Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

But You Don’t Look Like A Scientist!: Women Scientists with Feminine Appearance are Deemed Less Likely to be Scientists

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Sex Roles Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Two studies examined whether subtle variations in feminine appearance erroneously convey a woman’s likelihood of being a scientist. Eighty photos (half women) of tenured/tenure-track science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) faculty at elite research universities were selected from the Internet. Participants, naïve to the targets’ occupations, rated the photos on femininity and likelihood of being a scientist and an early childhood educator. Linear mixed model analysis treated both participants and stimuli as random factors, enabling generalization to other samples of participants and other samples of stimuli. Feminine appearance affected career judgments for female scientists (with increasing femininity decreasing the perceived likelihood of being a scientist and increasing the perceived likelihood of being an early childhood educator), but had no effect on judgments of male scientists. Study 2 replicated these findings with several key procedural modifications: the presentation of the stimuli was manipulated to either be blocked by gender or completely randomized, questions pertaining to the stimuli’s appearance were removed, and a third career judgment likelihood rating was added to avoid tradeoffs between scientist and early childhood educator. In both studies, results suggest that for women pursuing STEM, feminine appearance may erroneously signal that they are not well suited for science.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aronson, J., Lustina, M. J., Good, C., Keough, K., Steele, C. M., & Brown, J. (1999). When white men can’t do math: Necessary and sufficient factors in stereotype threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35(1), 29–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baayen, R. H., Davidson, D. J., & Bates, D. M. (2008). Mixed-effects modeling with crossed random effects for subjects and items. Journal of Memory and Language, 59(4), 390–412.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bafumi, J., & Gelman, A. E. (2006). Fitting multilevel models when predictors and group effects correlate. Retrieved from http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/item/ac:125243

  • Barr, D. J., Levy, R., Scheepers, C., & Tily, H. J. (2013). Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing: Keep it maximal. Journal of Memory and Language, 68(3), 255–278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Tal, D., & Saxe, L. (1976). Physical attractiveness and its relationship to sex-role stereotyping. Sex Roles, 2(2), 123–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell, A., & Jones, K. (2015). Explaining fixed effects: Random effects modeling of time-series cross-sectional and panel data. Political Science Research and Methods, 3(1), 133–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Betz, D. (2012, September 11). The trouble with Barbie science. Scientific American. Retrieved from scientificamerican.com.

  • Betz, D. E., & Sekaquaptewa, D. (2012). My fair physicist? Feminine math and science role models demotivate young girls. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 3(6), 738–746.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blair, I. V., Judd, C. M., Sadler, M. S., & Jenkins, C. (2002). The role of Afrocentric features in person perception: Judging by features and categories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(1), 5–25.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blair, I. V., Judd, C. M., & Chapleau, K. M. (2004a). The influence of Afrocentric facial features in criminal sentence. Psychological Science, 15(10), 674–679.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blair, I. V., Judd, C. M., & Fallman, J. L. (2004b). The automaticity of race and Afrocentric facial features in social judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(6), 763–778.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blair, I. V., Chapleau, K. M., & Judd, C. M. (2005). The use of Afrocentric features as cues for judgment in the presence of diagnostic information. European Journal of Social Psychology, 35(1), 59–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carnevale, A. P., Strohl, J., & Melton, M. (2013). What’s it worth?: The economic value of college majors. Georgetown University Institutional Report. Retrieved from https://cew.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/whatsitworth-complete.pdf

  • Carpinella, C. M., & Johnson, K. L. (2013). Politics of the face: The role of sex-typicality in trait assessments of politicians. Social Cognition, 31(6), 770–779.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ceci, S. J., & Williams, W. M. (2011). Understanding current causes of women’s underrepresentation in science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(8), 3157–3162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheng, C. (2008). Marginalized masculinities and hegemonic masculinity: An introduction. The Journal of Men’s Studies, 7(3), 295–315.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheryan, S., Plaut, V. C., Davies, P. G., & Steele, C. M. (2009). Ambient belonging: How stereotypical cues impact gender participation in computer science. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(6), 1045–1060.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cheryan, S., Siy, J. O., Vichayapai, M., Drury, B. J., & Kim, S. (2011). Do female and male role models who embody STEM stereotypes hinder women’s anticipated success in STEM? Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2(6), 656–664.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheryan, S., Drury, B. J., & Vichayapai, M. (2012). Enduring influence of stereotypical computer science role models on women’s academic aspirations. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 37(1), 72–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, H. H. (1973). The language-as-fixed-effect fallacy: A critique of language statistics in psychological research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 12(4), 335–359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diekman, A. B., Brown, E. R., Johnston, A. M., & Clark, E. K. (2010). Seeking congruity between goals and roles: A new look at why women opt out of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. Psychological Science, 21(8), 1051–1057.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eagly, A. H., & Karau, S. J. (2002). Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. Psychological Review, 109(3), 573–598.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eagly, A. H., & Wood, W. (2012). Social role theory. In P. van Lange, A. Kruglanski, & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of theories in social psychology (pp. 458–476). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Eccles, J. S. (1987). Gender roles and women’s achievement-related decisions. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 11(2), 135–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellemers, N., Van den Heuvel, H., Gilder, D., Maass, A., & Bonvini, A. (2004). The underrepresentation of women in science: Differential commitment or the queen bee syndrome? British Journal of Social Psychology, 43(3), 315–338.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Feingold, A. (1990). Gender differences in effects of physical attractiveness on romantic attraction: A comparison across five research paradigms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(5), 981–993.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, H., & Zebrowitz, L. A. (1992). The contribution of typical sex differences in facial maturity to sex role stereotypes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18(4), 430–438.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galinsky, A. D., Todd, A. R., Homan, A. C., Phillips, K. W., Apfelbaum, E. P., Sasaki, S. J., … Maddux, W. W. (2015). Maximizing the gains and minimizing the pains of diversity: A policy perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(6), 742–748.

  • Glick, P., Larsen, S., Johnson, C., & Branstiter, H. (2005). Evaluations of sexy women in low and high status jobs. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 29(4), 389–395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, A., Banchefsky, S., Park, B., & Judd, C. M. (2015). Measuring intergroup ideologies positive and negative aspects of emphasizing versus looking beyond group differences. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(12), 1646–1664.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hannover, B., & Kessels, U. (2004). Self-to-prototype matching as a strategy for making academic choices: Why high school students do not like math and science. Learning and Instruction, 14, 51–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartman, H., & Hartman, M. (2008). How undergraduate engineering students perceive women’s (and men’s) problems in science, math and engineering. Sex Roles, 58, 251–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hehman, E., Carpinella, C. M., Johnson, K. L., Leitner, J. B., & Freeman, J. B. (2014). Early processing of gendered facial cues predicts the electoral success of female politicians. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5(7), 815–824.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heilman, M. E. (2012). Gender stereotypes and workplace bias. Research in Organizational Behavior, 32, 113–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hewlett, S., Luce, C., Servon, L., Sherbin, L., Shiller, P., Sosnovich, E., … Sumberg, K (2008). The Athena factor: Reversing the brain drain in science, engineering, and technology. Watertown: Harvard Business School.

  • Irwin, J. R., & McClelland, G. H. (2003). Negative consequences of dichotomizing continuous predictor variables. Journal of Marketing Research, 40(3), 366–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ito, T. A., & Urland, G. R. (2003). Race and gender on the brain: Electrocortical measures of attention to the race and gender of multiply categorizable individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(4), 616–626.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Judd, C. M., Westfall, J., & Kenny, D. A. (2012). Treating stimuli as a random factor in social psychology: A new and comprehensive solution to a pervasive but largely ignored problem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(1), 54–69.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kenny, D. A. (1994). Interpersonal perception: A social relations analysis. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khazan, O. (2012, June 22). E.U.’s ‘Science, it’s a girl thing’ campaign sparks a backlash. The Washington Post. Retrieved from www.washingtonpost.com

  • Kievit, R., Frankenhuis, W. E., Waldorp, L., & Borsboom, D. (2013). Simpson’s paradox in psychological science: A practical guide. Quantitative Psychology and Measurement, 4, 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • McClelland, G. H., & Judd, C. M. (1993). Statistical difficulties of detecting interactions and moderator effects. Psychological Bulletin, 114(2), 376–390.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Moss-Racusin, C. A., Dovidio, J. F., Brescoll, V. L., Graham, M. J., & Handelsman, J. (2012). Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(41), 16474–16479.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, M. C., Steele, C. M., & Gross, J. J. (2007). Signaling threat: How situational cues affect women in math, science, and engineering settings. Psychological Science, 18(10), 879–885.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. (2015). Women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in science and engineering: 2015. Special Report NSF 15–311. Arlington, VA. Retrieved from http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/

  • Perrett, D. I., Lee, K. J., Penton-Voak, I., Rowland, D., Yoshikawa, S., Burt, D. M., … Akamatsu, S. (1998). Effects of sexual dimorphism on facial attractiveness. Nature, 394(6696), 884–887.

  • Plaut, V. C., Thomas, K. M., & Goren, M. J. (2009). Is multiculturalism or color blindness better for minorities? Psychological Science, 20(4), 444–446.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pronin, E., Steele, C. M., & Ross, L. (2004). Identity bifurcation in response to stereotype threat: Women and mathematics. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40(2), 152–168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Purdie-Vaughns, V., Steele, C. M., Davies, P. G., Ditlmann, R., & Crosby, J. R. (2008). Social identity contingencies: How diversity cues signal threat or safety for African Americans in mainstream institutions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(4), 615–630.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Raudenbush, S. W. (2009). Adaptive centering with random effects: An alternative to the fixed effects model for studying time-varying treatments in school settings. Education Finance and Policy, 4(4), 468–491.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rhoton, L. A. (2011). Distancing as a gendered barrier understanding women scientists’ gender practices. Gender and Society, 25(6), 696–716.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosnow, R. L., & Rosenthal, R. (1991). If you’re looking at the cell means, you’re not looking at only the interaction (unless all main effects are zero). Psychological Bulletin, 110(3), 574–576.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sczesny, S., & Kühnen, U. (2004). Meta-cognition about biological sex and gender-stereotypic physical appearance: Consequences for the assessment of leadership competence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(1), 13–21.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seymour, E., & Hewitt, N. M. (1997). Talking about leaving: Why undergraduates leave the sciences. Boulder: Westview.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shields, S. A. (2008). Gender: An intersectionality perspective. Sex Roles, 59(5), 301–311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snijders, T. A., & Bosker, R. J. (1994). Modeled variance in two-level models. Sociological Methods & Research, 22(3), 342–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snyder, M., Tanke, E. D., & Berscheid, E. (1977). Social perception and interpersonal behavior: On the self-fulfilling nature of social stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35(9), 656–666.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(5), 797–811.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tenenbaum, R., & Leaper, C. (2003). Parent–child conversations about science: The socialization of gender inequities? Developmental Psychology, 39(1), 34–47.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wells, G., & Windschitl, P. (1999). Stimulus sampling and social psychological experimentation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25(9), 1115–1125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westfall, J., Kenny, D. A., & Judd, C. M. (2014). Statistical power and optimal design in experiments in which samples of participants respond to samples of stimuli. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(5), 2020–2045.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Willis, J., & Todorov, A. (2006). First impressions: Making up your mind after a 100-ms exposure to a face. Psychological Science, 17(7), 592–598.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wolsko, C., Park, B., Judd, C. M., & Wittenbrink, B. (2000). Framing interethnic ideology: Effects of multicultural and color-blind perspectives on judgments of groups and individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(4), 635–654.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zamon, R. (2015, August 4). #ILookLikeAnEngineer reminds us that anyone can (and should) be an engineer. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/08/04/ilooklikeanengineer_n_7934098.html

  • Zebrowitz, L. A., Tenenbaum, D. R., & Goldstein, L. H. (1991). The impact of job applicants’ facial maturity, gender, and academic achievement on hiring recommendations. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 21(7), 525–548.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Muenzinger D244, Boulder, CO, 80309-0345, USA

    Sarah Banchefsky, Bernadette Park & Charles M. Judd

  2. Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, SEA 4.208, 108 E. Dean Keeton Stop A8000, Austin, TX, 78712-1043, USA

    Jacob Westfall

Authors
  1. Sarah Banchefsky
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jacob Westfall
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Bernadette Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Charles M. Judd
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah Banchefsky.

Ethics declarations

The University of Colorado Boulder’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved the research presented in the manuscript. This research did not receive external funding.

Conflict of Interest

There were no conflicts of interest in conducting this research.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Banchefsky, S., Westfall, J., Park, B. et al. But You Don’t Look Like A Scientist!: Women Scientists with Feminine Appearance are Deemed Less Likely to be Scientists. Sex Roles 75, 95–109 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-016-0586-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-016-0586-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation