Virginia Valian, author of \Why So Slow? The Advancement of Women"" and advocate of gender equality, spoke Friday in Bascom Hall about the reasons for widespread gender inequality in society.
The main focus of Valian's speech was the way social institutions affect thinking, resulting in differences between the professional advancement of men and women.
According to Valian, women benefit less from their skills than men, due to preconceived notions called gender schemas, that both men and women have.
""We don't see people simply as people; we see them as male and female ... and that tends to influence our judgement,"" she said.
Valian said society sees men as independent and capable of focusing on the task at hand. In contrast, women are seen as nurturing and communal.
This contrast has great consequences in the workforce. Men are overestimated whereas women are underestimated. According to Valian, gender schemas are not intentional discrimination. They are opinions both men are women possess, but over which they have little conscious control.
Valian gave examples of gender schemas in society. In one study, women were shown to look men in the eye when speaking and listening, a trait of people in socially inferior roles when speaking and listening to them, while men tended to avoid eye contact when women spoke.
These small-scale differences add up in what Valian called the ""accumulation of advantage.""
""[People] become successful by parlaying small gains into big gains,"" she said.
Valian compared these small gains to interest in the bank. Little amounts of money eventually add up to a substantial amount.
Conversely, constant disadvantages to women add up to the gender disparity in our society today.
""A small disadvantage ... over the long haul adds up to a large disadvantage,"" Valian said.
Valian concluded by stressing the need for education about gender schemas, vigilance and action in countering the negative effects of the schemas.
""We can make a better world for all of us,"" she said.
Heather Daniels, administrator for the neuroscience Ph.D. program at UW-Madison, said she was enthusiastic about Valian's work.
""[Valian] conceptualizes [gender inequality] in a way that I think both men and women can understand the problem without men getting defensive,"" Daniels said.
Claire Boyce, UW-Madison sophomore, said she liked Valian's focus on the problems gender schemas create.
""She showed both men and women discriminate in the same way,"" Boyce said.
