Gender Balance in Science Settings May Explain Female Performance: PALO ALTO, Calif. With the ratio of men to women in math, science and engineering (MSE) settings typically being three to one, such imbalance may contribute to a decrease in women’s performance expectations, as well as actual performance, according to a new study by Stanford University psychologists.
Building their study from the idea that gender imbalance may create an identity threat for women, Drs. Mary Murphy and Claude Steele contend that the organization of math, science and engineering environments has a major role in contributing to a lag in expectations and performance by women. Study results demonstrate that rather than being inherent to women, the experience of an identity threat in MSE settings can be attributed to the gender balance. The study appears in the October 2007 edition of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
