Whether your name is Manuel or María matters: gender biases in recommendations to study engineering

Abstract

A controlled experiment was conducted to detect gender biases that participants, acting as advisers, may have when providing guidance to teenagers on their career choice. We presented a fictional profile to the study participants – university students from Spain – of a 15-year-old person, called Manuel or María, with two possible levels of academic record. The participants were asked to evaluate the student’s mathematical ability and provide guidance regarding whether or not he or she should study engineering in the future. We assumed that the effect of being a male target on the recommendation to study engineering is partially mediated by the fact that the participants attribute a greater mathematical ability to males. Our results suggest that a significant degree of gender bias in favour of males persists in the recommendation to study engineering. We propose some practical implications for advisers and for equality policies.