FLICKR, ABOUTMODAFINIL.COMA survey of 1,820 academics across 30 different fields of study revealed that attitudes about the importance of intelligence—as opposed to hard work—may contribute to the varying gender gaps across academia. Specifically, an expectation of brilliance was found in those fields where there are still relatively few women scholars, according to the results published in Science last week (January 16).
“We’re not saying women aren’t brilliant or can’t succeed in a field that requires brilliance,” Cimpian told Science News’s Scicurious. “It’s the culture of the field that undermines representation because of stereotypes.”
The survey, conducted by Princeton philosopher Sarah-Jane Leslie, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign psychologist Andrei Cimpian, and their collaborators, aimed to uncover the underlying reasons that some fields still face a significant gender gap. In philosophy, for example, women receive fewer than 35 percent of awarded PhDs; in physics, women earn fewer than 20 percent; and in music composition, women account for only 15 percent to 16 percent. According to the survey, these were some of the very fields in which high intelligence is generally perceived as a prerequisite for success. In fields ...
