STEREOTYPE THREAT

First of all, I would like to congratulate to the authors of the book (Whistling Vivaldi (Steele, 2010)) this well written and exhaustive analysis of the issues related to stereotypes. These characteristics of the text have made really difficult the task of finding a sustained critic or weak points along the text. It was surprising that most of my wonderings were solved as I was advancing in the reading of the text.

Related with the questions, I would like to connect the ideas about underperformance with the role of the women in the atmosphere of art and intellectuals, in particular in the writer’s environment. Along the history, women have had a minor role as a writers and their access to the knowledge and the written culture has not been feasible until the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century (cite required). Because of this reason, the possibility of the creation of a stereotype, related with the intellectual capabilities of women, is considerable.  A possible stereotype generated by the previous situation is the idea that women are less interested intellectually and less skilled in writing process than men. We can observe this stereotype nowadays if we observe the number of female writers awarded with one determined prize compare to the numbers of males writers awarded with the same prize (cite required). Also, we can observe gender differences if we look at the total number of writers in one determined country (cite required).

So now, my questions would be as it follows: Does a stereotype exists related to women writing skills? Is this stereotype, if it exists, causing a stereotype threat process which provoke underperformance in women’s writings? These questions have a special interest, due to the general affirmation about the better language and communication skills of women compared to men (cite required). Even knowing that writing is a matter quite difficult to analyze and value, due to its subjectivity and the role of the judge, some objective and non-biased measures can be arranged in order to examine these questions  (cite required)

There are other questions easy to encounter when we focus on gender issues. Like for example, whether is it a relationship between the less public interventions of women during lectures in big groups, knowledge scientifically proved (cite required), with this, or others, stereotype threat. And also, whether is the choice of a specific degree and career influenced by this kind of stereotype. Encountering a positive answer about the latter question is quite probable if we refer to the knowledge explained in the text Whistling Vivaldi (Steele, 2010) and the gender differences in the numbers of student we can observe in the different degrees at universities (cite required). We can consider the importance of these issues if we stop to think about the self-reinforcing characteristic of stereotypes, which can cause a perpetuation and immobilization of the culture and the social system.

I also would like to add some personal critics and comments, but due to spatial and temporal constraints this will not be possible to do in this small essay. A brief enumeration of this critics and comments would be as it follows: methodological issues; other possible interpretation of the results of the experiments; some possible explanation of the underperformance process and how to prove them, from a physiological, motivational, and cognitive point of view; the possibility of different origins of the threat stereotype (individual or cultural origin); some reflection about international and global culture and perception; and lastly, an ethic remark about the importance of this information, focusing on the possibility to stereotype almost any human characteristic (e.g. the colour of the eyes (Elliot experiment, 1968)), and whether, actually and nowadays, is this knowledge about the relationship between underperformance and stereotypes being applied in, for example, academic contexts, guaranteeing the equality of opportunities among people. Despite all the negative statements above, I, personally, consider that human beings, as specie, are evolving on the right way to a more equal and fair society.

Greetings

Carlos Alcalá

PS. If, as a reader, you have any special interest in any topic I suggested in the enumeration, please, contact with me through alcalamarcos.carlos@student.kuleuven.be and we will discuss more deeply and calmly any of the previous points.

References

     Steele, C. (2010). Whistling Vivaldi: and other clues to how stereotypes affect us. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

  Jane Elliott. (2014, February 20). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jane_Elliott&oldid=596352977