Séminaire de Recherche en Linguistique

A while ago, I  had the opportunity and priviledge to  be invited to a

workshop  led  by the  well-known  psychologist  Virginia Valian,  who

presented  her seminal  work on  the limits  and the  slowness of  the

advancement of women at work and in society.

 

After eliminating some non-explanations (lack of ambition, burden of

family, differential instrinsic abilites, among others), I will report

on some of her findings based on the notion of gender schema and how

these cognitive schemas and the imperceptible differences they create

in behaviours, perception and evaluation accrue advantages for men and

disadvantages for women over time.

 

A  very  interesting   aspect  of  this  cognitive   approach  is  the

investigation of the  effects of success and failure on  the self, and

provides an explanation of why so few women, especially early in their

career, are willing to openly argue and demand gender equality.

 

Some recent statistics from the  university of Geneva and some avenues

pursued to address the problems will close the presentation.