scholarly journals Gender Differences in the Choice of Major: The Importance of Female Role Models

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 226-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Porter ◽  
Danila Serra
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Female Role ◽  
Choice Of Major ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Introductory Classes ◽  
Positive Effect

We conducted a field experiment aimed at increasing the percentage of women majoring in economics. We exposed students enrolled in introductory classes to successful and charismatic women who majored in economics at the same university. The intervention significantly impacted female students’ enrollment in further economics classes, increasing their likelihood to major in economics by 8 percentage points. This is a large effect, given that only 9 percent of women were majoring in economics at baseline. Since the impacted women were previously planning to major in lower-earning fields, our low-cost intervention may have a positive effect on their future incomes. (JEL A22, C93, I23, I26, J16)

scholarly journals Does Exposure to Gender Role Models Increase Women’s Political Ambition? A Field Experiment with Politicians

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 157-166
Author(s):  
Florian Foos ◽  
Fabrizio Gilardi
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Political Ambition ◽  
Female Politicians ◽  
Political Office ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Positive Effect

AbstractThere is a persistent gender gap in motivations to run for political office. While exposure to role models is widely believed to increase women’s political ambition, there is little field experimental evidence on whether exposure to female politicians in realistic settings can increase political ambition. We conducted a field experiment in which a sample of 612 female students was randomly assigned to receive emails inviting them to an event that included career workshops with female politicians, or no email. The treatment increased interest in the ongoing national election campaign, but, against expectations, did not have any positive effect on political ambition. Our results suggest that female politicians who discuss their experience bluntly, instead of following a motivational script, may fail to motivate other women to pursue a political career. These results highlight the need for more research into the type of events and messages that bring more women into politics.

Effects of Role Models from Films on Short-Term Ratings of Intent, Interest, and Self-Assessment of Ability by High School Youth: A Study of Gender-Stereotyped Academic Subjects

2008 ◽  
Vol 102 (2) ◽  
pp. 509-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Ziegler ◽  
Heidrun Stoeger
Keyword(s):  
Role Models ◽  
Role Model ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Female Character ◽  
Deterrent Effect ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Female Role ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Female Role Model ◽  
Positive Effect

The effects of cinematic female role models on self-confidence in own abilities, interest, and academic elective intents of secondary school pupils were analyzed in two studies. In Study 1 the participants ( N = 283) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups. Each group watched a film after which they completed a questionnaire. In Film 1 the lead female character demonstrated conventional female characteristics and was discernibly untalented in mathematics and the natural sciences, in Film 2 the lead female character did not exhibit conventional female characteristics and was gifted in mathematics and the natural sciences, and in Film 3 the lead female character was typically female and gifted in mathematics and the natural sciences. Film 3, in which the lead female character not only contradicted the stereotype of women not being gifted at mathematics and the natural sciences but also should not have elicited subtyping processes, turned out to be effective among girls with High prior interest and boys in general. In contrast, this film had unexpected effects among girls with Low prior interest. Instead of showing, as expected, merely weaker effects than those found for the other groups, this role model even had a deterrent effect on girls with Low prior interest. In Study 2 ( N=55) an investigation assessed whether Film 3 could exercise a similarly positive effect on female pupils with Low prior interest were a female role model to depict constructive coping with difficulties in mathematics and the natural sciences prior to the presentation of the film. Results show this is possible.

scholarly journals Testing the Effectiveness of a Future Selves Intervention for Increasing Retirement Saving: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Mexico

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avni Shah ◽  
Hal Hershfield ◽  
David Munguia Gomez ◽  
Alissa Fishbane
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Decision Aids ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Retirement Savings ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
Saving Behavior ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Positive Effect

Abstract One psychological barrier impeding saving behavior is the inability to fully empathize with one’s future self. Future self interventions have improved savings by helping people overcome this obstacle. Despite the promise of such interventions, previous research has focused predominantly on hypothetical contexts and western settings where the target sample has been predominantly undergraduate. Do interventions that encourage people to more concretely consider their future selves during retirement still have a positive effect on behavior in consequential, real-world savings decisions? Using a field experiment in Mexico (N = 7,603), where less than 1% make a voluntary savings contribution annually, we developed a low-cost, easy-to-implement intervention to test whether concrete thinking about one’s future life improves recurring retirement savings signups relative to a status quo, control group. We find that future self decision aids significantly improved the likelihood of signing up for an automatic recurring savings plan by nearly four times compared to the control.

scholarly journals Having female role models correlates with PhD students’ attitudes toward their own academic success

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0255095
Author(s):  
Shauna N. Gillooly ◽  
Heidi Hardt ◽  
Amy Erica Smith
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
Female Role ◽  
Female Authors ◽  
Gender Diverse ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Academic Self Efficacy

Research indicates that increasing diversity in doctoral programs can positively affect students’ academic success. However, little research examines students’ responses to female scholars’ representation. The two studies presented here examine how students’ exposure to female academic role models shapes students’ attitudes toward their own academic success (i.e. self-efficacy). Such attitudes are critical because they predict student retention rates. In our first study, we randomly exposed 297 Ph.D. students in one academic discipline to either a gender-diverse (i.e. 30% female authors) or non-diverse syllabus in research methods (i.e. 10% female authors). We examined the effect of the intervention on students’ perceived likelihood of succeeding in the hypothetical course. Contrary to expectations derived from the literature, we found that increasing women’s representation in syllabi did not affect female students’ self-efficacy. Rather, male students expressed lower self-efficacy when evaluating the more gender-diverse syllabus. We also found that students’ attitudes toward diversity in academia predicted their reactions more strongly than did their own gender: gender-diverse syllabi reduced self-efficacy among those students unsupportive of diversity. In our second study, we analyzed non-interventional survey questions to examine the relationship between female role models and long-term academic self-efficacy. Analysis was observational and thus did not assess causality. We found that students with more role models have higher academic self-efficacy, irrespective of student and role model gender. Nonetheless, results also suggested that some students actively seek female role models: namely, female students, and particularly those valuing diversity. Our results ultimately suggest that exposure to female role models relates in surprising ways to Ph.D. students’ self-efficacy. Having more female role models correlates with greater expectations of academic success among certain groups of students, but with diminished expectations of academic success among other groups.

Selection criteria for the biographies of female role models

1978 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnes N. O'Connell ◽  
◽  
Nancy Felipe Russo
Keyword(s):  
Role Models ◽  
Selection Criteria ◽  
Female Role
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