granados & Marc Choueiti
Sex Roles, June 2010, Pages 774-786
Abstract:
The purpose of this content analysis was to examine gender-related portrayals in popular G-rated films. Our research questions addressed the prevalence and nature of males and females in general-audience fare. To answer our research queries, 101 of the top-grossing box office films released theatrically in the United States and Canada from 1990 to early 2005 were assessed. The results showed that males outnumber females by a ratio of 2.57 to 1, which has not changed in fifteen years. Females were more likely than males to be young and depicted traditionally. In terms of personality traits, females were more likely to be smart, good, and beautiful than were males.
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Olivia O'Neill & Charles O'Reilly
Journal of Organizational Behavior, August 2010, Pages 856-876
Abstract:
Drawing on gender role theory and tournament theory, we examined the effects of sex and organizational culture preferences on the incomes of MBA graduates over an 8-year period. We found that masculine culture preferences led to higher income 4 years after graduation and, in contrast to previous research, the effect was stronger for women. By 8 years after graduation, however, men's rate of income increase was significantly higher than women's, an effect that was mediated by hours worked per week. These findings clarify some of the conflicting results of previous research on the effects of gender roles on women's careers and suggest that a tournament-like aspect of careers may account for higher incomes in organizations.
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Barbara Morrongiello, Daniel Zdzieborski & Jackie Normand
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study compared reactions of mothers and fathers to the risk taking behavior of sons and daughters. Mother-father pairs (N = 52) imagined their 2-year-old boy or girl behaving in risky ways in common home situations that could, and did, result in injury. Emotional and parenting reactions to the behaviors were assessed before and after injury. Results revealed few differences between mothers' and fathers' reactions but reactions varied for sons versus daughters. Parent reactions to risk taking by sons focused on discipline but reactions to the same behaviors by daughters focused on safety. Mothers, in particular, reacted to sons with anger and daughters with disappointment and surprise. Parents attributed risk taking to personality for sons but situational factors for daughters, and judged daughters could be taught to comply with safety rules more than sons. Overall, results suggest that parents socialize boys and girls differently regarding risk taking.
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The Female Advantage in College Academic Achievements and Horizontal Sex Segregation
Sigal Alon & Dafna Gelbgiser
Social Science Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study offers a structural explanation for the female advantage in college completion rates, stressing the importance of horizontal sex segregation across fields of study in shaping educational outcomes and gender inequality. Results from a nationally representative sample of students who matriculated at four-year institutions in 1995 reveal a high level of gender segregation by field of study. Field of study creates the immediate learning environment for the students and between-major differences in academic and social arrangements - such as different grading norms, academic intensity, size and social support - shape both female and male performance. We find that this variation is a key factor in the creation of the female advantage in grades and graduation likelihood. The simulation we conduct demonstrates that if sex integration were achieved and both groups had the male distribution of majors, the female advantage in graduation likelihood and grades, which remains after socioeconomic and academic factors are netted out, would be substantially reduced.
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Explaining the Gender Gap in Math Test Scores: The Role of Competition
Muriel Niederle & Lise Vesterlund
Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2010, Pages 129-144
Abstract:
The mean and standard deviation in performance on math test scores are only slightly larger for males than for females. Despite minor differences in mean performance, many more boys than girls perform at the right tail of the distribution. This gender gap has been documented for a series of math tests including the AP calculus test, the mathematics SAT, and the quantitative portion of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). The objective of this paper is not to discuss whether the mathematical skills of males and females differ, be it a result of nurture or nature. Rather we argue that the reported test scores do not necessarily match the gender differences in math skills. We will present results that suggest that the evidence of a large gender gap in mathematics performance at high percentiles in part may be explained by the differential manner in which men and women respond to competitive test-taking environments. The effects in mixed-sex settings range from women failing to perform well in competitions, to women shying away from environments in which they have to compete. We find that the response to competition differs for men and women, and in the examined environment, gender difference in competitive performance does not reflect the difference in noncompetitive performance. We argue that the competitive pressures associated with test taking may result in performances that do not reflect those of less-competitive settings. Of particular concern is that the distortion is likely to vary by gender and that it may cause gender differences in performance to be particularly large in mathematics and for the right tail of the performance distribution. Thus the gender gap in math test scores may exaggerate the math advantage of males over females.
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Reversing fortunes or content change? Gender gaps in math-related skill throughout childhood
Benjamin Gibbs
Social Science Research, July 2010, Pages 540-569
Abstract:
Many scholars and policy makers of education have focused significant attention on male advantages in math skills during adolescence, but have often overlooked female advantages in math skills that emerge before school begins. As a way to explain this conflicting pattern, some scholars cite exposure to schooling as a reason why girls experience what some have termed girls' "reversal of fortunes." By using first-of-its-kind data I examine math-related skills with proscriptive data from early to late childhood using two nationally-representative data sets. Moving beyond standardized assessments of math skills, this study reconciles these two competing trends using subset measures. Far from a reversal of fortunes, girls excel in math skills that are less complex (i.e. counting, shape recognition) across childhood. Girls' disadvantages in math emerge with content change - as item complexity increases over time (i.e. multiplication, division, and fractions). In contrast to standardized assessments of cognitive skills, gender gaps in item complexity may be more revealing for understanding the origins and development of gender stratification.
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A Meta-Analysis of Gender Group Differences for Measures of Job Performance in Field Studies
Philip Roth, Kristen Purvis & Philip Bobko
Journal of Management, forthcoming
Abstract:
There are multiple views in human resource management and organizational behavior concerning gender differences in measures of job performance. Some researchers suggest that males generally are evaluated higher than females across a variety of situations that include job perormance measurement. At the same time, the presence of specific status cues in expectation states theory (EST; similar to the concept of individuating information) suggests that measures of job performance will be more similar than different for males and females. Previous analyses are unclear in their results for the measurement of the construct of job performance because they have included, and/or focused on, additional constructs (e.g., hiring suitability, leadership performance aggregated with leadership satisfaction) or have used student samples in lab experiments. The authors of this article conducted a meta-analysis of job performance measures from field studies. They found that females generally scored slightly higher than males (mean d = -.11, 80% credibility interval of -.33 to .12). Other analyses suggested that, although job performance ratings favored females, ratings of promotion potential were higher for males. Thus, ratings of promotability may deserve further attention as a potential source of differential promotion rates. These findings and processes are discussed within the context of EST.
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Social/Behavioral Skills and the Gender Gap in Early Educational Achievement
Thomas DiPrete & Jennifer Jennings
Columbia University Working Paper, February 2009
Abstract:
Though many studies have suggested that social and behavioral skills play a central role in gender stratification processes, we know little about the extent to which these skills affect gender gaps in academic achievement. Analyzing data from the Early Child Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort, we demonstrate that social and behavioral skills have substantively important effects on academic outcomes from kindergarten through fifth grade. Gender differences in the acquisition of these skills, moreover, explain a considerable fraction of the gender gap in academic outcomes during early elementary school. Boys get roughly the same academic return to social and behavioral skills as their female peers, but girls retain an advantage both because they begin school with more advanced social and behavioral skills, and because their skill advantage grows over time. While part of the effect may reflect an evaluation process that rewards students who better conform to school norms, our results imply that the acquisition of social and behavioral skills enhances learning as well. Our results call for a reconsideration of the family and school-level processes that produce gender gaps in social/behavioral skills and the advantages they confer for academic and later success.
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John Manning, Stian Reimers, Simon Baron-Cohen, Sally Wheelwright & Bernhard Fink
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
The proportion of women (PW) across occupations shows considerable variation. Here we hypothesize that occupational segregation could be moderated by the effect of testosterone (T), leading individuals to gender-typical choice of occupation. To test this, we examined the relationship between PW across 22 occupations and three putative correlates of T (the 2nd to 4th digit ratio [2D:4D], a supposed correlate of prenatal T [PT]; body height, a possible correlate of adult T [AT]; and a systemizing-empathizing score [SQ-EQ], a putative behavioural correlate of PT and AT) in a large internet survey. PW varied from 17% (Engineering/R&D) to 94% (Homemaker) per occupation. Compared to participants in female-typical jobs, participants in male-typical jobs tended to have low right hand 2D:4D and low right-left hand 2D:4D [Dr-l] (higher PT, women only), were taller (higher AT, men and women), and had higher SQ-EQ scores (higher PT and AT, men and women). With regard to women, the relationships for Dr-l and SQ-EQ (but not body height) remained significant when Whites only were considered. We conclude that in women Dr-l, and SQ-EQ are related to occupational segregation, suggesting that high PT and AT are found in women who are in male-typical occupations.
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Monica Forret, Sherry Sullivan & Lisa Mainiero
Journal of Organizational Behavior, July 2010, Pages 647-666
Abstract:
Using Sullivan and Arthur's (Sullivan & Arthur, [2006]) refinement of the boundaryless career concept, this study examines whether there are gender role differences in psychological mobility (i.e., the career actor's capacity to envision a variety of career options) in response to the same physical transition of unemployment. We surveyed 1095 individuals across numerous organizations and industries, and analyzed our data by generational cohort in light of evolving societal attitudes toward child rearing and breadwinning responsibilities. We found that for both Gen Xers and Baby Boomers, men with children were more likely to perceive unemployment as a defeat than women with children; and women with children were more likely to perceive unemployment as an opportunity than men with children. Despite the many historical, economic, social, and cultural changes in the environment over the past decades, traditional gender roles remain pervasive in response to unemployment. Based on the study's empirical findings, we suggest critical issues for the future study of gender role differences and psychological mobility.
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Catherine Calvin, Cres Fernandes, Pauline Smith, Peter Visscher & Ian Deary
Intelligence, July-August 2010, Pages 424-432
Abstract:
General cognitive ability (g) does not explain sex differences in academic test performance by the end of compulsory education. Instead, individual differences in specific reasoning abilities, after removing the effects of g, may contribute to the observed gender gaps. Associations between general or specific cognitive abilities, sex, and educational attainments were analysed in a cross-sectional study of 11-year-olds (M = 133.5 months, SD = 3.5), at an age before substantive gender-related selection-bias occurred. The 178,599 pupils (89,545 girls and 89,054 boys) attending English state schools represented 93% of the UK's local education authorities. In 2004 each student completed the Cognitive Abilities Test-Third Edition (CAT3), assessing verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal reasoning abilities. These data were linked to each child's attainment scores on national Key Stage 2 tests in English, mathematics and science. A sex difference in g, favoring girls, was statistically significant but of negligible effect size (Cohen's d = .01). Girls scored 26% of a SD higher than boys on a verbal residual factor, and boys scored 28% of a SD higher than girls on a quantitative residual factor, with negligible sex differences on a nonverbal residual factor (1% of a SD). In education, 10% more girls than boys achieved UK government targets in English. In mathematics and science, sex differences were less apparent at the government target grade (Level 4), although a 5% greater proportion of boys than girls performed at the highest level in mathematics (Level 5). General cognitive ability (g) was strongly related to an educational factor score (r = .83) as expected, and did not explain sex differences in academic performance. In general linear models, a verbal residual factor explained up to 29% of girls' higher English attainment, and better quantitative skills among boys explained 50% of their higher attainment in mathematics. Besides the significant contributions of specific cognitive abilities to gender differences in English and mathematics, there remains substantive variance of the educational gender gap left to explain.
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Gender Gaps in Educational Attainment in Less Developed Countries
Monica Grant & Jere Behrman
Population and Development Review, March 2010, Pages 71-89
Abstract:
Conventional wisdom holds that gender gaps in schooling favoring males in developing countries generally are large, though probably declining. In this article we re-examine recent gender gaps in schooling in the developing world and come to a more nuanced characterization of their nature, which suggests that the developing countries are becoming more like the developed countries, with gender gaps that increasingly favor, rather than discriminate against, females. Using data from 38 countries with multiple Demographic and Health Surveys, we examine how the gender gaps in current school enrollment and grade completion emerge across the educational life course from age 6 to 18. We also examine how these age-specific measures have changed over time, comparing the periods 1990-99 and 2000-06. Our analyses indicate that among children who have ever attended school, girls younger than 16 years of age have equal or greater schooling progress than boys of the same age in all regions of the developing world.
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Maintaining Separate Spheres in Policing: Women on SWAT Teams
Mary Dodge, Laura Valcore & David Klinger
Women & Criminal Justice, July 2010, Pages 218-238
Abstract:
The Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team may represent the last vestige of male dominance in law enforcement as an assignment that remains grounded in traditional masculine notions of policing. Although SWAT units have become a prominent feature of modern American policing, there are few female team members. In an attempt to develop some insight into why women rarely serve on SWAT teams, the present research examines the viewpoints of a sample of 30 male and 31 female police officers on the gendered aspects of SWAT assignment. This exploratory study represents the first qualitative attempt to uncover police officers' perspectives and thoughts on the "fit" of women on SWAT teams. The results show that the majority of officers, whether implicitly or explicitly, and regardless of gender, agree that the presence of women on SWAT teams presents a variety of challenges.