Stereotypic beliefs contribute to gender disparities in the field of economics

ABSTRACT

Why are women under-represented in the field of economics relative to men? We propose that stereotypes associated with economists contribute to women’s interest in the field. We test the predictions that economists are stereotypically associated with low levels of communion and high levels of agency and that this type of stereotype content is associated with women’s lower interest in the field. In Study 1 (N = 883), stereotypes associated with people in the field of economics were masculine, characterized with low levels of communion and high levels of agency. In Study 2 (N = 182), undergraduate women were less interested than men in majoring in fields that share the same pattern of stereotyping found for economists in Study 1. The results from this study have important implications for increasing young women’s interest and representation in the field of economics.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• gender gap
• under-representation
• economics
• stereotypes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/kqnx6.

Open scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/kqnx6.

Notes

1. The trait selfish was accidentally listed twice; we removed the second one from analyses.

2. Participants who did not identify as female or male were excluded from this analysis.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Stefanie Simon

Stefanie Simon is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Siena College. She earned her PhD in social psychology from Tulane University and was the Robert A. Oden Jr. Postdoctoral Fellow for Innovation in the Liberal Arts at Carleton College before joining the faculty at Siena. Her research centers on the psychology of diversity, with a focus on prejudice, discrimination, and leadership.

Crystal L. Hoyt

Crystal L. Hoyt is a professor and associate dean for academic affairs and holds the Thorsness Endowed Chair in Ethical Leadership at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond. Her research explores the role of belief systems, such as mindsets, self-efficacy, stereotypes, and political ideologies, in a range of social issues including stigma and discrimination, ethical failures in leadership, leadership and educational achievement gaps, public health, and wealth inequality.

Stephanie Fattorusso

Stephanie Fattorusso earned her undergraduate degree from Siena College in 2019 with a B.A. in psychology and a minor in criminal justice. She is currently a law student at Albany Law School in Albany, NY.