Exploration of the Effects of Race, Ethnicity and Socio-economic Class on Gender Stereotyping of STEM Disciplines

智力优势：在旨在理解女性在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）教育中代表性不足的因素的有前途的调查中，性别角色和STEM学科的性别刻板印象之间的一致性。在某种程度上，有影响力的机构成员——如父母、教育工作者和媒体——强化了关于男性和女性的角色、才能和职业选择的传统假设，个人必须扮演的不同角色所规定的生活中随后的行为可能会被个人体验为与其中一个角色不一致或冲突。感知到的性别角色。因此，一个人通过解决或减少由角色冲突引起的情感和认知失调来接受一种行为模式（或角色）。妇女在信息技术领域的代表性不足经常用群体层面的分析来解释，这表明性别角色期望是代表性不足的原因。然而，这种解释的一个问题是，它假设所有女性都收到了关于性别角色期望的类似信息，以相同的方式解释角色发送者的信息，并采取类似的行为模式。然而，虽然妇女在构成社会的权力关系中的集体从属地位可以被视为一个群体，但群体内部的差异需要考虑到个别妇女如何对性别角色期望作出反应。本研究调查了交叉群体成员——包括种族、民族和社会阶层——对所接受的关于性别角色的社会信息类型的影响，以及对这些社会信息的感知和反应。通过调查性别、种族和社会阶层的交叉关系，可能会发现女性在IT行业代表性不足的更细微的解释。该研究通过艾琳·特鲁斯？“性别与信息技术的个体差异理论”（NSF 0204246）。这种理论方法提供了解释因素，有助于预测为什么有些女性在IT领域的兴趣和坚持受到阻碍，而另一些女性则没有，尽管这些女性可能经历类似的性别角色期望。这个项目包括三个阶段。在第一阶段，该仪器被开发并应用于一群男女大学本科生。在第二阶段，对数据进行分析并得出初步结果。在第三阶段，将初步结果带回所研究的人群，并组织焦点小组，以便改进对结果的解释。更广泛的影响：本研究的结果将增加我们对影响女性IT职业选择的因素的理解，从而为社会干预提供信息，以增加女性和代表性不足的少数民族在STEM领域的参与。参与院校的本科生将参加焦点小组，初步结果将在小组中公布。这将有助于提高学生对他们遇到的挑战和克服挑战的策略的意识。研究者们把他们自己的身份和多样性的经验带到这项研究中。她们都是女性，但她们不同的种族（欧美裔、印度裔和非裔）导致了她们各自不同的性别角色刻板印象。

Intellectual merit: Among the promising lines of investigation directed at understanding the factors that account for the under representation of females in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education is the congruence between gender roles and gender stereotyping of STEM disciplines. To the extent that influential institutional members--such as parents, educators and the media--reinforce traditional assumptions about the roles, aptitudes, and career options for men and women, subsequent behaviors in life prescribed by different roles that an individual has to perform may be experienced by that individual as incongruent or in conflict with one?s perceived gender role. Consequently, a person accepts a pattern of behaviors (or roles) by resolving or reducing the emotional and cognitive dissonance caused by role conflict.The under representation of women in the IT field is frequently explained using group level analysis suggesting that the gender role expectations account for this under representation. However, a problem with this explanation is that it assumes that all females receive similar messages regarding gender role expectations, interpret role senders' messages in the same manner, and adopt similar patterns of behavior. However, while women can be seen to be a group with respect to their collective subjugation in power relations that structure society, within group variation needs to be considered with respect to how individual women respond to gender role expectations. This study investigates the effect of intersecting group membership--including race, ethnicity and social class--on the types of societal messages about gender role received as well as the perception of and response to these societal messages. By investigating the intersectionality of gender, race and social class a more nuanced explanation of the underrepresentation of women in IT may be uncovered. The research examines the patterns of behavioral differences and the process of conflict resolutions through the lens of Eileen Trauth?s Individual Differences Theory of Gender and IT that was developed in prior research (NSF 0204246). This theoretical approach provides explanatory factors that help predict why some women's interest and persistence in the IT field are discouraged while others are not, even though these women may experience similar gender role expectations.This project involves three phases. In Phase I the instrument is developed and administered to a cohort of both male and female university undergraduates. In Phase II the data are analyzed and preliminary results produced. In Phase III the preliminary results are taken back to the populations being studied and focus groups conducted in order to refine the interpretation of the results.Broader impact: The results of this research will add to our understanding of the factors influencing IT career choice among women, thereby informing societal interventions to increase participation of females and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields. Undergraduate students at participating institutions will attend focus groups in which the preliminary results will be presented. This will serve to increase student consciousness about challenges they encounter and strategies for overcoming them. The investigators bring their own identities and experiences of diversity to this research. All are women yet their different ethnicities (Euro-American, Indian-American, and African-American) have resulted in their own, different experiences of gender role stereotyping.