Gender Gaps in Overestimation of Math Performance

How do authors' perceptions of their papers compare with co-authors' perceptions and peer-review decisions?

How do author perceptions match up to the outcomes of the peer-review process and perceptions of others? In a top-tier computer science conference (NeurIPS 2021) with more than 23,000 submitting authors and 9,000 submitted papers, we surveyed the authors on three questions: (i) their predicted probability of acceptance for each of their papers, (ii) their perceived ranking of their own papers based on scientific contribution, and (iii) the change in their perception about their own papers after seeing the reviews. The salient results are: (1) Authors had roughly a three-fold overestimate of the acceptance probability of their papers: The median prediction was 70% for an approximately 25% acceptance rate. (2) Female authors exhibited a marginally higher (statistically significant) miscalibration than male authors; predictions of authors invited to serve as meta-reviewers or reviewers were similarly calibrated, but better than authors who were not invited to review. (3) Authors' relative ranking of scientific contribution of two submissions they made generally agreed with their predicted acceptance probabilities (93% agreement), but there was a notable 7% responses where authors predicted a worse outcome for their better paper. (4) The author-provided rankings disagreed with the peer-review decisions about a third of the time; when co-authors ranked their jointly authored papers, co-authors disagreed at a similar rate-about a third of the time. (5) At least 30% of respondents of both accepted and rejected papers said that their perception of their own paper improved after the review process. The stakeholders in peer review should take these findings into account in setting their expectations from peer review.

Adolescents' digital career aspirations: Evidence for gendered pathways in a digital future

INTRODUCTION

Computers and technology are still perceived as a male domain. As a result of this "digital gender gap" boys aspire careers in the information and communication technology (ICT) branches much more than girls. Guided by the situated expectancy-value theory of motivated behavioral choices, the present study aims to shed light on the predictors of digital career aspirations.

METHODS

Self-report questionnaires were completed by 1018 Austrian adolescents (52.3% girls; 72% non-immigrants; Mage = 13.55, SDage = 0.88) attending 61 Grade 7 and 8 classes located in 17 vocational secondary schools between April and June 2019. Individual and class-level predictors of digital career aspirations were investigated with multilevel modeling.

RESULTS

Hierarchical linear models revealed that boys, younger adolescents, and second-generation immigrant adolescents had higher levels of digital career aspirations compared to girls, older adolescents, and non-immigrants. Hours spend with the laptop per day, digital self-efficacy and media appraisal positively predicted digital career aspirations on the individual level, while a higher number of immigrants in the classes and higher levels of teacher discussions about media were significant positive predictors on the class level. The model explained 17% of the individual level and 52% of the class level variance. Cross-level interactions were nonsignificant.

CONCLUSIONS

These results have major implications for educational practice. Most importantly, educational interventions should enhance girls' digital self-efficacy believes and media appraisal. Furthermore, teachers should increase their discussion about digital media as they foster adolescents' digital career aspirations and might prevent future gender segregation in the ICT sector.

Genitourinary syndrome in menopause: Impact of vaginal symptoms

Objective

To describe the impact of genitourinary syndrome symptoms on daily activities and well-being in peri- and postmenopausal women living in an urban area.

Materials and Methods

Observational, prospective, and cross-sectional research in a population of peri- and postmenopausal women living in the Lima region. A non-probabilistic sample was used. The instrument used is "The Day-to-Day Impact of Vaginal Aging" questionnaire. It consists of four domains and its internal reliability is between 0.82 and 0.93. The questions were answered using a Likert scale. High values indicate a more severe impact. Statistical procedures were performed using SPSS version 26.

Results

One thousand seventy women participated; the mean age was 54±7.5 years. The results about the activities of daily living showed that 35% of women reported regular vaginal symptoms and 14.7% major symptoms. In the emotional well-being domain, 90% had minor symptoms. In the sexual function domain, 57.6% reported minor vaginal symptoms, and in the self-concept and body image domain, 60.9% reported minor symptoms and 20.7% major symptoms. According to the global score, 60.9% reported minor discomfort, 36.3% regular discomfort, and 2.8% major discomfort. The sexually active women declared an impact of severity in terms of their daily activities and sexual function (p<0.05).

Conclusion

There is a relationship between activities of daily living, sexual function, and women with sexual activity, causing a negative impact on social life and quality of life.

The reciprocal relationship between mathematics self-efficacy and mathematics performance in US high school students: Instrumental variables estimates and gender differences

Objective

To investigate the reciprocal relationship between high school students’ academic self-efficacy and achievement in mathematics using US data from the HSLS:2009 and first follow-up longitudinal surveys, while accounting for biases in effect estimates due to unobserved heterogeneity.

Methods

Instrumental Variables (IV) regressions were estimated, to derive causal effect estimates of earlier math self-efficacy on later math achievement and vice versa. Particular attention was paid to testing the validity of instruments used. Models were estimated separately by gender, to uncover gender differences in effects.

Results

Evidence of robust reciprocal effects between self-efficacy and achievement for male students is presented, with the dominant effect from earlier achievement to later self-efficacy. For girls, evidence of such effects is weak. Generally, IV estimates are higher than OLS estimates for males, but not for females. As opposed to earlier correlational studies which did not find significant gender differences despite theoretical expectations for their existence, the findings support higher effects for male students.

Women rate the competence of their occupational role higher than men do: Evidence from two different samples

Gender stereotypes play a potent role in how the work of men and women is perceived and valued. Stereotypes also influence the way people look upon themselves. In the present research, two studies are reported where men and women at work rated the degree of warmth and competence of a person with their own occupation, and how they think people in general would perceive a person in the same occupation. A wider gap between own perceptions and that of people in general was expected for women than for men, as it was assumed that the view of other people’s perceptions would serve as a proxy for stereotype threat for women. Study 1 comprised 449 participants (74 % women) working within the public sector, mainly in social, caring, and education professions, and Study 2 comprised a convenience sample of 189 participants (70 % women) from a variety of sectors and professions. Both studies yielded consistent results; contradictory to what was expected, men and women did not differ in terms of how they thought people in general would perceive the competence of their occupation, instead women rated the competence of their own occupation higher than men did, even after controlling for type of occupation and educational level. Warmth displayed only minor gender differences. The results are discussed in relation to research on counter-reactions against stereotype threat, how the concept of competence could be understood, as well as other possible explanations of the unexpected results.

Making it to the PhD: Gender and student performance in sub-Saharan Africa

Women’s underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) impedes progress in solving Africa’s complex development problems. As in other regions, women’s participation in STEM drops progressively moving up the education and career ladder, with women currently constituting 30% of Africa’s STEM researchers. This study elucidates gender-based differences in PhD performance using new survey data from 227 alumni of STEM PhD programs in 17 African countries. We find that, compared to their male counterparts, sampled women had about one less paper accepted for publication during their doctoral studies and took about half a year longer to finish their PhD training. Negative binomial regression models provide insights on the observed differences in women’s and men’s PhD performance. Results indicate that the correlates of publication productivity and time to PhD completion are very similar for women and men, but some gender-based differences are observed. For publication output, we find that good supervision had a stronger impact for men than women; and getting married during the PhD reduced women’s publication productivity but increased that of men. Becoming a parent during the PhD training was a key reason that women took longer to complete the PhD, according to our results. Findings suggest that having a female supervisor, attending an institution with gender policies in place, and pursuing the PhD in a department where sexual harassment by faculty was perceived as uncommon were enabling factors for women’s timely completion of their doctoral studies. Two priority interventions emerge from this study: (1) family-friendly policies and facilities that are supportive of women’s roles as wives and mothers and (2) fostering broader linkages and networks for women in STEM, including ensuring mentoring and supervisory support that is tailored to their specific needs and circumstances.

Human Listeners Can Accurately Judge Strength and Height Relative to Self from Aggressive Roars and Speech

Although animal vocalizations and human speech are known to communicate physical formidability, no previous study has examined whether human listeners can assess the strength or body size of vocalizers relative to their own, either from speech or from nonverbal vocalizations. Here, although men tended to underestimate women's formidability, and women to overestimate men's, listeners judged relative strength and height from aggressive roars and aggressive speech accurately. For example, when judging roars, male listeners accurately identified vocalizers who were substantially stronger than themselves in 88% of trials, and never as weaker. For male vocalizers only, roars functioned to exaggerate the expression of threat compared to aggressive speech, as men were rated as relatively stronger when producing roars. These results indicate that, like other mammals, the acoustic structure of human aggressive vocal signals (and in particular roars) may have been selected to communicate functional information relevant to listeners' survival.

From “Her” Problem to “Our” Problem: Using an Individual Lens Versus a Social-Structural Lens to Understand Gender Inequity in STEM

Increasing the representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is one of our nation's most pressing imperatives. As such, there has been increased lay and scholarly attention given to understanding the causes of women's underrepresentation in such fields. These explanations tend to fall into two main groupings: individual-level (i.e., her) explanations and social-structural (i.e., our) explanations. These two perspectives offer different lenses for illuminating the causes of gender inequity in STEM and point to different mechanisms by which to gain gender parity in STEM fields. In this article, we describe these two lenses and provide three examples of how each lens may differentially explain gender inequity in STEM. We argue that the social-structural lens provides a clearer picture of the causes of gender inequity in STEM, including how gaining gender equity in STEM may best be achieved. We then make a call to industrial/organizational psychologists to take a lead in addressing the societal-level causes of gender inequality in STEM.

The Role of Ability in the Selection of Majors

The current study examined the extent to which ability provides incremental validity to the prediction of major choice beyond what is predicted by measures of personality, self-efficacy, and interests. College students at a large, Midwestern university completed the Ability Profiler after which they completed personality, self-efficacy, and interest measures. Through multinomial logistical regression analyses, ability was found to add some incremental validity (1.5% increase in variance explained), when combined with personality, interest, and self-efficacy measures, to the prediction of major choice. Interests and self-efficacy served as impactful predictors, with personality contributing some influence. This finding illustrates that career counselors should continue to assess clients’ interests and self-efficacy when helping them make career decisions. Additional research should be conducted to assess the utility of other ability measures in the career counseling process.

Shifting STEM Stereotypes? Considering the Role of Peer and Teacher Gender

This study builds on research on the power of counter-stereotypical cues, as well as intergroup contact theory, to consider whether interactions with a female teacher and female peers in a high school engineering classroom decrease male students' gender/science, technology, engineering, and math stereotypical beliefs and whether this varies according to the initial strength of their stereotypical views. Analyses reveal that among male students who initially reject stereotypes of male superiority, more female peers in the classroom leads to a further decrease in their stereotypical views by the end of the year. In contrast, boys who held strong stereotypical beliefs became less stereotypical by the end of the course when they had a female teacher. Implications for future research and current educational reforms are discussed.

Will I Fit in and Do Well? The Importance of Social Belongingness and Self-Efficacy for Explaining Gender Differences in Interest in STEM and HEED Majors

Throughout the world, the labor market is clearly gender segregated. More research is needed to explain women’s lower interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) majors and particularly to explain men’s lower interest in HEED (Health care, Elementary Education, and the Domestic spheres) majors. We tested self-efficacy (competence beliefs) and social belongingness expectations (fitting in socially) as mediators of gender differences in interest in STEM and HEED majors in a representative sample of 1327 Swedish high school students. Gender differences in interest in STEM majors strongly related to women’s lower self-efficacy for STEM careers and, to a lesser degree, to women’s lower social belongingness expectations with students in STEM majors. Social belongingness expectations also partly explained men’s lower interest in HEED majors, but self-efficacy was not an important mediator of gender differences in interest in HEED. These results imply that interventions designed to lessen gender segregation in the labor market need to focus more on the social belongingness of students in the gender minority. Further, to specifically increase women’s interest in STEM majors, we need to counteract gender stereotypical competence beliefs and assure women that they have what it takes to handle STEM careers.

Biological Gender Differences in Students’ Errors on Mathematics Achievement Tests

This study investigated developmental gender differences in mathematics achievement, using the child and adolescent portion (ages 6-19 years) of the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement–Third Edition (KTEA-3). Participants were divided into two age categories: 6 to 11 and 12 to 19. Error categories within the Math Concepts & Applications and Math Computation subtests of the KTEA-3 were factor analyzed and revealed five error factors. Multiple ANOVA of the error factor scores showed that, across both age categories, female and male mean scores were not significantly different across four error factors: math calculation, geometric concepts, basic math concepts, and addition. They were significantly different on the complex math problems error factor, with males performing better at the p < .05 significance level for the 6 to 11 age group and at the p < .001 significance level for the 12 to 19 age group. Implications in light of gender stereotype threat are discussed.

Encouraging Realistic Expectations in STEM Students: Paradoxical Effects of a Motivational Intervention

College students in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) disciplines are increasingly faced with highly competitive and demanding degree programs and are at risk of academic overconfidence. Following from theory and research highlighting the psychological and developmental risks of unrealistic expectations, the present exploratory study evaluated the longitudinal effects of a motivational intervention encouraging college students in STEM degree programs (N = 52) to consider the importance of downgrading one's expectations in response to academic setbacks. Contrary to study hypotheses, the results showed intervention participants to report significantly higher expectations and optimism on post-test measures administered 4 months later, no significant gains in emotional well-being or achievement goal orientations, and lower GPAs over five subsequent semesters. These paradoxical effects underscore the need for additional larger-scale research on the nature of students' responses to potentially ego-threatening motivational programs in STEM disciplines so as to minimize achievement deficits at the expense of preserving motivational resources.