Masculine Default Bias

Hi all,

I read this paper for a class earlier this summer, and I was happy to
learn via one of the authors on Twitter that it's been published.

Masculine Defaults: Identifying and Mitigating Hidden Cultural Biases

https://depts.washington.edu/sibl/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Cheryan-Markus-2020-Psychological-Review.pdf

I highly, highly recommend it.

Here's the abstract:

> Understanding and remedying women’s underrepresentation in
> majority-male fields and occupations require the recognition of a
> lesser-known form of cultural bias called masculine defaults.
> Masculine defaults exist when aspects of a culture value, reward, or
> regard as standard, normal, neutral, or necessary characteristics or
> behaviors associated with the male gender role. Although feminist
> theorists have previously described and analyzed masculine defaults
> (e.g., Bem, 1984; de Beauvoir, 1953; Gilligan, 1982; Warren, 1977),
> here we define masculine defaults in more detail, distinguish them
> from more well-researched forms of bias, and describe how they
> contribute to women’s underrepresentation. We additionally discuss how
> to counteract masculine defaults and possible challenges to addressing
> them. Efforts to increase women’s participation in majority-male
> departments and companies would benefit from identifying and
> counteracting masculine defaults on multiple levels of organizational
> culture (i.e., ideas, institutional policies, interactions,
> individuals).



Tess

Received on Saturday, 29 August 2020 15:40:34 UTC