Whether your name is Manuel or María matters: gender biases in recommendations to study engineering

ABSTRACT

A controlled experiment was conducted to detect gender biases that participants, acting as advisers, may have when providing guidance to teenagers on their career choice. We presented a fictional profile to the study participants – university students from Spain – of a 15-year-old person, called Manuel or María, with two possible levels of academic record. The participants were asked to evaluate the student’s mathematical ability and provide guidance regarding whether or not he or she should study engineering in the future. We assumed that the effect of being a male target on the recommendation to study engineering is partially mediated by the fact that the participants attribute a greater mathematical ability to males. Our results suggest that a significant degree of gender bias in favour of males persists in the recommendation to study engineering. We propose some practical implications for advisers and for equality policies.

KEYWORDS:

• Career recommendations
• STEM careers
• engineering
• gender bias
• double standards

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation, Ref: RTI2018-094901-B-I00.

Notes on contributors

Eva Del Pozo-García

Eva Del Pozo-García is associate professor in the Department of Financial & Actuarial Economics & Statistics and a member of the research group ‘Data Analysis in Social and Gender Studies and Equality Policies’ at the Complutense University of Madrid. Current research interests comprise gender studies and gender biases in the labour market. Her work has been published in the journals: Social Science Information, Social Science Research, Social Politics, Asian Women, Journal of Comparative Family Studies and Revista Española de Sociología.

Mario Alberto de la Puente Pacheco

Mario Alberto de la Puente-Pacheco is research professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations, at the Universidad del Norte (Colombia). Current research interests comprise gender studies and Cross-border Healthcare Dynamics. His work has been published in the journals: Cogent Education, Journal of Economics and Economic Education Research, Revista de Derecho, Dimensión Empresarial, and Mobilities, Tourism and Travel Behavior (book).

José Andrés Fernández-Cornejo

José Andrés Fernández-Cornejo is associate professor in the Department of Applied Economics, Public Economics and Political Economy and co-director of the research group “Data Analysis in Social and Gender Studies and Equality Policies” at the Complutense University of Madrid. Current research interests comprise gender studies, fatherhood, men and masculinities, and inequality and biases in labour market. His work has been published in the journals: Social Science Information, Social Science Research, Social Politics, Asian Women, Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Journal of Youth Studies, Population Research and Policy Review, International Journal of Human Resources Management, and Sex Roles.

Sabina Belope-Nguema

Sabina Belope-Nguema is a PhD researcher  in the Department of Statistics and Data Science and a member of the research group ‘Data Analysis in Social and Gender Studies and Equality Policies’ at the Complutense University of Madrid. Current research interests comprise gender studies, gender biases and double standards, and fathers’ use of family friendly measures. Her work has been published in: Social Science Information and Social Politics.

Eduardo Rodríguez-Juárez

Eduardo Rodríguez-Juárez is associate professor in the Department of Economics, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo (México). Current research interests comprise labour market, human capital and gender inequalities. His work has been published in several books and in the journals: CIMEXUS, Entelequia, Boletín Científico de las Ciencias Económico Administrativas del ICEA.

Lorenzo Escot

Lorenzo Escot is associate professor in the Department of Applied Economics, Public Economics and Political Economy, in the Faculty of Statistical Studies, and co-director of the research group ‘Data Analysis in Social and Gender Studies and Equality Policies’ at the Complutense University of Madrid. Current research interests comprise gender studies, spatial statistic, and inequality in the labour market. His work has been published in the journals: Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, European Management Journal, Social Science Research, Social Politics, Review of Development Economics, Asian Women, Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Journal of Youth Studies, Population Research and Policy Review, International Journal of Human Resources Management, Corporate Governance: An International Review, and Sex Roles.