Editing Sexism (section)

== Gender stereotypes ==

{{see also|Gender role#Gender stereotypes|Implicit stereotype#Gender stereotypes}}
[[File: Bettie Page driving.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|alt=Series of photographs lampooning women drivers|[[Bettie Page]] portrays stereotypes about women [[Automobile Driving|drivers]] in 1952.]]

Gender stereotypes are widely held beliefs about the characteristics and behavior of women and men.<ref>Manstead, A. S. R.; Hewstone, Miles; et al. ''The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Psychology''. Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Mass., US: Blackwell, 1999, 1995, pp. 256–57, {{ISBN|978-0-631-22774-8}}.</ref> [[Empirical]] studies have found widely shared cultural beliefs that men are more socially valued and more competent than women in a number of activities.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wagner |first1=David G. |last2=Berger |first2=Joseph |year=1997 |title=Gender and Interpersonal Task Behaviors: Status Expectation Accounts |journal=[[Sociological Perspectives]] |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=1–32 |doi=10.2307/1389491 |jstor=1389491 |s2cid=147319093}}</ref><ref>Williams, John E. and Deborah L. Best. ''Measuring Sex Stereotypes: A Multinational Study''. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1990, {{ISBN|978-0-8039-3815-1}}.</ref> Dustin B. Thoman and others (2008) hypothesize that "[t]he socio-cultural salience of ability versus other components of the gender-math stereotype may impact women pursuing math". Through the experiment comparing the math outcomes of women under two various gender-math stereotype components, which are the ability of math and the effort on math respectively, Thoman and others found that women's math performance is more likely to be affected by the negative ability stereotype, which is influenced by sociocultural beliefs in the United States, rather than the effort component. As a result of this experiment and the sociocultural beliefs in the United States, Thoman and others concluded that individuals' academic outcomes can be affected by the gender-math stereotype component that is influenced by the sociocultural beliefs.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thoman |first1=Dustin B. |last2=White |first2=Paul H. |last3=Yamawaki |first3=Niwako |last4=Koishi |first4=Hirofumi |year=2008 |title=Variations of Gender–math Stereotype Content Affect Women's Vulnerability to Stereotype Threat |journal=[[Sex Roles (journal)|Sex Roles]] |volume=58 |issue=9–10 |pages=702–12 |doi=10.1007/s11199-008-9390-x |s2cid=144788626}}</ref>