Gender imbalance on the international bench: Is normative legitimacy at stake?

Gender imbalance is a persistent issueacross Canadian engineering programs. Efforts havebeen made to increase the enrolment of undergraduatewomen in engineering, but reaching gender parity inengineering has been an elusive goal. This researchexamines program recruitment images and videos from18 Canadian engineering university websites. Usingcontent analysis and thematic coding of videotranscriptions, we coded 440 unique images and 37recruitment videos. We find that women students areoverrepresented in images and in videos, at rates higherthan we expect given their proportion within programs.We compare the presentation of women and men acrossseveral dimensions and identify key differences inwomen’s representation in relevant settings, attire, andin the kinds of learning experiences they emphasize invideos. We conclude with suggestions for ways programscan present a more neutral portrayal of women inrecruitment materials.

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Speaking out about gender imbalance in invited speakers improves diversity.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.727549587.793544742 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Ferdinando Boero

Keyword(s):

Gender Imbalance ◽

Speaking Out

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Opt-out choice framing attenuates gender differences in the decision to compete in the laboratory and in the field

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.2108337118 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 118 (42) ◽

pp. e2108337118

Author(s):

Joyce C. He ◽

Sonia K. Kang ◽

Nicola Lacetera

Keyword(s):

Gender Differences ◽

Social Norms ◽

Experimental Evidence ◽

Gender Gap ◽

Gender Imbalance ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Leadership Positions ◽

Opt Out ◽

Choice Framing

Research shows that women are less likely to enter competitions than men. This disparity may translate into a gender imbalance in holding leadership positions or ascending in organizations. We provide both laboratory and field experimental evidence that this difference can be attenuated with a default nudge—changing the choice to enter a competitive task from a default in which applicants must actively choose to compete to a default in which applicants are automatically enrolled in competition but can choose to opt out. Changing the default affects the perception of prevailing social norms about gender and competition as well as perceptions of the performance or ability threshold at which to apply. We do not find associated negative effects for performance or wellbeing. These results suggest that organizations could make use of opt-out promotion schemes to reduce the gender gap in competition and support the ascension of women to leadership positions.

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