"Follow your passions?" Not so fast.
Let's change what we say to high school and college graduates. Sure, you can follow your passions. But also keep an open mind and try things you may have ruled out without even realizing why. |
 | | Illustration by The New York Times; photograph by Getty Images |
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When I was a psychology Ph.D. student at Stanford in the early 2000s, I interviewed at Motorola and Adobe for summer internships. The stark contrast in what the offices looked like — gray cubicles and rooms named after "Star Trek" ships at Motorola versus bright, airy and colorful working spaces at Adobe — led me to feel that I would fit in much better at Adobe, where I ended up working for the next five years. |
This early-career experience sparked my interest in the work I now do researching gender disparities and stereotypes in computer science. Was this experience unique to me, I wondered, or could stereotypes about what computer scientists look and act like help explain why women are so underrepresented in the field despite their initial dominance in it, even when compared with other STEM disciplines like math and chemistry? |
In the two decades since, I have run more than 50 behavioral experiments and published more than 20 papers on this and related questions with my students and colleagues. We established that inaccurate and exaggerated perceptions of computer scientists (e.g., that they're socially awkward and play video games) and negative stereotypes of women's and girls' proclivity for STEM fields cause gender disparities. Most recently, as I wrote in a guest essay this week with one of my students, Therese Anne Mortejo, we found that when people are asked to identify and follow their passions, they seem to do precisely what this injunction is supposed to discourage: They conform to societal expectations about what pursuits are appropriate for their gender. |
By looking outside the Western world, we and other researchers have found further reason to believe that the advice to "follow your passions" can end up reinforcing gender differences in intellectual and professional ambition. In many countries where students are not encouraged to view academic choice as a form of self-expression, such as Malaysia and Kuwait, the gender gaps in computer science and engineering degrees are much smaller than they are in the United States. |
Many gender disparity researchers champion the mantra "don't fix the women; fix the environment." What we have found is that a third factor — deeply ingrained American values, such as a yearning for individuality and for freedom from others — can be limiting in its own way. This research reaffirms the need to interrogate even our most cherished beliefs and their unintended effects on equity and diversity in society. |
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