Explaining Underrepresentation: A Theory of Precluded Interest

Abstract

What processes best explain women’s underrepresentation in science, math, and engineering fields in the U.S.? Do they also explain men’s underrepresentation in the humanities? Two survey studies across two U.S. West Coast universities (N = 62; N = 614) addressed these questions in the context of two fields: one male-dominated (computer science) and the other female-dominated (English). Among a set of social predictors—including perceived similarity to the people in the field, social identity threats, and expectations of success—the best mediator of women’s lower interest in computer science and men’s lower interest in English was perceived similarity. Thus, changing students’ social perceptions of how they relate to those in the field may help to diversify academic fields.

Determinants of Bachelor Students’ Intention to Enter a Research-Oriented Career

“…Openness for research is more visible among male than female students (see also Blickenstaff, 2005;Kamphuis, 2007;Cheryan & Plaut, 2010). Our data also confirm a statement made by Duffy and Sedlacek (2007): women score 4.06 out of 5 on the question 'In my future job I would like to mainly work with people', whereas male students score an average 3.65 out of 5, which is significantly lower (p< .0001).…”

“…Educational aspirations is defined as progression on the different levels of higher education. The higher preference of male students for a research career in comparison with female students finds confirmation by Blickenstaff (2005), Kamphuis (2007), and Cheryan and Plaut (2010). This is not confirmed by Zafira (2012) for students choosing for graduate school: "controlling for ability, aspirations, and confidence" the gender difference is no longer significant.…”

“…Duffy and Sedlacek (2007) also stressed that female students are more interested in working with people than in other types of work. More specifically, Kamphuis (2007) observed that girls lose their belief in their academic capacities and in that they have a future in science over the course of their academic education (see also Cheryan & Plaut, 2010). And Zafira (2012) observed that women are less likely pursuing graduate degrees than men.…”

Communicating Gender-Equality Progress, Reduces Social Identity Threats for Women Considering a Research Career

“…Therefore, if an environmental cue suggests that an individual's social identity is negatively valued in a domain, it can cause social identity threat, including stereotype threat, where vigilance is raised and performance may suffer (see (Inzlicht and Schmader 2012;Major and O'Brien 2005;Spencer et al 2016), for reviews). Social identity threat includes the fear of becoming negatively stereotyped and discriminated in a domain (Cheryan and Plaut 2010;Murphy et al 2007;Petriglieri 2011;Steele et al 2002) and may diminish a person's sense of control (Chithambo et al 2014;Fischer and Bolton Holz 2010). Previous research has shown that contexts dominated by men can trigger social identity threat in women (Inzlicht and Ben-Zeev 2000;Major and O'Brien 2005;Murphy et al 2007;Sekaquaptewa et al 2007;Steele et al 2002).…”

“…Social identity threat tends to be unrelated to interests in a domain (e.g., Cheryan and Plaut 2010). However, repeated exposure to social identity threat can push people to withdraw from a career path, despite interest in it (Thoman et al 2013;Woodcock et al 2012).…”