Stereotypes and Stereotype Threat for Women in Science and Technology

The article “Cognitive Differences in the Discussion of Women in Science and Technology” by Horwath et al. mainly discusses whether the variance of cognitive skills between genders plays a role in why women are underrepresented in science and technology; however, the issues of stereotype threat really stood out to me. This article explains how stereotypes affect performance expectations, and in this case, stereotypes are against women or people of color. Awareness of a negative stereotype can cause situative stress. For example, one study involving Blacks and Whites showed that requiring Blacks to specify race before a test caused them to perform more poorly than those who weren’t required to specify skin color. Another study showed that when women were told men would do better on a test prior to taking it, those women performed worse than those who were told there were no expected gender differences. Stereotype threat could play a major role in the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields and can have a major negative affect on performance. The video “A Girl Like Me” also gives evidence of the negative impacts of stereotypes. In this video, girls of color discuss how beauty standards for African American women lowers their self-esteem. Many of these girls said they believed lighter skin color was more attractive and one mentioned her mother implying looking African or having natural, kinky hair was unattractive.

This article and video helped me realize how serious stereotypes can be and how much negative impact they can inflict on a person’s self-esteem or performance in certain areas like STEM fields. Such stereotypes can cause women to be seen as weak or undesirable. There is nothing wrong with men being in higher presence in STEM fields if women are uninterested. However, if lack of encouragement for women and stereotype threat are the cause then something must change. I believe women can perform as well or better than men if stereotype threat can be eliminated. We must ask ourselves what we can do to eliminate stereotype threat and how we can help those who are affected by it. I think the first step is to change the way women and people of color are portrayed on television and in magazines. They are often portrayed as housewives or servants, which could cause women to be viewed as weak or lacking the intelligence to be active in STEM fields. In pictures depicting women of color in magazines, their skin color is often lightened to be presented as more attractive. Changing the roles of actresses in movies and not lightening skin color in pictures of colored women could be the first steps in diminishing stereotypes and stereotype threat. Please feel free to comment and let me know your views on stereotypes and stereotype threat, and what changes you think we need to make as a society.

Link to “A Girl Like Me”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EivX77ORIIs