I found this reading to be very interesting, in particular the section about the Male and Career, Female and Family IAT test since that was the IAT test I did. When analyzing the results, the researchers found that 75% of males had a strong automatic association between males with careers and females with families, but what I found even more shocking, was that there was a stronger association for females, as 80% of females had a strong automatic association between males with careers and females with families. (115) I think the findings from the reading demonstrate the power of implicit stereotypes; despite our best intentions to view everyone as equal, there are still underlying societal stereotypes that are ingrained within our minds. While there have been recent societal shifts, with there now being more women than men in the workforce, the vast majority of people still have a strong automatic correlation between males and careers, and more women had this association than men. These shifts in the workforce suggest why the automatic correlation between male and career decreases in younger populations, however, I still find it interesting that more women had this association and I am curious as to why.
Critical Thinking
It is interesting to recognize that nowadays there are more women in the workforce to men. It makes me wonder, how quickly can our lizard brain, or these implicit stereotypes we hold, catch up to modern times? Can we imagine future generations to completely eradicate this bias, or will it continue to creep in for years to come?
The point you brought up about the massively increased amount of women in the workforce is interesting, it makes me wonder how long it will take for the stereotype to change. And what else we need to do to build that change. The stereotype we have now is based on the norm from over 50 years ago.. stereotypes lag. we are seeing the change in real life and also in media, movies, shows, and books that highlight different family dynamics and different norms.
I was also struck by the fact that 80% of women associated females with families. I think this goes to show how much all people internalize the stereotypes that they’re constantly surrounded with, even when they may not think they believe them.
I was also surprised by the results of that study. I think that no matter what we believe, there will be larger societal influences that may affect how we view things as individuals. Hopefully with more gender equality, this automatic association will not be as strong, but how long will that actually take?
The thing that I find interesting about the male/ female career/home test is that it aids the point that stereotypes do or once did have some truth to them. In this case, it was extremely normal only 50 years ago for the mom to stay at home and the dad to work. I think this image still pervades people’s minds even if they don’t agree with it, causing that unconscious mindbug.