Effects Of Stereotype Threat On Women s Performance

Alleviating The Effects of Stereotype Threat in Women’s Performance in STEM Tasks Stereotyping is a way for individuals to associate a group concept with a specified attribute. The association between two unrelated concepts can become linked via a third concept (e.g. the self). Drawn from this, there are two types of stereotypes, that is, implicit stereotypes and explicit stereotypes. Implicit stereotypes are linked to automatic thinking in the cognitive process, as individuals are not consciously aware of these thoughts and judgements. Explicit stereotypes are associated with the controlled thinking process in the brain, as they are expressed from past experiences and judgements (Payne, 2006). From this, Steele and Aronson’s (1995)†¦show more content†¦The aim of this essay is to discuss the effects of stereotype threat in women’s performance in STEM disciplines, and to examine the use of a social psychological approach to alleviate the effects of the stereotype threat. The topics throughout the paper will address the effects of stereotype threat for women in STEM tasks, the limitations of the stereotype threat model and alleviating stereotype threats for women in STEM tasks. Similar findings to Steele and Aronson (1995) were found in other performance tasks, such as the measure of sport strategic intelligence (Stone et al., 1999) and the link between gender, performance and stereotype threat (Spencer, Steele, Quinn, 1999), where there was clear evidence that individuals who felt they were being stereotyped, performed poorly. As Brown and Pinel (2002) stated, â€Å"the more people are aware of their stereotype, the greater the effect on their performance†. If the race of an individual or group is more prominent, the greater their performance level declines (e.g. African Americans’) (Aronson, Wilson Akert, 2013). The Effects Of Stereotype Threat For Women In STEM Tasks It is clearly evident that females in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) have a significant stereotype threat of not performing adequately to males. According to the French Association of Female Engineers (2007), there was an unequal gender distribution in STEM tasks. The percentage of women in