Why are Women Underrepresented in IT? The Role of Implicit and Explicit Gender Identity

This study demonstrates that gender identity is an important factor affecting female university students’ decisions to major in IT and join the IT profession. It introduces the concept of implicit gender identity, defined as the degree to which people unconsciously, automatically, and uncontrollably associate themselves with their biological sex. Data were obtained from 185 students by means of a survey and the Implicit Association Test. The findings reveal that gender identity plays different roles between men and women in its influence on IT major and career choices. Implicit gender identity is a strong predictor of IT major and career choices for women but not for men. Explicit gender identity influences IT career choice only for women. Males’ and females’ IT major and career choices are influenced by normative pressures to the same degree. This study shows that gender identity can be a reason driving women away from the IT field

Why Are Women Underrepresented in the American IT Industry? The Role of Explicit and Implicit Gender Identities

Gender inequality in the IT profession is an acute issue with major individual, societal, and national implications. In this study, we build on the individual differences theory of gender and IT and extend it to account for subconscious processes that may drive women away from IT university majors and IT career choices. We specifically theorize on how the asymmetric roles of explicit and implicit gender identity facets impact the major selection of men and women students and affect their decisions to pursue the IT profession. To do so, this study introduces the concept of implicit gender identity, defined as the degree to which men and women subconsciously, automatically, and uncontrollably associate themselves with the masculine and feminine gender groups, respectively. We obtained data from 185 pre-major selection university students by means of a survey and the Implicit Association Test. The findings revealed that implicit gender identity was a significant predictor of IT major and career choices for women but not for men university students. Explicit gender identity had no influence on IT major and career choices for men or women university students. Nevertheless, men’s and women’s IT major and career choices appear to be similarly influenced by normative pressures. IT skills and IT work experience also impact such choices. Ultimately, this study shows that implicit gender identity can be a factor that drives women university students away from the IT profession and contributes to the gender gap in the field

Exploring Gender-Leader Implicit Bias in Women Leaders: A System Justification Approach to Women Leaders\u27 Gender and Leader Identities

The purpose of the study was to gain a deeper understanding of women leaders’ gender and leader identities when they hold implicit biases that favor men or women in leadership. Data was collected via one-on-one interviews with ten women leaders and interviews were structured in two parts. First, participants provided insights into the thoughts, beliefs, and experiences that influenced their gender and leader identities. Second, participants took the gender-leadership implicit association test and described their thoughts and feelings about the results. Existential hermeneutic phenomenology was chosen as the methodology for the study because it allowed for exploration of the lived experiences of participants while remaining sensitive to the potentially disorienting nature of implicit bias. Interview data was analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Analysis resulted in four superordinate and twelve major themes related to women leaders’ gender and leader identities. The four superordinate themes were: influence of developmental environment; self in relation to gender; self in relation to leadership; and influence of industry and workplace. The twelve major themes were: gender norms in early environment; school experiences; influence of female role models; ingroup attitudes; gender stereotypes; gender and ethnic identity; agentic and communal leadership traits; gender relevance to leadership; affective views of leadership; workplace demographics; relationships with women leaders; and behavioral norms in workplace. Interview data further revealed five themes related to participants’ implicit bias attributions: developmental environment; explicit views on gender and leadership; experiences in the workplace; age; and the test itself

Helping Our Students Reach Their Full Potential: The Insidious Consequences of Stereotype Threat

A psychological phenomenon may be a significant cause of academic underachievement by minorities in law school. This phenomenon, called stereotype threat, occurs as a result of the fear of confirming a negative group stereotype (such as African-Americans are not as intelligent as Whites). When subject to this threat — as a consequence of being confronted with environmental or explicit triggers — people do worse in academic settings than they otherwise are capable of doing. In this article, I explore the implications of the research on stereotype threat for law schools and make several recommendations to deal with the threat. There are natural implications for law school admissions, of course. If a portion of our applicant pool is affected by stereotype threat, then we cannot trust the accuracy of the metrics we typically use in law school admissions, i.e., prior academic performance and LSAT scores of law school applicants. Indeed, those credentials actually may under-evaluate the academic potential of these applicants, who are often minority students. This should cause law schools to reevaluate their admissions policies. After students are admitted, law school provides fertile ground within which stereotype threat can flourish. This, of course, means that the performance of minorities in law school — in class, on exams, and in other areas — is likely to be diminished, such that many minorities will not perform up to their academic capacity. And, obviously, we would expect this same dynamic to play out on the bar exam. Law schools can address stereotype threat at each of these levels, and they should do so. This article lays out a framework for understanding and dealing with the threat

Females in STEM: Self-Efficacy Within Women Who Pursue STEM Majors

While many efforts have been made within the United States, women are still underrepresented within STEM. Research within this document shows that women and men score similarly on STEM-related standardized tests. The question remains, why are there still large quantities of men outnumbering women in college majors and career fields of STEM? Looking at female STEM self-efficacy and gender role in culture could provide insight to the problem at hand. A survey was given to investigate self-efficacy and students’ STEM backgrounds of undergraduate female students who are currently in a 4-year STEM-related major within one university

Accountability as a Debiasing Strategy: Testing the Effect of Racial Diversity in Employment Committees

Congress passed Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the primary goal of integrating the workforce and eliminating arbitrary bias against minorities and other groups who had been historically excluded. Yet substantial research reveals that racial bias persists and continues to limit opportunities and outcomes for racial minorities in the workplace. Because these denials of opportunity result from myriad individual hiring and promotion decisions made by vast numbers of managers, finding effective strategies to reduce the impact of bias has proven challenging. Some have proposed that a sense of accountability, or “the implicit or explicit expectation that one may be called on to justify one’s beliefs, feelings, and actions to others,” can decrease bias. This Article examines the conditions under which accountability to a committee of peers reduces racial bias and discrimination. More specifically, this Article provides the first empirical test of whether an employment committee’s racial composition influences the decision-making process. My experimental results reveal that race does in fact matter. Accountability to a racially diverse committee leads to more hiring and promotion of underrepresented minorities than does accountability to a homogeneous committee. Members of diverse committees were more likely to value diversity, acknowledge structural discrimination, and favor inclusive promotion decisions. This suggests that accountability as a debiasing strategy is more nuanced than previously theorized. If simply changing the racial composition of a committee can indeed nudge less discriminatory behavior, we can encourage these changes through voluntary organizational policies like having an NFL “Rooney Rule” for hiring committees. In addition, Title VII can be interpreted to hold employers liable under a negligence theory to encourage the types of changes that yield inclusive hires and promotions

BIAS AGAINST WOMEN AND MINORITIES IN THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS AWARDS AND DECORATIONS PROGRAM

The purpose of this study is to analyze the level of implicit bias against women and minority active-duty members within the Marine Corps awards and decorations program. Data provided by the Defense Manpower Data Center is utilized in performing a statistical analysis of awards and decorations awarded to individuals by the Marine Corps from September 2015 to September 2020. The data includes twenty-one distinct awards for heroism and performance. The analysis compares active-duty Marine Corps members by rank, and cross-references those individuals based on gender and race to analyze the disparity in number of awards received by females and non-Caucasian males compared to their male Caucasian counterparts. The analysis shows that Hispanic and Black officers as well as their enlisted counterparts received far fewer awards than expected. Conversely, female officers and female enlisted received far more awards than expected. This study results in initial insights into implicit bias taking place specifically in the Marine Corps and provides recommendations for prevention and correction in the active-duty environment.Major, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

In defense of the progressive stack: A strategy for prioritizing marginalized voices during in-class discussion

Progressive stacking is a strategy for prioritizing in-class contributions that allows marginalized students to speak before non-marginalized students. I argue that this strategy is both pedagogically and ethically defensible. Pedagogically, it provides benefits to all students (e.g., expanded in-class discourse) while providing special benefits (e.g., increased self-efficacy) to marginalized students, helping to address historic educational inequalities. Ethically, I argue that neither marginalized nor non-marginalized students are wronged by such a policy. First, I present a strategy for self-disclosure that reduces the risk of inadvertent, unwanted disclosure while respecting marginalized student autonomy in a manner analogous to accommodations provided under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Second, I argue that non-marginalized students are not wronged because such students are not silenced during discussion and because non-marginalized students benefit from the prioritization of marginalized voices