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Research on gender stereotypes about academia often focused on broad areas (natural sciences vs. humanities), but fields within these areas may differ. We measured gender stereotypes about fields from natural sciences (physics, biology), humanities (German language, philosophy), and social sciences (educational science, psychological science, law) among university students. Gender stereotypes differed significantly between fields within areas. Stereotypes about some fields from the natural and social sciences (biology = female, law = male) were even opposite to others in the same area (physics = male, educational and psychological sciences = female). Perceived gender ratios and communion stereotypes about researchers predicted field gender stereotypes. The results demonstrate strong heterogeneity in gender stereotypes within the natural and social sciences, but not the humanities.
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Reichardt et al. (2025) studied this question.
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