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Project

The social psychology of gender inequality: the interaction between stigma and self-regulation.

Women are still strongly underrepresented in various fields and in higher positions in society, notwithstanding substantial changes in their position. The project concentrates on the social psychological factors that transfer low social status into lower outcomes, and the processes by which this occurs. It takes an innovative approach, integrating research on stigma and social identity with work on self-regulation to understand processes of central relevance to women pursuing upward mobility. The project focuses on three groups of particular interest for these questions: young girls taking decisions with regard to the maths/sciences; working women taking decisions with regard to upward mobility and pursuing leadership positions in traditionally male-dominated fields; and young Muslim women taking decisions with regard to education and work. The project links in with existing programmatic research in Leuven on the psychology of ethnic and cultural diversity and social inequality, strengthening it, but also greatly benefitting from the existing expertise. Four lines are examined: a) The role that threat and challenge play in womens well-being, motivation and performance; b) Effects of identity affirmation on womens well-being, motivation and performance; c) the role of ingroup ties (relationships with other women) in well-being, motivation and performance; and d) research on Queen Bee vs. collective behaviors, examining processes that lead women to dissociate themselves from their gender in the pursuit of upward mobility. The project is part of a shift away from a perspective on men as perpetrators and women as victims - to a social psychology of intergroup relations from the perspective of the target (women). Key in this is consideration of women not as passive recipients of negative attitudes, stereotypes, and behaviors, but as active individuals pursuing multiple goals (e.g., esteem, belonging, enhancement of self) and using various strategies to maintain well-being, motivation and performance.
Date:1 Sep 2014 →  31 Aug 2019
Keywords:well-being, motivation and performance, intergroup relations, social structure, threat and challenge, social identity, gender inequality, stigma, self-regulation
Disciplines:Social psychology