Gender stereotypes and sexism among higher education faculty

Abstract

Gender socialization occurs on a daily basis and marks individual identity, as well as the culture of organizations and groups indelibly. The interaction between teachers and students is part of the gender socialization process. Thus, different research works have shown that the focus and the expectations the professors have vis-à-vis the students are different. The objective of this research was to analyze and characterize a group of Portuguese university professors, men and women, with regard to their gender stereotypes and sexism, in order to promote a joint reflection by the educators involved. Based on the results we were able to conclude that theseprofessors do have gender stereotypes, but with interesting distinctive features such as the fact that a higher load of instrumental traits is attributed to women. Likewise it was established that ambivalent sexism prevails, since men show significantly more hostile sexist attitudes than women.