The shifting gender composition of psychology: Trends and implications for the discipline.

Abstract

Psychology, along with the majority of professions and scientific disciplines, has undergone dramatic shifts in gender composition over the past two decades. These changes have prompted concern that this increased participation by women may lead to erosion in the status of these occupations. This article describes the results of a case study of psychology conducted by a subcommittee of the American Psychological Association's (APA's) Task Force on the Changing Gender Composition of Psychology to examine the discipline's changing gender composition and the factors related to these shifts. Societal and disciplinary trends are examined, along with data on the patterns of men's and women's involvement in the educational pipeline and workplace. The results provide little support for the concern over the increasing representation of women and its impact on the prestige of the discipline. Rather, they suggest that changes in the nature and status of psychology per se may be at least partly responsible for the changes in male and female participation and that the nature, magnitude, and causes of these disciplinary changes require further examination. Specific recommendations for the APA prepared by another subcommittee of the Task Force are also presented in the Appendix.

Women’s Involvement in Educational Psychology Journals from 1976 to 2004

“…None of the editors of APA journals in 1971 were female, and by 1991, only three (15%) were female (Pion et al, 1996). The authors noted that this 1991 figure was lower than both the percentage of psychologists who were female in academic institutions and the percentage of full professors who were female in 1991.…”

“…Pion et al (1996) examined the percentages of male and female authors in JEP from 1971 to 1991. In 1971, only 18% of the authors were female; by 1991, this figure had risen to over 40%.…”

The Role of Masculinity/Femininity, Values, and Occupational Value Affordances in Shaping Young Men’s and Women’s Occupational Choices

“…In their work, Weisgram et al (2010) found that novel jobs depicted with all female workers were judged to be higher in affording family values than the identical jobs depicting male workers. Also, with the sharp increase of women in to the field of psychology, many psychologists were concerned that the field would be perceived as lower in status and pay would decline as a consequence; an American Psychological Association Task Force recently investigated this hypothesis finding that it was not the case (Pion et al 1996). Thus, reducing gender segregation of occupations may involve breaking barriers that prevent women from entering fields, changing perceptions of the values fulfilled by gender-typed jobs (and perhaps the actual values afforded by such occupations such as implementing policies that allow for more family time in scientific careers), and generally breaking down gender stereotypes associated with occupations-a topic that deserves a considerable amount of future research.…”

Graduate Socialization in the Responsible Conduct of Research: A National Survey on the Research Ethics Training Experiences of Psychology Doctoral Students

“…For example, although women now make up the majority of psychology graduate students, most faculty members, particularly senior faculty are men (Cohen & Gutek, 1991;Cronan-Hillix et al, 1986;Pion et al, 1996). Similarly, while the number of ethnic minority students in (Pion, 1996) the numbers are still very small (APA, 2008;Atkinson, Casas, & Neville, 1994). Some have reported that women and minority students typically have less access to mentoring and that good mentoring may help them gain advantages more frequently afforded to members of majority groups (Bogat & Redner, 1985;Cohen & Gutek, 1991;Gilbert & Rossman, 1992;Wilson & Johnson, 2001).…”

“…For example, although women now make up the majority of psychology graduate students, most faculty members, particularly senior faculty are men (Cohen & Gutek, 1991;Cronan-Hillix et al, 1986;Pion et al, 1996). Similarly, while the number of ethnic minority students in (Pion, 1996) the numbers are still very small (APA, 2008;Atkinson, Casas, & Neville, 1994).…”