Professors’ “feminine” behavioral cues in the classroom close gender gaps in participation.

Many organizations, including business schools, implement well-intentioned initiatives to reduce gender disparities. Yet gender disparities in grades and career outcomes persist. Across two studies—a field study of students’ actual participation behavior and an experiment of students’ anticipated participation—we find that, on average, men students participate in classroom discussions more than women students. However, our findings suggest that professors’ behavior can mitigate this gender gap in participation. We demonstrate that when professors diverge from the masculine default by displaying “feminine” behavioral cues such as being warm, approachable, and attentive to others, the gender participation gap is closed. The present work points to the significance of subtle behaviors as a potential means to reduce gender disparities in historically male-dominated contexts.