Gender Bias In Graduate School

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Can unequal treatment of a person due to gender bias lead to false assumptions of the person’s ability to complete a task? Males who perform a masculine task are more attributed to skill, whereas an equivalent performance by a female on the same task is seen to be more influenced by luck, the reverse does not hold true for performance on a feminine task (Deaux & Emswiller, 1974). Although Deaux’s research was conducted over 40 years ago, and gender-biases have changed over the past years, there are still biases when it come to gender within the school system and workforce. The purpose of the current research is to examine whether luck or skill play a role in perceiving who would be accepted into graduate school, and if the perception of …show more content…
First, the wording in the scale might have misled the participants in the way of their rating. The word “skill” might be seen more as being good at a task, for example, actually being able to apply to graduate school. If this is the case, the results suggest that both men and women are lucky that they have the skills to apply to graduate school, and therefore did not measure what was intended. Future research could change the wording of the scale to intelligence instead of skill, which could be more accurate for determining admission to graduate school. Another limitation to the study is the independent variables. The current study showed an animated picture with the words “he” or “she”. This did not give the participants enough information on the individual in question to make an accurate decision on admission to graduate school. To get a more precise measure, future research could use an actual male or female in the picture. A profile about the person could be added next to the male picture, and then use the same profile next to the female picture, to see if there was a bias. This type of manipulation can then be broadened to other types of biases, such as racial as well as sexual orientation. Even though the current study used graduate school as being thought of as something gender neutral based upon previous research that has shown that over half of all graduate students are females, it might have limited the perception of the participant’s judgment. Therefore, future research should specify what field the admitted student is interested in, since some programs are male and others female dominated. Increased understanding of gender difference perception can be helpful in all aspects of life. In the case of graduate school, a person who is not constricted by gender, will be given more opportunities

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