Doctoral Dissertation Research: Gender Mistakes and Inequality

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project assesses the impact of gender mistakes on inequality. A gender mistake occurs when an actor learns that he or she has incorrectly sex categorized another. These gender mistakes may have lingering effects on the behaviors and attitudes of the actor who made the mistake, even after they are corrected. For example, when a man is mistaken for a women, he will enjoy less of a gender advantage in that interaction, even after the mistake is corrected, than he would if the mistake had never occurred. A women who is mistaken for a man, on the other hand, will suffer less of a gender disadvantage than she would have if the mistake had not happened. The project tests these claims using an experimental design common in expectations states research. The results suggest that if gender mistakes occur in many interactions, involving many actors, they might contribute to reducing gender inequality and the male advantage in interaction. They also suggest that gender equality is maintained by clear-cut displays of gender behavior in certain social situations and distinct categorization of the sexes.