Episodes
Thursday Aug 21, 2014
Thursday Aug 21, 2014
From faculty meetings and student projects to corporate boards and consulting firms, many decisions are made by groups rather than by individuals. In these settings, individuals may bring differing levels of knowledge and expertise to the table; therefore, the performance of the group depends heavily upon eliciting and acting upon the best information from the most informed individuals. Understanding how individuals make the decision of when toe volunteer information to the group is an important first step toward evaluating the efficiency of different group decision-making procedures. Speaker: Katie Coffman, Assistant Professor of Economics, Ohio State University
Thursday Aug 21, 2014
Thursday Aug 21, 2014
The first is based on a paper I will be presenting at the ECPR conference in early September titled “Exploring Viewer Reactions to Media Coverage of Female Politicians.” This paper explores voters’ responses to non-verbal cues provided by politicians and often included in media coverage. Past research on women and politics has found that in its coverage, the media has tended to focus disproportionately on the assertive behavior and emotional displays of female candidates, yet little work has explored the implications of this coverage on voters’ impressions of these political figures despite its potential to evoke or challenge stereotypes of women and/or politicians. This paper begins to unravel some of the impact that these non-verbal cues may have on voters’ evaluations of politicians and in particular female candidates. Speaker: Joanna Everitt, WAPPP Fellow, University of New Brunswick
Thursday Aug 21, 2014
Gender, Competitiveness and Career Choices with Muriel Niederle
Thursday Aug 21, 2014
Thursday Aug 21, 2014
Gender differences in education choices are persistent, with females being much less likely to choose STEM fields than males. What, if any, is the role of gender differences in psychological attributes that have received a lot of attention in the behavioral/experimental literature, such a attitudes toward competition, in accounting for this gap? In this paper we show that competitiveness is predictive of education choices of students. Furthermore, gender differences in competitiveness account for roughly 20 percent of the gender gap in education choices. Speaker: Muriel Niederle, Professor of Economics, Stanford University
Thursday Aug 21, 2014
Thriving Despite Negative Stereotypes in STEM with Nilanjana Dasgupta
Thursday Aug 21, 2014
Thursday Aug 21, 2014
Dasgupta’s research focuses on implicit bias and the self-concept, with special emphasis on ways in which societal expectations subtly shape individuals’ attitudes and behavior toward others and, in some cases, influence their own self-concept and life decisions. In her talk, she will highlight the impact of implicit stereotypes on individuals’ own academic and professional choices. She demonstrates that these choices are constrained by subtle expectations that signal who “naturally” belongs in a profession or academic field and is likely to succeed, and who seems like an unlikely fit. Dasgupta then asks the question -- what factors release these constraints and enhance individuals’ real freedom to pursue any academic and professional path purely based on ability not stereotypes? She addresses this question in two achievement domains: women and girls’ aspirations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and women’s leadership aspirations in professions that are disproportionately male. Speaker: Nilanjana Dasgupta, Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Thursday Aug 21, 2014
The Silent Sex: Gender, Deliberation and Institutions with Tali Mendelberg
Thursday Aug 21, 2014
Thursday Aug 21, 2014
Many public settings involve discussions – committees, town meetings, conflict resolution groups, hearings, voluntary associations (clubs, residential associations, churches), etc. Do women exercise their voices to the same extent, and as influentially, as men do? Do women succeed as well as men at speaking, mentioning the topics of distinctive concern to their gender, articulating their own pre-discussion preferences, affecting the group decision, and gaining influence in the eyes of others? Our answer is no. We find a pervasive gender gap in women’s substantive and symbolic representation. But this gender gap shrinks and even closes entirely under the right institutional designs. Speaker: Tali Mendelberg, Professor, Department of Politics, Princeton University