The underrepresentation of women in science: differential commitment or the queen bee syndrome?

We examined possible explanations for the underrepresentation of women among university faculty, in two different national contexts. In the Netherlands, a sample of doctoral students (N = 132) revealed no gender differences in work commitment or work satisfaction. Faculty members in the same university (N = 179), however, perceived female students to be less committed to their work and female faculty endorsed these gender-stereotypical perceptions most strongly. A second study, in Italy, replicated and extended these findings. Again, no gender differences were obtained in the self-descriptions of male and female doctoral students (N = 80), while especially the female faculty (N = 93) perceived female students as less committed to their work than male students. Additional measures supported an explanation in social identity terms, according to which individual upward mobility (i.e. of female faculty) implies distancing the self from the group stereotype which not only involves perceiving the self as a non-prototypical group member, but may also elicit stereotypical views of other in-group members.

[1]  S. Moore,et al.  Sex‐Roles: Gender, Generation, and Self‐Esteem , 1980 .

[2]  A. Rossi.  Women in Science: Why So Few? , 1965, Science.

[3]  John P. Meyer,et al.  A three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment , 1991 .

[4]  H. Tajfel,et al.  An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. , 1979 .

[5]  J. P. Wanous,et al.  Overall job satisfaction: how good are single-item measures? , 1997, The Journal of applied psychology.

[6]  N. Ellemers,et al.  Coping with Group-Based Discrimination: Individualistic Versus Group-Level Strategies , 1998 .

[7]  Peter D. Syverson.  Summary Report, 1982. Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities. , 1983 .

[8]  J. Mathieu,et al.  A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment , 1990 .

[9]  R. Steinpreis,et al.  The Impact of Gender on the Review of the Curricula Vitae of Job Applicants and Tenure Candidates: A National Empirical Study , 1999 .

[10]  V. E. Schein.  The relationship between sex role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics. , 1973, The Journal of applied psychology.

[11]  F. Pratto,et al.  The gender gap in occupational role attainment: a social dominance approach. , 1997, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[12]  Leandre R. Fabrigar,et al.  The Review Process at PSPB: Correlates of Interreviewer Agreement and Manuscript Acceptance , 1999 .

[13]  L. H. Chusmir,et al.  Gender Differences in Variables Affecting Job Commitment Among Working Men and Women , 1986 .

[14]  Catherine Kirchmeyer,et al.  Determinants of Managerial Career Success: Evidence and Explanation of Male/Female Differences: , 1998 .

[15]  R. Baron,et al.  Detecting and Labeling Prejudice: Do Female Perpetrators Go Undetected? , 1991 .

[16]  Virginia W. Cooper.  Homophily or the Queen Bee Syndrome , 1997 .

[17]  P. Nick Blanchard,et al.  Sex differences in task and social-emotional behavior. , 1982 .

[18]  T. M. Lodahl,et al.  THE DEFINITION AND MEASUREMENT OF JOB INVOLVEMENT. , 1965, The Journal of applied psychology.

[19]  H. Tajfel.  Differentiation between social groups: Studies in the social psychology of intergroup relations. , 1978 .

[20]  J. Twenge.  Changes in masculine and feminine traits over time: A meta-analysis , 1997 .

[21]  Gender in the context of leadership , 1996 .

[22]  B. Uzzi,et al.  The paradox of critical mass for women in science. , 1994, Science.

[23]  N. Ellemers,et al.  The Perils of Political Correctness: Men's and Women's Responses to Old-Fashioned and Modern Sexist Views , 2005 .

[24]  Rupert Brown,et al.  Neosexism among Women: The Role of Personally Experienced Social Mobility Attempts , 1999 .

[25]  C. Holt,et al.  Assessing the Current Validity of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory , 1998 .

[26]  C. Wennerås,et al.  Nepotism and sexism in peer-review , 1997, Nature.

[27]  S. Bem.  The measurement of psychological androgyny. , 1974, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[28]  K. Deaux.  The behavior of women and men , 1976 .

[29]  A. Lawler.  Tenured Women Battle to Make It Less Lonely at the Top , 1999, Science.

[30]  A. Eagly,et al.  Gender and the evaluation of leaders: A meta-analysis. , 1992 .

[31]  O. C. Brenner,et al.  The Relationship Between Sex Role Stereotypes And Requisite Management Characteristics Revisited , 1989 .

[32]  Allen C. Bluedorn,et al.  Men and Women of the Corporation , 1978 .

[33]  Gary Blau,et al.  Further exploring the meaning and measurement of career commitment , 1988 .

[34]  K. S. Lyness,et al.  Climbing the corporate ladder: do female and male executives follow the same route? , 2000, The Journal of applied psychology.

[35]  C. Stangor,et al.  Prejudice : the target's perspective , 1999 .

[36]  John Radford,et al.  Gender Differences in Higher Education Aims between Computing and Psychology Students , 1995 .

[37]  A. Maass,et al.  Gender gaps in EAESP: Numerical distribution and scientific productivity of women and men , 2000 .

[38]  Paula E. Stephan,et al.  Gender Differences in the Rewards to Publishing in Academe: Science in the 1970s , 1998 .

[39]  R. Ashmore,et al.  Sex stereotypes and implicit personality theory. II. A trait-inference approach to the assessment of sex stereotypes , 1980 .

[40]  Richard M. Steers,et al.  A Behaviorally-Based Measure of Manifest Needs in Work Settings. , 1976 .

[41]  Carol Tavris,et al.  The queen bee syndrome , 1974 .

[42]  D. Best,et al.  Measuring sex stereotypes : a thirty-nation study , 1982 .

[43]  K. Deaux,et al.  Explanations of successful performance on sex-linked tasks: What is skill for the male is luck for the female. , 1974 .

[44]  Brian Uzzi,et al.  Athena unbound: Barriers to women in academic science and engineering , 1992 .

[45]  David L. Mathison.  Sex Differences in the Perception of Assertiveness Among Female Managers , 1986 .

[46]  K. Deaux,et al.  When women are more deserving than men: Equity, attribution, and perceived sex differences. , 1973 .

[47]  D. D. Gilder,et al.  Het drie-componenten model van commitment. , 1997 .

[48]  D. Gibson,et al.  Women’s and Men’s Role Models: The Importance of Exemplars , 1999 .

[49]  Allen R. Sanderson,et al.  Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities: Survey of Earned Doctorates. Summary Report 1997. , 1999 .

[50]  M Biernat,et al.  Sharing of home responsibilities between professionally employed women and their husbands. , 1991, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[51]  B. Posner,et al.  Commitment to Career versus Family/Home Life: Effects of Sex, Sex-Role Identity, and Family Status , 1989 .

[52]  L. H. Chusmir,et al.  Success strivings and their relationship to affective work behaviors: gender differences. , 1992, The Journal of social psychology.

[53]  D. D. Gilder,et al.  Het 3-componentenmodel van commitment , 1997 .

[54]  Richard M. Steers.  Antecedents and outcomes of organizational commitment. , 1977, Administrative science quarterly.

[55]  M. Schnake,et al.  Organizational Citizenship: A Review, Proposed Model, and Research Agenda , 1991 .

[56]  L. H. Chusmir,et al.  Relationship between sex role conflict and work-related variables: gender and hierarchical differences , 1989 .

[57]  W. Schmidt,et al.  Sex Effects on Managerial Value Systems , 1984 .

[58]  V. E. Schein.  Relationships between sex role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics among female managers. , 1975, The Journal of applied psychology.

[59]  D. Allen,et al.  In search of equality , 2006 .

[60]  H. Tajfel.  Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations , 1982 .

[61]  T. Willemsen,et al.  The Employment Interview: The Role of Sex Stereotypes in the Evaluation of Male and Female Job Applicants in the Netherlands1 , 1992 .

[62]  Naomi Ellemers,et al.  Career-oriented versus team-oriented commitment and behavior at work , 1998 .

[63]  Mirian M. Graddick,et al.  Professionals in scientific disciplines: Sex-related differences in working life commitments. , 1983 .

[64]  B. Uzzi,et al.  The paradox of critical mass for women in science. , 1994, Science.

[65]  G. Cowan,et al.  Women's Hostility Toward Women , 1998 .

[66]  A. Hochschild,et al.  The Second Shift , 1989 .

[67]  D. Hamilton.  Cognitive Processes in Stereotyping and Intergroup Behavior , 1981 .

[68]  K. Deaux.  From individual differences to social categories: analysis of a decade's research on gender , 1984 .

[69]  A. Eagly.  Sex differences in social behavior : a social-role interpretation , 1987 .

[70]  S. Haslam,et al.  Gender solidarity in hierarchical organizations. , 1998, British Journal of Social Psychology.

[71]  Mohammad Muzahid Akbar,et al.  ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR: ITS NATURE AND ANTECEDENTS , 2004 .

[72]  A. Eagly,et al.  Stereotypes as Dynamic Constructs: Women and Men of the Past, Present, and Future , 2000 .

[73]  Rupert Brown,et al.  Perceptions of and by minority groups: The case of women in academia† , 1989 .