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Contextual Thinking About
Gender Differences Helps Set
Our Feminist Agenda
Janice D. YoderUniversity of Akron
Yoder, Fischer, Kahn, and Groden (in press)
StrengthenedContextual Thinking
AboutGender Differences
StrengthenedFeminist
Identification
Beliefs in thePlausibility ofSocial Change
InstructorsFeminist Agenda
A Class Exercise A Class Exercise to Encourage Contextual Thinkingto Encourage Contextual Thinking
Created in interaction with others
Essentialist ViewWhat I AM
Social Constructionist ViewWhat I DO
• Biology• Personality
i n t e
r n a l
i m m u t a
b l ee x t e r n a l
situationally dependent
• Socialization (past)• Social Context (present)
Social Context: The social environment in which behavior occurs that can work to produce or constrain behavior
Phases:
Model contextual thinking(e.g., empathetic accuracy)
Small group application
Lecture about empirical evidence
1
2
3
A Class Exercise A Class Exercise to Encourage Contextual Thinkingto Encourage Contextual Thinking
Empathetic Accuracy
joy fear disgust surprise anger sadness contempt
As a class, identify emotions expressed
1
1 Are women more accurate than men?
1. Folk wisdom: “women’s intuition”2. d = 1.91 for self-reported empathy3. Thomas & Fletcher (2003)
• dating heterosexual couples in lab
1. Watched video and recorded own thoughts/feelings2. Viewers watch and “mind read”
Empathetic Accuracy = correlation between actor’s and viewer’s ratings
• videotaped trying to resolve relationship problem
1 Are women more accurate than men?
Thomas & Fletcher (2003)
30
40
50
60
Min
d-R
eadi
ng A
ccur
acy
(%)
men
women
1. Women score higher than men
2. Scores correlatedacross targets(i.e., individualdifferences)
3. Men can do it,depending on the social context
4. Klein & Hodges (2001): paid women and men for their accuracy Men = Women
Strangers Dating Partner
VIEWERS
• Spatial abilities• Aggression • Helping Behavior • Sociability
Keys to understanding social context:• Gender-typing of tasks and occupations• Stereotyping & Expectancies• Social status and power
2 Small Group Assignment:Think of Contextual Explanations for Gender Differences in:
favor men
favors women
assign one/group
Spatial Abilities: Sharps, Price, & Williams (1994)
0
2
4
6
8
spat
ial t
est s
core
Task InstructionsSpatial Non-spatial
differencedifference NONOdifferencedifference
3 Intersperse class-wide sharing of small group ideas with research
1
3
5
7
9
Self-ratings ofown aggressiveness
differencedifference
Aggression: Lightdale & Prentice (1994)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
num
ber
of b
ombs
dro
pped
Individuated
Hello, I’m
J a nJ a n
De-individuated
differencedifferenceNONO
differencedifference
3
Sociability -- Visual Dominance: Dovidio et al. (1988)
woman - man talkingmeasured eye contactVisual dominance:
• look while speaking• look away when listening
41.1% 39.8%
57.6%
47.2%52.9%
29.5%
% of time looking while speaking
Base-line
Man Em-powered*
Women Em-powered*
*Evaluates partner and awards extra credit points
3
depends on status