Women continue to be underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields. As such, there has been an increased interest in interventions to reduce biasagainst,and increase inclusion of, women in STEM. In this paper, we compare and contrast two commonly used strategies: awareness and blindness. We demonstrate that gender-blindness—a diversity ideology that advocates for downplaying gender differences, rather than embracing them—has the potential to diminishstereotypingof women in STEM fields. In six total studies, we show that men whobelieve,or are primed with, gender-blindness (compared to gender-awareness) are less likely to endorse gender stereotypes around women's STEM competencies. By measuring (Study 1) and manipulating (Studies 2–5) gender-blindness, we show that gender-blindness (compared to awareness) minimizes the gender gap on explicit stereotyping measures, as well as diminishes STEM stereotyping in target evaluations. Across six studies, we show the influence ofdiversityideologies onstereotypingof women in STEM.
