But You Dont Look Like a Scientist!

Women Scientists with Feminine Appearance are Deemed Less Likely to be Scientists

Paper Hypothesis:

If a woman has a stereotypical attractive and

feminine appearance, then they are viewed as not suited
for careers in the sciences and are seen to belong in
more feminine roles

Subjects of the Experiment

51 U.S. Workers
- 25 Male
- 26 Female

Method:

80 Stock Images

40 Men, 40 Women
All faculty from Elite STEM
Departments in top US
universities (all scientists).
All had white look
- Avoid racial bias
Chosen from faculty website
if they were smiling with
direct eye contact
5 feminine and 5 masculine
males were chosen per
university, same with females.

background knowledge

Before rating the male and female images on their career

likelihood, they were rated to three separate 7 point scales.
Masculine to Feminine (appearance)
Unlikeable to Likeable
Unattractive to Attractive

Participants were shown either all females

or all males first
There was no correlation between whether or not
all females or all males were rated first.

Masculinity and Femineity

Scale System Results
1 (very masculine) to 7 (very feminine)

2
Scientist - 6
E.C.E - 2

Masculinity and Femineity

Career Likelihood Results
Early Childhood Educator Scientist
1 (very unlikely) to 6 (very likely)

4
Scientist - 2
E.C.E - 5

Scientist - 1
E.C.E - 6

Masculinity and Femineity

Scale System Results
1 (very masculine) to 7 (very feminine)

2
Scientist - 4
E.C.E - 3

Masculinity and Femineity

Career Likelihood Results
Early Childhood Educator Scientist
1 (very unlikely) to 6 (very likely)

3
Scientist - 4
E.C.E - 3

5
Scientist - 3
E.C.E - 4

LITTLE/NO
CORRELATION
P = 0.53

HIGH CORRELATION

Scientist x high femininity rating

P = <0.001

NO/LITTLE
CORRELATION
P = .80

The more attractive a female was seen, the less

likely she was to be viewed as a scientist and
more likely she was to be viewed as a teacher
P = 0.001

HIGH CORRELATION

Teacher x high femininity rating

P = <0.001

Whilst most of the male

and female scientists
were equally likeable and
attractive, the female
pictures were rated as
more feminine and
more likely to be school
teachers than scientists.

https://quintype-01.imgix.net/thequint%2F2016-01%2F268524a4-6d0e-4c26b025-04af49fc29f1%2Fteacher.jpg?auto=format&q=60&w=976&fm=pjpg

Secondary Trial

A second trial was performed in order to amend some perceived faults

in the first trial. These are:

A larger subject pool

The inclusion of a gender neutral career choice ( journalist)
Did not ask about femininity/masculinity, attractiveness, or likeability prior
to the career likelihood

There was still an evident aversion towards labelling feminine

women as scientists even when journalism was present in
fact, most feminine women were still categorised as early
childhood educators!

The Key Concept

Women that are seen to have a feminine
appearance are stereotyped into feminine
career roles, whilst men (regardless of the

femininity or masculinity) are not

stereotyped in their career roles.