Séminaire de Isabelle Régner (LPC, AMU)

Isabelle Régner (LPC, AMU)

“The influence of gender stereotypes on cognitive performance and recruitment decisions” 

vendredi 29 avril à 14h30, Salle H Gastaut, INT

Abstract

Action plans to promote equality between women and men in the civil service have led to a number of advances. However, inequalities remain within the workforce in terms of recruitment, promotion, access to the most prestigious positions, and representation in the scientific disciplines known as STEM (Science, Technology, Engeneering and Mathematics). Research in Social Cognition has contributed to show that these inequalities are, at least in part, linked to gender stereotypes which lead to associate, even today, leadership and management capacities, as well as scientific skills, more with men than with women. Some results will be presented, which allow to understand how these stereotypes are likely, on the one hand, to negatively influence women’s performance, and on the other hand, to generate biases and subtle discrimination processes that guide the decisions of evaluators at the time of recruitment and promotion.

Keywords : Stereotype threat; Implicit gender bias; Discrimination; Performance; STEM

Affiliation:

Isabelle Régner is a University Professor of Social Psychology at the Cognitive Psychology Laboratory (UMR CNRS 7290) at Aix-Marseille University. She directed the Centre des Sciences Sociales pour les Sciences from 2014 to 2020, and was appointed Vice President for Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination action at Aix-Marseille University in January 2020. Since 2021, she has been a member of the GT9 “Equity and reduction of school inequalities” of the Conseil Scientifique de l’Education Nationale, as well as a member of the Steering Committee for the “National Training Plan: Training for equality girls/boys” of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de l’Education et de la Formation (IH2EF). Her work focuses on the social regulation of cognitive functioning in the laboratory and in natural settings (academic and clinical). In particular, she studies the effect of social stereotypes on performance and recruitment decisions in different skill domains (mathematics, reading, memory) and with different populations (children, young adults, dyslexic adults, selection committees, elderly people, patients in the prodromal phase of Alzheimer’s disease). She is the author of about fifty scientific publications in international journals and participates in numerous conferences for the general public.