Being in the minority : how gender (under)representation influences children’s reasoning about group dynamics
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Psychology, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Lee, Jessica Jeeyoon
issued: 2023-08-21T21:00:31Z
issued: 2023
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: The imbalanced representation of gender in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) disciplines functions as a barrier for women and gender equality. Prior research has identified stereotypes about gender roles, status, ability, and belongingness as some factors that hinder many STEM fields from reaching gender parity. In particular, women are perceived to be less agentic, to pursue lower-status occupations, and to lack brilliance and ability to succeed in STEM. Subsequently, women feel a lower sense of belonging than their male peers as underrepresented members. While these factors perpetuate the consequences of gender imbalance in these domains, there is also evidence of the early acquisition of gender stereotypes surrounding STEM abilities and interests in childhood. Specifically, children around age 6 make judgments about girls’ intellectual abilities and interests that are reflected in many gender-imbalanced domains. As a result, girls are discouraged from pursuing and engaging in STEM from a young age, which ultimately contribute to the pipeline problem. Nonetheless, it remains an open question whether children make similar inferences about other non-stereotyped domains. Therefore, I examine whether the gender (under)representation of groups shapes children’s inferences about the ability, inclusion, and social fit of minority members, even in STEM-neutral contexts. I also investigate whether the gender composition of groups influence how children reason about leadership. The findings suggest that 5-11-year-old children consider gender representation in groups to infer about the minority targets’ sense of belonging, to rectify gender disparity in groups, and to make leadership judgments. Taken together, this provides some initial evidence that children are sensitive to the social consequences of minority (and majority) status in groups.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/85557
note: BEING IN THE MINORITY: HOW GENDER (UNDER)REPRESENTATION INFLUENCES CHILDREN’S REASONING ABOUT GROUP DYNAMICS by JESSICA JEEYOON LEE B.Sc. (Honours), McMaster University, 2018 M.A., The University of Chicago, 2020 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Psychology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2023 © Jessica Jeeyoon Lee, 2023 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: Being in the minority: how gender (under)representation influences children’s reasoning about group dynamics submitted by Jessica Jeeyoon Lee in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology Examining Committee: Dr. Andrew Baron, Professor, Psychology, UBC Supervisor Dr. Susan Birch, Associate Professor, Psychology, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Dr. J. Kiley Hamlin, Professor, Psychology, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract The imbalanced representation of gender in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) disciplines functions as a barrier for women and gender equality. Prior research has identified stereotypes about gender roles, status, ability, and belongingness as some factors that hinder many STEM fields from reaching gender parity. In particular, women are perceived to be less agentic, to pursue lower-status occupations, and to lack brilliance and ability to succeed in STEM. Subsequently, women feel a lower sense of belonging than their male peers as underrepresented members. While these factors perpetuate the consequences of gender imbalance in these domains, there is also evidence of the early acquisition of gender stereotypes surrounding STEM abilities and interests in childhood. Specifically, children around age 6 make judgments about girls’ intellectual abilities and interests that ar…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2023-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0435512
language: eng
degree discipline: Psychology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Baron, Andrew Scott
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85557