Women are often facing inequality and discrimination despite the years of trying to create an equal society. A new study by scientists from the University of Denver and Harvard University have found that people are often biassed towards men. The perception exists that men are smarter and better in different fields than women.
Women are often discouraged from going into specific work fields based on stereotypes that are seeded deep into our society. People often believe that men are more brilliant than women. These scientists decided to test these stereotypes.
Instead of asking the participants directly about their stereotypes, as people often don’t want to admit they have any or aren’t aware, researchers tried to measure the connection between two concepts. The participants were asked to sort images they were shown based on whether they related to a particular concept. For example, participants were showed pictures and asked to sort them based on whether they are related to the word brilliant. Participants were asked to do these tests quickly. They were sorting the pictures on impulse; therefore, the stereotypes affected their responses.
To make the study relative, participants were men, women, and children from different counties in the United States. Five separate studies attributed to the conclusion. The researchers decided that there was enough evidence to prove that brilliance and genius are more often associated with the male population than the female population.
When the researchers asked participants of the study directly whether they believe men are smarter than women. They disagreed with this stereotype. This proves that people are reluctant to say that they believe in a certain stereotype. People even claimed that they think women are smarter than men when asked directly about their beliefs, but the tests conducted prove this isn’t the case.
Although we have come a long way from a patriarchal society, there are still stereotypes that undermine women. This study should also force us to start with ourselves and be honest about our beliefs and whether they are justified.
