Think scientists—Think male: Science and leadership are still more strongly associated with men than with women in Germany

Nett, N.; Nett, T.; Englert, J.; Gaschler, R.

Zusammenfassung

Schein showed that attribute ratings for men and managers are more similar than attribute ratings for women and managers. Similar results were found for attributes ascribed to successful scientists and men versus women. In this study, we investigated whether the think manager—think male effect and the think scientist—think male effect are driven by the same attributes. This was not the case. Replicating previous studies, men and scientists were rated more similarly than women and scientists. We also found more overlap in stereotypes for men and managers versus women and managers. More concretely, we found that women differed significantly from managers as well as from scientists on 54 of the 92 items (59%). Men, however, only differed from managers on 17 items (18%) and scientists on 30 items (33%). To analyze on which attributes they differed significantly, we performed a factor analysis. We confirmed that women got low scores for leadership attributes but high scores in social values, which also explains the differences in the attribute ratings of managers and scientists. Also, a comparison of the effects based on these factors showed that the think manager—think male effect was mostly driven by differences in the stereotype of men and women compared to managers, which were seen as more typical male. However, the think scientist—think male effect was also driven by stereotypes about scientists as norm-breaking, which did not match the stereotype about women.