Girls (As Young As Six) Think Brilliance Is A Male Trait

Research into gender stereotypes in the U.S. have found girls as young as six years old believe brilliance is a male trait.

The study—which was based in America—also found boys tend to believe achieving good grades in school is something related to innate abilities. As in, being smart is a natural gift, as opposed to something that's learned.

Co-author of the research, Andrei Cimpian, said the findings highlight how even incredibly young children are likely to absorb and be influenced by gender stereotypes.

The notion of brilliance or giftedness being more common in men was a key finding in the study. “Because these ideas are present at such an early age, they have so much time to affect the educational trajectories of boys and girls,” explained Cimpian.

Researchers carried out a range of tests with around 400 children—half of whom were girls—to delve into intelligence related gender stereotypes. They read the kids a story about a highly intelligent person, who were then asked to guess the person’s gender. Boys chose their own gender as being “really, really smart” 65 per cent of the time, while girls only chose their gender 48 per cent of the time.

“This study shows that girls are internalising those cultural messages early in development, believing that, yes they may work hard, but they are not naturally really smart,” explained Christia Spears Brown, professor of psychology at Kentucky University. She says these beliefs may affect what academic paths children choose to take, and shows why girls are opting out of majors like physics.

In Australia, a 2014 study found that women “continue to leave STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Math] in unacceptably high numbers at secondary, tertiary and early-career level.” The new research shows—perhaps—gender stereotypes are a driving factor for this phenomena.

Dame Athene Donald, professor of experimental physics, said if the world is to facilitate a gender-balanced workforce of engineers, mathematicians and physicists in the future, and intervention must be made early on.

“Parents, teachers and the media need to work much harder eradicating gender stereotypes in the way they talk about adults to children of all ages,” she said.

Photo: iStock and Giphy