Queen’s Gambit Declined: The Gender-Equality Paradox in Chess Participation Across 160 Countries

2022 ◽  
pp. 095679762110348
Author(s):  
Allon Vishkin

The gender-equality paradox refers to the puzzling finding that societies with more gender equality demonstrate larger gender differences across a range of phenomena, most notably in the proportion of women who pursue degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math. The present investigation demonstrates across two different measures of gender equality that this paradox extends to chess participation ( N = 803,485 across 160 countries; age range: 3–100 years), specifically that women participate more often in countries with less gender equality. Previous explanations for the paradox fail to account for this finding. Instead, consistent with the notion that gender equality reflects a generational shift, mediation analyses suggest that the gender-equality paradox in chess is driven by the greater participation of younger players in countries with less gender equality. A curvilinear effect of gender equality on the participation of female players was also found, demonstrating that gender differences in chess participation are largest at the highest and lowest ends of the gender-equality spectrum.

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 1260-1282
Author(s):  
Mike Thelwall ◽  
Amalia Mas-Bleda

Current attempts to address the shortfall of female researchers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have not yet succeeded, despite other academic subjects having female majorities. This article investigates the extent to which gender disparities are subject-wide or nation-specific by a first-author gender comparison of 30 million articles from all 27 Scopus broad fields within the 31 countries with the most Scopus-indexed articles 2014–2018. The results show overall and geocultural patterns as well as individual national differences. Almost half of the subjects were always more male (seven; e.g., Mathematics) or always more female (six; e.g., Immunology & Microbiology) than the national average. A strong overall trend (Spearman correlation 0.546) is for countries with a higher proportion of female first-authored research to also have larger differences in gender disparities between fields (correlation 0.314 for gender ratios). This confirms the international gender equality paradox previously found for degree subject choices: Increased gender equality overall associates with moderately greater gender differentiation between subjects. This is consistent with previous United States-based claims that gender differences in academic careers are partly due to (socially constrained) gender differences in personal preferences. Radical solutions may therefore be needed for some STEM subjects to overcome gender disparities.


2017 ◽  
Vol 109 (7) ◽  
pp. 993-1009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Hübner ◽  
Eike Wille ◽  
Jenna Cambria ◽  
Kerstin Oschatz ◽  
Benjamin Nagengast ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Ascensión Fumero ◽  
Rosario J. Marrero ◽  
Alicia Pérez-Albéniz ◽  
Eduardo Fonseca-Pedrero

Bipolar disorder is usually accompanied by a high suicide risk. The main aim was to identify the risk and protective factors involved in suicide risk in adolescents with bipolar experiences. Of a total of 1506 adolescents, 467 (31%) were included in the group reporting bipolar experiences or symptoms, 214 males (45.8%) and 253 (54.2%) females. The mean age was 16.22 (SD = 1.36), with the age range between 14 and 19. Suicide risk, behavioral and emotional difficulties, prosocial capacities, well-being, and bipolar experiences were assessed through self-report. Mediation analyses, taking gender as a moderator and controlling age as a covariate, were applied to estimate suicide risk. The results indicated that the effect of bipolar experiences on suicide risk is mediated by behavioral and emotional difficulties rather than by prosocial behavior and subjective well-being. Specifically, emotional problems, problems with peers, behavior problems, and difficulties associated with hyperactivity were the most important variables. This relationship was not modulated by gender. However, the indirect effects of some mediators varied according to gender. These results support the development of suicide risk prevention strategies focused on reducing emotional difficulties, behavioral problems, and difficulties in relationships with others.


2021 ◽  
pp. 073112142110286
Author(s):  
Jennifer Ashlock ◽  
Miodrag Stojnic ◽  
Zeynep Tufekci

Cultural processes can reduce self-selection into math and science fields, but it remains unclear how confidence in computer science develops, where women are currently the least represented in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Few studies evaluate both computer skills and self-assessments of skill. In this paper, we evaluate gender differences in efficacy across three STEM fields using a data set of middle schoolers, a particularly consequential period for academic pathways. Even though girls and boys do not significantly differ in terms of math grades and have similar levels of computer skill, the gender gap in computer efficacy is twice as large as the gap for math. We offer support for disaggregation of STEM fields, so the unique meaning making around computing can be addressed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 121 (5) ◽  
pp. 920-931 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuhei Iimura ◽  
Kanako Taku

Prior work has indicated that female adolescents mature more quickly than males with regard to the various personality dimensions. From the developmental perspectives, this study aimed to explore gender differences in the relationships between resilience and the Big Five personality traits in Japanese adolescents. Middle school students ( N = 310, 155 females, age range = 14–15 years) participated in an online survey. The results demonstrated that females had higher Conscientiousness than males. Stepwise regression analyses indicated that Neuroticism was the most influential predictor of resilience in females, whereas Extraversion was the most important predictor in males. Multigroup path analysis demonstrated that the effect of Neuroticism on resilience was greater for females; however, the effects of all other variables did not differ across genders. Considering gender differences is important to understand the relationship between resilience and the Big Five dimensions among adolescents.


2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joelle Jobin ◽  
Carsten Wrosch

This study examined age-related associations between goal disengagement capacities, emotional distress, and disease severity across older adulthood. Given that an age-related increase in the experience of stressors might render important goals unattainable, it is expected that goal disengagement capacities would predict a decrease in the severity of experienced illness (i.e., the common cold) by preventing emotional distress (i.e., depressive symptoms), particularly so among individuals in advanced (as compared to early) old age. This hypothesis was tested in a 6-year longitudinal study of 131 older adults (age range = 64 to 90). Regression analyses showed that goal disengagement capacities buffered 6-year increases in older adults’ cold symptoms, and that this effect was significantly pronounced among older-old participants. Mediation analyses further indicated that changes in depressive symptoms exerted an indirect effect on the age-related association between goal disengagement and changes in cold symptoms. The study’s findings suggest that goal disengagement capacities become increasingly important for protecting emotional well-being and physical health as older adults advance in age.


2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-497
Author(s):  
Lisa M. PytlikZillig ◽  
Shiyuan Wang ◽  
Leen-Kiat Soh ◽  
Alan J. Tomkins ◽  
Ashok Samal ◽  
...  

This study investigated the predictors of support for and resistance to hacktivism in a sample of 78 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors at a Midwestern university. Results from surveys about real-world instances of hacktivism indicate different preexisting global attitudes predict specific situational hacktivism support (predicted by admiration) versus resistance (predicted by willingness to report). Also, participants gave greater weight to their perceptions of hacktivist (rather than target) trustworthiness/untrustworthiness. Comparisons among different facets of trustworthiness suggest perceptions of shared values with and integrity of the hacktivists are especially important for predicting support and resistance. Participants also were more supportive of hacktivism rated as having higher utilitarian value but not less supportive of hacktivism initiated for retribution. Mediation analyses indicated that situation perceptions significantly mediated the effects of global attitudes on hacktivism support/resistance, but that the significance of specific mediators was inconsistent across analyses. This suggests that the importance of mediators may depend on specific context.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Rolando ◽  
Jukka Törrönen ◽  
Franca Beccaria

The study adopts a qualitative comparative approach to better understand how different dimensions affect social norms regulating alcohol consumption. Female and male attitudes towards drunkenness were analysed on the basis of data from 27 focus groups involving a total of 166 participants from Italy, Finland and Sweden, grouped by age cohort (17–20 and 50–65 years) and educational level. Results suggest that gendered drinking norms may be affected more by the drinking culture than by the degree of gender equality, thus providing a possible explanation of why gender differences in drinking are not always consistent with broader gender inequalities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 446-461
Author(s):  
Nadya A. Fouad ◽  
Michael B. Kozlowski ◽  
Romila Singh ◽  
Nina G. Linneman ◽  
Samantha S. Schams ◽  
...  

Women’s departure or nonentrance into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics professions, particularly engineering, has been a lively source of scholarly inquiry for the past three decades. Much of the literature in this area has been with solely female samples of participants, begging the question as to whether or not men and women either choose to leave the profession or not enter for the same or similar reasons. This present study collected a large sample of men ( n = 1,273) who had either left or never entered the engineering profession and compared their responses to a large sample of women ( n = 1,235) on a set of categorical response variables. Using the perspective of the Theory of Work Adjustment, our results suggest that there are gender differences in reasons for departure, raising the possibility that engineering climates differentially reinforce needs for men and women. Implications of this research are discussed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (19) ◽  
pp. 5201-5205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Cassar ◽  
Feven Wordofa ◽  
Y. Jane Zhang

Recent advances have highlighted the evolutionary significance of female competition, with the sexes pursuing different competitive strategies and women reserving their most intense competitive behaviors for the benefit of offspring. Influential economic experiments using cash incentives, however, have found evidence suggesting that women have a lower desire to compete than men. We hypothesize that the estimated gender differences critically depend on how we elicit them, especially on the incentives used. We test this hypothesis through an experiment with adults in China (n = 358). Data show that, once the incentives are switched from monetary to child-benefitting, gender differences disappear. This result suggests that female competition can be just as intense as male competition given the right goals, indicating important implications for policies designed to promote gender equality.


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