Browsing by Author "Ozgumus, Ezgi"

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    Consequences of gender composition during a diversity intervention
    (2017-06) Ozgumus, Ezgi; Pietri, Evava S.
    Persistent gender bias (i.e., favorable treatment of men over women) has been consistently documented as the most likely cause perpetuating gender disparity in STEM occupations. It is therefore crucial to develop effective diversity interventions that increase awareness of gender bias and decrease sexism in STEM. However, interventions that facilitate greater recognition of gender bias in STEM may inadvertently trigger social identity concerns for women, suggesting they may not fit in those environments. Moreover, women may be less comfortable speaking up in groups where their gender is numerically underrepresented. To mitigate these negative consequences, current research tested the effectiveness of gender composition in a virtual group setting as an identity-safe cue. Results suggested that in groups that consisted primarily of women, participants identified more with their group and this increased identification, in turn, helped alleviate social identity threat. Additionally, participants in female majority groups were more likely than those in female minority groups to participate in group discussions via increased identification with their group. Thus, our findings indicated that diversity practitioners should consider exploring whether diversity interventions in STEM also inadvertently elicit social identity threat for women. Additionally, when developing new trainings, it is important to incorporate identity-safe cues in order to neutralize any potential threat associated with these trainings.
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    Maybe She Is Relatable Increasing Women’s Awareness of Gender Bias Encourages Their Identification With Women Scientists
    (SAGE, 2018-06-01) Pietri, Evava S.; Johnson, India R.; Ozgumus, Ezgi; Young, Alison I.
    In the current research, we explored whether informing women about gender bias in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) would enhance their identification with a female scientist and whether this increased identification would in turn protect women from any adverse effects of gender bias information. We found that, relative to a control information condition, gender bias information promoted beliefs that a successful woman (but not a man) scientist had encountered bias and encouraged identification with that woman scientist. Feelings of empathic concern was an important mechanism underlying this increased identification (Experiments 2 and 3). Moreover, when presented with a man scientist, information about gender bias in STEM decreased female participants’ anticipated belonging and trust in a STEM environment, compared to participants in a control information condition (Experiment 1a and 1b). However, identifying with a woman scientist after learning about sexism in STEM fields alleviated this harmful effect. Finally, compared to those in the control condition, women college students who learned about gender bias reported greater interest in interacting with a woman STEM professor at their university (Experiment 3). Our results suggest that interventions that teach women about gender bias in STEM will help women identify with women scientists. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ’s website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0361684317752643.