London – Women are less likely than men to become computer programmers, philosophers or nuclear physicists because they underestimate their ability, a study suggests.
It found that women were under-represented in fields in which natural talent was valued over hard work.
The US researchers said society stereotypes successful men as having a special spark of brilliance. Successful women, in contrast, are portrayed as merely being diligent.
Study author Sarah-Jane Leslie, of Princeton University, cited the Hermione Granger character in the Harry Potter books: “Women who are presented as intellectually accomplished tend like Hermione to also be portrayed as incredibly hardworking. Their accomplishments are seen as grounded in hours of poring over books, rather than in some kind of raw brilliance.’
Professor Leslie asked 1 800 academics what was needed to be successful. Women were under-represented in subjects dominated by researchers who put a premium on brilliance, such as maths, physics, computing and philosophy. But there were more women in areas where hard work was seen as more important than raw talent.
Reuters reports that fellow research lead University of Illinois psychology professor Andrei Cimpian said that the researchers were not arguing that women are less brilliant than men or that brilliance does not matter.
“The reason for this pattern of results is that our society associates men, but not women, with brilliance,” Cimpian added. “We found that women were indeed less likely to obtain Ph.D.s in fields that idolize brilliance and genius.”
The researchers said the findings, appearing in the journal Science, seemed to debunk three other hypotheses on the gender gap in academic fields:
* that women really are less brilliant than men;
* that women are unwilling or unable to put in the long hours some fields require;
* or that men are more suited to fields requiring abstract and systematic thinking while women are more suited to pursuits requiring empathy and emotional understanding.
The survey focused on gender gaps but unearthed racial issues as well, finding that the fields that covet brilliance also had lower numbers of black participants. The researchers say they plan to investigate that issue in future work.
Daily Mail, Reuters