This paper presents two experiments in which the gender
composition of groups of college students was varied to
examine its impact on performance of women on math and
verbal tests. In Experiment 1, women completed
difficult items from either the math or verbal portion
of the GRE in a room along with either two male or female
accomplices of the experimenter who posed as fellow
test-takers. The women had been led to believe
that their scores would be shared at the end of the
testing session. Women performed more poorly on
the math items in the presence of two males
compared with two females, but performance on the verbal
items was equivalent. In Experiment 2, student
participants completed just the math items, but male
participants were included and a mixed-sex condition was
added (i.e., 1 female and 1 male accomplice). Consistent
with Experiment 1, women on average performed more
poorly when in the presence of two men, but men were
unaffected by the gender composition of the group. Results also showed that women's performance decreased
in proportion to the number of fellow male test-takers. These results show that the social context alone,
specifically being a numerical minority in a situation
where a group-based stereotype might apply to one's
behavior, can create stereotype threat and undermine
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