Abstract:

One of the possible explanations for the gender gap in business, especially in domains that have traditionally been male, is a phenomenon called stereotype threat: a situation when one is apprehensive of confirming a negative stereotype about their social group’s competencies. The immediate effect of stereotype threat is deterioration of performance tasks form the stereotyped domain and its long-term effects can influence all the professional career of some women. Since some roots of stereotype threat appear often already at school, the role of teachers and educators in preventing this phenomenon and thus in reducing the gender gap in science and business is crucial. In this article, several methods to prevent stereotype threat in girls by teachers, are described.