Intensity of the Reverse Sexual Double Standards in Females and Males and Possible Factors

Despite past researches on the sexual double standards(SDS),recent research has found that another type of sexual double standard exists,which is the reverse sexual double standard(i.e.reverse SDS,which means that men are judged more harshly than women in comparative sexual behaviors).According to previous researchers,the reverse SDS may stem from women’s worry about being infected by transmitted sexual diseases,women’s preference for men’s virginity in sexual behaviors,and the shift in attitude towards men’s sexual behaviors.Also,women tend to judge men’s sexual behaviors based on men’s attractiveness(body appearance and financial status).The present study investigated people’s implicit endorsement of the reverse SDS among 200 adults in Shanghai(20 to 50 years old,110 women,90 men)using the Implicit Association Test(IAT)with a priming procedure to limit participants’awareness including different levels of men’s body appearance and financial status.Additionally,SDSS(sexual double standard scale)was used to measure the explicit endorsement for the reverse SDS.According to my results,adults in Shanghai endorsed both an implicit and explicit reverse SDS,but women tend to endorse it more strongly than men.Also,when men are more attractive,women will judge them less harshly.These results indicate that the reverse SDS also exists in men.Implications and limitations are indicated for future researchers to call for attention to the reverse SDS and gender equality.

Is Math Still Just a Man＇s World？

Awards are important markers of success in any career, and in academia they can play an important role in hiring, promotion and tenure decisions. This study compares awards data for disciplinary societies in STEM （science, technology, engineering and mathematics） to the proportion of women in each respective field. By establishing availability pool estimates of women who should be eligible for senior scholarly awards, a comparison can be made between the proportion of female award winners and the percentage of women active in the discipline. The CBMS （conference board of mathematical sciences） survey in 2005 reported that women were 9% of all full-time tenured professors in doctoral-level mathematics departments; yet during the last decade, women received only 4.8% of scholarly awards from the AMS （American mathematical society）. Similar disparities exist for scholarly achievement awards from the MAA （mathematical association of America）, the SIAM （society for industrial and applied mathematics） and the ASA （American statistical association）. The under-recognition of women for scholarly contributions cannot be attributed solely to low numbers of women, so further explanation must be sought elsewhere. Curiously, women received more than their expected proportion of awards for service and teaching. Decades of research in the social sciences points to ＂implicit associations＂ or subconscious social stereotypes as the mechanism by which both men and women de-value women＇s intellectual accomplishments and praise their communal contributions, which may explain the gender disparity between scholarly and service awards. Gender disparities in scholarly recognition can hinder the advancement of women and limit their numbers as leaders in STEM fields. AWIS （association for women in science） is working with seven disciplinary societies （including AMS, ASA, MAA and SIAM） to identify patterns of behavior that perpetuate unconscious bias in the awards selection process and to pinpoint ways to mitigate its deleterious effects.