Gender ratio and stereotype threat in an academic setting

The study focused on the impact of stereotype threat effectiveness and gender differences in political knowledge. Sex ratio was manipulated to create conditions in which women significantly outnumbered men, similar to the overall gender ratio of women to men at Creighton University. Seventy-seven participants, 52 female and 25 male, were randomly assigned into two conditions, both of which prompted stereotype threat but differed in the gender ratio. One condition was 75% women to 25% men and the other was an equal gender ratio. The participants were given a ten question quiz of political knowledge followed by a short series of self-report questions. To elicit threat, participants were told that women had generally performed less well on the same quiz in the past. The results indicate no significant difference in female performance across conditions, but in general, men scored significantly higher than women. Though gender ratio was not found to be a protective factor against stereotype threat, data pertaining to perceptions of same sex and opposite sex performance suggests the real nature of the stereotype indicating a larger scale issue with stereotyping in society and the education system