Gender representation begets gender representation

Research on the underrepresentation of women in academia and other professions indicates that women may be underrepresented in fields associated with intrinsic aptitude—or “brilliance”—because women are stereotyped as not possessing brilliance. At the same time, women may be less likely to pursue careers in such fields because few women are in them, which highlights the importance of understanding the role of gender representation in guiding professional interests. Across four studies (N = 1,680), we found that people have knowledge of the male-female breakdown of employees for a broad range of occupations (Study 1) and that current gender demographics predicts interest and belonging in hypothetical advertised employment (Studies 2–4). The effect of gender demographics was robust, even prioritized over messaging about ability, particularly among women (Study 3), and scaling parametrically according to the ratio of male and female employees (Study 4). Especially among women, professions with more females elicited greater interest and feelings of belonging than those with more males, even when those professions were associated with brilliance. These findings suggest that altering beliefs about brilliance for success in specific professions, though important, may be insufficient for increasing female representation in fields where women are underrepresented. Instead, increasing future female representation may benefit from increasing the presence of more women now.