Reducing the gender gap on adolescents’ interest in study fields: The impact of perceived changes in ingroup gender norms and gender prototypicality

TL;DR

This study explores how changing perceptions of gender norms affect adolescents' interest in traditionally gendered academic fields like STEM and HEED.

Contribution

The research experimentally examines the impact of perceived changes in gender norms on reducing the gender gap in academic interests.

Findings

Perceived changes in gender norms slightly reduced the gender gap in interest for HEED fields among gender-typical participants.

No significant change was observed in interest for STEM fields despite the manipulation of gender norm perceptions.

Entrenched gender stereotypes appear resilient to shifts in perceived gender norms.

Abstract

Despite some progress towards gender equality in Western societies, traditional gender norms still shape career choices, perpetuating a gender gap where girls are more likely to pursue traditionally feminine fields like healthcare, elementary education, and domestic roles (HEED), while boys are drawn to masculine domains such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This research investigates whether, and under which conditions, the perception that gender norms are progressively changing towards less gender dichotomy can reduce this gender gap in academic fields. We recruited a sample of 642 high-school students (394 women and 248 men), and experimentally manipulated both the salience of changes in gender norm (stability vs change) and participants’ gender prototypicality. The main dependent variable was participants’ interest in stereotypically feminine (HEED) and masculine (STEM) academic fields. The results indicated a slight decrease in the gender gap for stereotypically feminine fields (HEED) among participants who saw themselves as typical members of their gender group, but no significant change was observed for stereotypically masculine fields (STEM). These findings suggest that shifting perceptions of gender norms may have a limited effect on modifying traditional educational and career choices, underscoring the resilience of entrenched gender stereotypes.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11218-024-09909-z.

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