Gender Differences Found to be Caused Mainly by Social Expectations and Not Genetics

Women are not the only ones subject to the threat of stereotypes.

Women are perceived as being less analytical, and men are perceived as being less empathetic and caring.

Experiments prove that social norms presented by things like ads and parenting cause differences in confidence and therefore performance among genders.

Experiment about math test with boys vs. girls.

Control group has girls and boys take the test after being told that both genders typically perform the same; they score equally as well.

Other group has girls and boys take the test after being told that boys typically perform better than girls; girls perform significantly worse.

Video Interview Here:
Have you noticed less confidence in females than males in the classroom?
How do you think we can prevent the perception that males are more competent than females?

Transgender Jan Morris claims that she "was assumed to be incompetent" and found that she started feeling more incompetent because of this assumption once she transitioned into a female.

More quotes from Jan Morris

Discuss the difference between how each gender is treated by each gender.

It is not just men treating women poorly--women perceive other women as less capable as well.

Although women are not found to be more empathetic than men on a genetic level, the perception that women should be more empathetic makes them that way.

People turn into their stereotypes if they are expected to behave in a certain way.

"The take-home message of these studies is that we can't separate people's empathizing ability and motivation from the social situation. The salience of cultural expectations about gender and empathizing interacts with a mind that knows to which gender it belongs" (Delusion of Gender).