AS A POSTGRADUATE student at Trinity, I spent four years teaching Maths and Statistics tutorials for first-year undergrads.
Students were assigned homework in advance, so they often attended my office hours for help with questions. Typically, girls would tell me they were completely lost before showing me their solutions, which would often be correct, just missing the last few steps. Conversely, boys tended to tell me they had the solutions mostly right and simply needed a little help to finish them. Often, they were entirely on the wrong track.
Overconfidence bias is the tendency for individuals to overestimate their own abilities. We are all susceptible to this bias, particularly when comparing ourselves to others. Ask a room full of people to raise their hands if they think they are above-average intelligence or an above-average driver; it’s likely that most will raise their hands.
There’s lots of evidence to suggest a strong correlation between personality traits and (over)confidence, but gender also plays a role. When an ability or skill is considered stereotypically male, clear differences in confidence levels emerge.
The results of the Reuters Digital News Report this week reported a statistic that exemplifies this difference. “Women said they found understanding the economy ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ difficult (37%), compared to men (22%).” The potential source of this difference is worth exploring, as on the surface, it might appear that women understand or know less about the economy than men. This interpretation is highly unlikely to be true.
When a negative stereotype exists about a group it can impact on individual group members’ confidence, leading to adverse outcomes. The fear of conforming to a negative stereotype impacts on performance and this is known as stereotype threat. There is a vast literature evidencing the existence and effect of this threat, particularly in relation to gender differences in perceived versus actual mathematical ability.
One experiment found that women performed much better on average when taking a maths test under a false name, compared to those who took the same test under their own name.
In another experiment, researchers found no gender gap in marks achieved on an advanced maths test when women were explicitly told beforehand that the test did not produce any gender differences.
Irish research has found evidence of gender stereotypes regarding ‘natural’ mathematical ability in children. Both teachers and mothers tend to overestimate boys’ abilities and underestimate girls’ abilities from as early as nine years old. These disparities were found to be the largest for high-achieving girls. Other studies have shown that parental bias explains a large part of the gender gap in confidence, highlighting how harmful stereotypes can be transmitted through generations.
Gender stereotypes feed into the under-representation of women in STEM and economics, and no doubt explain much of the difference between respondents’ perceived difficulty in understanding economy-related news by gender in the Reuters report.
A lower proportion of women in Ireland study economics in school and this gender gap persists throughout third level.
Data obtained from the state examinations commission shows that 84% of single-sex boys secondary schools offer economics as a leaving cert subject compared with only 60% of girls’ schools. Additionally, only 30% of mixed schools in Ireland offer economics to Leaving Cert students. There is evidence that girls in single-sex schools are in fact less confident in stereotypically male subjects compared to girls in mixed-sex schools, so the low proportion offering economics in this more favourable environment amplifies the problem.
There are also gender differences in how much knowledge on a topic a person requires to have confidence in their ability to answer related questions correctly. When asked survey questions about the economy, top female economists were less certain of the accuracy of their answers compared to top male economists, but this gap was driven entirely by questions outside their specific area of expertise. Interestingly, women economists were less likely to give ‘extreme’ answers like strongly agree or strongly disagree, highlighting the gender differences in estimating errors and certainty.
Numerous studies also provide evidence to suggest that on average, men are much more likely to engage in self-promotion than women. Men describe themselves more favourably than similarly performing women when incentives are large, such as in a job or promotion application, but also in experimental settings where incentives are completely removed.
Once again it appears that this gender gap emerges only for perceived male-type tasks; there is no difference in self-promotion rates for what are typically considered female tasks.
These differences, together with gender differences in attitudes towards risk in certain settings, may have important implications on the labour market and the gender pay gap. LinkedIn research finds that women need to meet all the required criteria before they apply for a job, whereas men on average apply when they have 60% of the qualifications.
Despite the significant progress made towards gender equality over the past two decades, harmful stereotypes not only persist but are perpetuated by both men and women. Many of us can be prone to confirmation bias, where we tend to interpret information in such a way as to confirm existing beliefs, and this bias can perpetuate stereotypes. So, when presented with statistics on gender differences, think about what is driving these differences rather than reaching for lazy generalisations.
Dr Emma Howard is an Economist and Lecturer at Technological University Dublin. She is also chair of the Irish Society for Women in Economics (ISWE).
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