Why is it that most positions of financial and political power are taken by men?

In educational contexts, gender stereotyping causes female students to be seen as less talented than male students in all areas of science (Leslie et al. 2015). For instance, in biology, male students are seen to excel even when their female classmates actually have higher grades (Grunspan et al. 2016). Experimental studies further reveal that an identical CV and application letter results in different perceived competence levels and job offers depending on whether the applicant is identified as John or Jennifer (Moss-Racusin et al. 2012).

Gender stereotypes not only influence the perceived potential of men and women when they are being selected for future careers, but also impact how the work actually performed by men and women is rated and valued. This was revealed in an experimental study where evaluations of teacher behaviors (e.g., promptness) during an online course were rated nearly a full point higher (at 4.35 instead of 3.55 on a five-point scale) when the instructor was identified by a male name instead of a female name (MacNell et al. 2015). These evaluative differences prompted by gender stereotypes can have important consequences for the career development and income levels of men and women, which can accumulate into substantial gender inequalities in the course of a life span. This has been documented many times, for instance, in census data comparing the wages of men and women entering the labor market with equal qualifications and employed in similar job types (Buffington et al. 2016).

Throughout their careers, women are less likely than men to be selected for promotions and prestigious positions. For instance, female professors of management were less likely than male professors to be awarded an endowed chair, even when there was no difference in their objective performance (academic publications, citations), nor in their personal circumstances at work (years into career, discipline) or at home (children) (Trevin ̃ o et al. 2015). That this reflects a broader tendency to undervalue the professional performance of women is clearly visible in a meta-analysis of almost 100 empirical studies conducted among 378,850 employees in different industries ( Joshi et al. 2015). Even considering the fact that the work performance of women tends to be evalu- ated less favorably than the performance of men, observed gender differences in rewards (salary, bonuses, promotions) are almost 14 times larger than these performance ratings would indicate.

These differences have been documented most extensively and most clearly in educational and work contexts, where reliance on gender stereotypes can be tested against objective performance differences. However, mirroring higher expectations of men in general ability and task perfor- mance domains, we see that women are evaluated more favorably than men in terms of warmth, empathy, and altruism—even when this is unfounded. For instance, in many countries, fathers have no or very limited access to parental leave and are less likely to be granted custody of their children after divorce, based on the assumption that men attach less importance to parenthood than women do or are less well equipped to take care of children than women are.

Ellemers, N. (2018). Gender Stereotypes. Annual Review of Psychology, 69(1), 275–298. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122216-011719