Seeing is believing - The effect of role models on diversity, equity, & inclusion

Seeing Is Believing: Female Role Models Inspire Girls To Think Bigger

What does a scientist look like? When the draw-a-scientist study (DAST) study was first conducted 50 years ago with elementary school students in the US and Canada, only twenty-eight of the 5,000 students (0.06%) drew a female scientist. Reflective of the times you might say.

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Seeing is Believing: Exposure to Counterstereotypic Women Leaders and its Effect on the Malleability of Automatic Gender Stereotyping

The malleability of attitudes and beliefs has reemerged as an inroad to attaining gender equality in recent decades. Numerous studies have shown that attitudes and beliefs can be influenced by a wide range of factors, including changes in an individual's social environment.

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Does Exposure to Gender Role Models Increase Women's Political Ambition? A Field Experiment with Politicians

Exposure to gender role models increases women's interest in political current events but does not have a positive effect on their political ambition. Women exposed to female politician role models were more likely to seek information and follow news about the ongoing national election campaign.

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Progress in women's representation in top leadership weakens people's disturbance with gender inequality in other domains

It is commonly believed that achieving progress in women's representation in top leadership levels is crucial for advancing gender equality generally, because it will produce better outcomes for women in other domains as well (e.g., the pay gap).

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Can Female Doctors Cure the Gender STEMM Gap? Evidence from Randomly Assigned General Practitioners

Girls outperform boys in educational settings and yet are underrepresented in fields with high earnings, such as STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine), which contributes significantly to the gender wage gap. Research has shown that role models may be one effective avenue for increasing female representation in STEMM.

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Female Role Models: Protecting Women's Math Test Performance

Women are historically underrepresented in math-related undergraduate and graduate programs. One of the many reasons for this disparity is that women consistently underperform on standardized math tests compared to men, despite similar educational backgrounds. A potential explanation for this underperformance on test day is the existence of a "stereotype threat".

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My Fair Physicist? Feminine Math and Science Role Models Demotivate Young Girls

Though girls and boys perform similarly in high-school math and science, girls are less likely to continue in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields-women receive only two-fifths of bachelor's degrees in physical sciences and mathematics, and just one-fifth in computer science and engineering.

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The Hillary Clinton effect: When the same role model inspires or fails to inspire improved performance under stereotype threat

In test-taking scenarios, being reminded of negative stereotypes about one's identity group can inhibit performance. This phenomenon, known as stereotype threat, has been frequently observed when women take math tests. When women are reminded of negative stereotypes about women's math aptitude, they tend to perform worse than they would otherwise.

gap.hks.harvard.edu

Female Leaders: Injurious or Inspiring Role Models for Women?

To help level the playing field of women and men in positions of leadership, it may seem intuitive to place female leaders as role models for younger women to aspire to. Presumably, seeing women in positions of power can counteract negative stereotypes and encourage greater equality between the sexes.

gap.hks.harvard.edu

Successful Female Leaders Empower Women's Behavior In Leadership Tasks

Although there are more women than ever in top leadership positions worldwide, leader stereotypes remain predominantly masculine, which can undermine women's performance in leadership-related tasks like motivating employees, managerial decision-making, or negotiating. One way to counteract negative stereotypes is to expose women to examples of women leaders who succeed, thus disproving the stereotype.

gap.hks.harvard.edu

Female Leadership Raises Aspirations and Educational Attainment for Girls: A Policy Experiment in India

Gender quotas are increasingly being used to mitigate women's historical underrepresentation in certain career paths, including but not limited to, political leadership. Aside from the obvious outcome of greater gender balance in male-dominated arenas, one possible and expected effect of quotas is that the first women to fill these quotas will act as role models, opening up previously male-saturated environments for other women and lowering gender barriers.

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