Professors' "feminine" behavioral cues in the classroom close gender gaps in participation

Record numbers of women students have enrolled in graduate business programs-a path to greater career prospects. Yet gender disparities in grades and career outcomes persist. Research suggests that one reason why they persist is because business schools are-and have been historically-male-dominated with cultures characterized by masculine defaults. These cultures regard stereotypically masculine characteristics and behaviors (e.g., being assertive and competitive) as neutral, necessary, or standard. In business school settings, we investigate whether there are gender disparities in a critical aspect of students' experiences: classroom participation. In an observational field study of 3,159 students across 76 Master of Business Administration classrooms, we find a gender gap in actual student participation behavior. Importantly, however, our findings indicate that this gap is not inevitable. Using thin-slice impressions of professors' behaviors during classroom interactions, we find that when professors diverge from the masculine default by exhibiting "feminine" behavioral cues (e.g., subtle other-oriented behaviors), the gender participation gap closes. In a second, preregistered experiment, we provide causal evidence that professors' behavioral cues affect student participants' anticipated participation by shaping their experiences of inclusion. Our findings highlight that, in male-dominated settings, shifting professors' behavioral cues away from masculine defaults has the potential to create more equitable spaces. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).