French Children’s Awareness of Gender Stereotypes About Mathematics and Reading: When Girls Improve Their Reputation in Math

Since 2000, surveys on academic achievement show gender inequalities in favor of girls in the school setting. The aim of the present study was to examine if gender stereotypes about academic abilities that are usually considered as fully demonstrated in the literature have to be updated. Three hundred ninety-eight French fifth graders from a medium-sized provincial town answered a questionnaire designed to examine, both with direct and indirect measures, if they hold different gender stereotypes concerning mathematics and reading depending on target’s age (children vs. adults). As expected, results showed that participants, regardless of their gender, were aware of a math-ability stereotype favorable to men when the stereotyped targets were adults. When the stereotyped targets were children and young adolescents, the math-ability stereotype was less clear. Participants believed that people think that girls succeed as well as boys in math. Concerning reading-ability, participants reported the “usual” stereotype favorable to females, regardless of the stereotyped target’s age (child or adult). Together these results suggest that academic gender stereotypes have to be reconsidered. The math-ability stereotype targeting children and favorable to both genders seems to show an improvement of the French girls’ reputation in mathematics. Moreover, the reputation of French boys in this domain seems to be poorer than reported in previous research.     

Children’s implicit and explicit gender stereotypes about mathematics and reading ability

Study objectives were to clarify children’s gender-based implicit and explicit mathematics and reading stereotypes, and to determine if implicit and explicit measures were related or represented distinct constructs. One hundred and fifty-six boys and girls (mean age 11.3 years) from six elementary schools completed math or reading stereotype measures. Results for the implicit measures showed that children believed their own gender was superior in mathematics ability, and that girls but not boys believed that girls were better in reading. Explicit measures revealed that girls but not boys believed they were superior at math, and that girls and boys believed girls were better readers than boys. Implicit and explicit measures were not related. Results are discussed in relation to previous studies on children’s mathematics and reading gender stereotypes and large scale tests of mathematics and reading achievement. Educational and research implications are discussed.     

Do gender differences in academic attainment correspond with scholastic attitudes? An exploratory study in a UK secondary school

Research has examined how standardized tests give rise to gender differences in English and STEM attainment, but little research has explored gender differences in classroom-based attainment and the degree to which these correspond to differences in school-related attitudes. To explore the extent to which gender-achievement gaps in classroom-based performance parallel differences in self-perceptions and scholastic attitudes. An independent sample of first (n = 187, age 11–12, Study 1) and second-year students (n = 113, age 12–13, Study 2) from a UK comprehensive secondary school completed a questionnaire measuring academic mindset, self-efficacy, self-concept, competence beliefs, personal and social self-esteem, and endorsement of gender-subject and career stereotypes. Responses were then matched to their respective classroom grades in English, mathematics, science, and computing. Girls outperformed boys in English in their first year but reported lower global self-esteem and greater endorsement of science-career stereotypes. Conversely, girls outperformed boys in mathematics in their second year, but paradoxically reported lower self-concept and competence beliefs in mathematics and science, and higher competence beliefs in English. Across both studies, mindset, self-efficacy, competence beliefs, and social self-esteem were positively related to English attainment; academic self-efficacy was positively related to mathematics attainment; and mindset, self-efficacy, self-concept, and competence beliefs were positively related to science attainment. Gender-achievement gaps in classroom-based academic attainment are complex and highly nuanced; they appear to vary between school subjects across years and may not correspond with similar differences in self-perceptions and scholastic attitudes.     

Mental-rotation performance in middle and high-school age: influence of stimulus material,gender stereotype beliefs,and perceived ability of gendered activities

ABSTRACT

In psychometric mental-rotation tests, males mostly outperform females. The stimulus material and stereotype beliefs could partly be responsible for these differences. This was investigated in an experimental study administering traditional cube figures (C-MRT) and structurally similar pellet figures (P-MRT) to middle- and high-school aged children. 168 participants either solved the C-MRT or the P-MRT and filled out a questionnaire about their perceived ability of stereotypically masculine and feminine activities and about their gender stereotype beliefs. Overall, boys outperformed girls and all children who solved the C-MRT were better than those who solved the P-MRT. Only boys' mental-rotation performance increased with age while girls' perceived ability of stereotypically masculine activities decreased. A regression analysis identified children’s gender, their perceived ability of stereotypically masculine activities and their female gender stereotype beliefs as predictors of mental-rotation performance. Results are discussed with a focus on stereotype threat effects and gender differences in mental-rotation strategies.     

Gender and mathematics: attitudes and stereotype threat susceptibility in Italian children

Two experiments investigated the development of attitudes toward mathematics and stereotype threat susceptibility in Italian children. Experiment 1 involved 476 elementary school boys and girls and produced evidence of gender differences in self-confidence in one's own mathematical ability and in gender stereotyping of mathematics during elementary school. It also provided initial evidence for a decrement in 10-year-old girls' mathematics performance when stereotype threat was made salient by reminding participants that extraordinary achievement in mathematics is typically a male phenomenon. Experiment 2 (N=271) replicated these findings and expanded them to middle school-age participants. Its results suggest that during middle school, the patterns observed in elementary school consolidate, and the stereotypes begin to produce detrimental effects in girls.     

Girls' math performance under stereotype threat: the moderating role of mothers' gender stereotypes

Previous research on stereotype threat in children suggests that making gender identity salient disrupts girls' math performance at as early as 5 to 7 years of age. The present study (n = 124) tested the hypothesis that parents' endorsement of gender stereotypes about math moderates girls' susceptibility to stereotype threat. Results confirmed that stereotype threat impaired girls' performance on math tasks among students from kindergarten through 2nd grade. Moreover, mothers' but not fathers' endorsement of gender stereotypes about math moderated girls' vulnerability to stereotype threat: performance of girls whose mothers strongly rejected the gender stereotype about math did not decrease under stereotype threat. These findings are important because they point to the role of mothers' beliefs in the development of girls' vulnerability to the negative effects of gender stereotypes about math.     

Social Categories and Student Perceptions in High School Mathematics

The plans that adolescent boys and girls make about participating in senior mathematics courses and mathematics-related careers are often at odds with their actual mathematics achievements. In contrast to explanations relating plans to gender differences in mathematics performance, mathematics participation can be explained by expectancy-value models of academic choice, based on gendered self-perceptions, task perceptions, and value judgments. This study with Year 10 Australian students ( N = 199) added to an expectancy-value model the students' current course levels that act as salient social categories. The results suggest that intervention programs need to target perceptions by girls and boys about mathematical talent, as well as making mathematics more useful and interesting to young adults. The findings raise further questions about the stratification of students into separate mathematics courses during the early years of high school.     

Sex differences in children's discrepant perceptions of peer acceptance

Sex differences in children's play patterns during middle childhood are thought to promote greater awareness of social acceptance among girls compared with boys. The present study posited that girls are more discerning of peer acceptance than are boys; however, these sex differences were predicted to vary depending on how discrepant perceptions were assessed (i.e., inaccuracy versus bias). Additional differences were expected if children perceived acceptance by same- versus opposite-sex peers. Participants were 912 third through fifth graders (420 girls and 492 boys). Consistent with predictions, boys were more inaccurate than girls, but only for perceived acceptance by same-sex peers. As expected, girls were more negatively biased than boys, but only for perceived acceptance by opposite-sex peers. Results did not support the hypothesis that boys have more positively biased perceptions of peer acceptance than girls. Overall, these findings raise important issues regarding the evaluation of children's discrepant self-perceptions of peer acceptance.     

When stereotypes disadvantage boys: Strength of stereotypes in mathematics and language arts and their relations with grades

There is growing concern about boys' lagging performance in school, not only in language arts, where the gap is particularly pronounced, but also in mathematics. Stereotypes associating one gender with language arts or with mathematics are likely to contribute to these gaps. Such stereotypes can translate into explicit beliefs such as the extent to which students are aware of societal stereotypes or the extent to which they personally believe stereotypes to be true, but also indirectly into performance following a stereotype threat manipulation. However, few studies have considered these multiple stereotype expressions in both mathematics and language arts to examine their importance in predicting boys' and girls' actual grades in school. To fill this gap, two complementary studies examined high school boys' and girls' awareness and endorsement of stereotypes about both language arts (n = 299) and mathematics (n = 243), as well as whether stereotype threat impaired boys' performance on a spelling test. Although the effect of stereotype threat was not significant overall, our results showed that students were aware of and endorsed strong stereotypes advantaging girls in language arts. In mathematics, students endorsed counter-traditional stereotypes slightly advantaging girls. Our results also showed that these multiple expressions of stereotypes related to students' grades. In doing so, our work provides insights regarding possible targets for interventions to reduce gender gaps disadvantaging boys in school.     

Do Parents’ Academic Gender Stereotypes Influence Whether They Intrude on their Children’s Homework?

In this study, we explored the possibility that when parents endorse particular academic gender stereotypes (e.g., boys are better at math, girls are better at English) they are more likely to engage in uninvited intrusions with homework, intrusions which then undermine children’s confidence in these domains. Participants included 38 fifth to eighth grade students (mean age = 12.16 years, 60% girls, 87% White) and their mothers and fathers. The findings indicated that even though boys received more parental intrusive support with homework, girls were more sensitive to these intrusions, specifically when they involved math. Parents’ intrusive support mediated the relationship between parents’ math-related gender stereotypes and girls’ math ability perceptions, which suggests that these behaviors communicate to girls their parents’ math stereotype beliefs.     

Can Sex‐Undifferentiated Teacher Expectations Mask an Influence of Sex Stereotypes?Alternative Forms of Sex Bias in Teacher Expectations1

This research investigated different forms of sex bias in teacher expectations relative to gymnastics performance. First, a laboratory experiment including 163 physical education teachers confirmed that stereotypes favorable to boys may influence teacher expectations in gymnastics. Next, a naturalistic study involving 15 teachers and 422 students showed that teachers expected no sex differences, even though girls performed better than boys. However, this sex bias was a result of reliance on nondiagnostic student personal characteristics favorable to boys, rather than on a stereotype per se. These results suggest that egalitarian beliefs may mask a bias in favor of a social group when group differences actually exist, and that sex‐biased teacher expectations do not inevitably involve an influence of sex stereotypes.     

Stereotype Susceptibility: Identity Salience and Shifts in Quantitative Performance

Abstract—Recent studies have documented that performance in a domain is hindered when individuals feel that a sociocultural group to which they belong is negatively stereotyped in that domain. We report that implicit activation of a social identity can facilitate as well as impede performance on a quantitative task. When a particular social identity was made salient at an implicit level, performance was altered in the direction predicted by the stereotype associated with the identity. Common cultural stereotypes hold that Asians have superior quantitative skills compared with other ethnic groups and that women have inferior quantitative skills compared with men. We found that Asian-American women performed better on a mathematics test when their ethnic identity was activated, but worse when their gender identity was activated, compared with a control group who had neither identity activated. Cross-cultural investigation indicated that it was the stereotype, and not the identity per se, that influenced performance.     

Interactions between stereotype threat,subjective aging,and memory in older adults

This study examined whether the effects of stereotype threat on memory and subjective age were moderated by positive age stereotypes and self-perceptions of aging among older adults. Perceived threat as a mechanism underlying these effects was also explored. Results showed that stereotype threat (high vs. low threat) did not affect the dependent variables. Moreover, self-perceptions of aging did not moderate the effect of stereotype threat on the dependent variables. However, for people with more positive age stereotypes, older people under highthreat perceived more threat than people under low threat. This could be explained by an effect of age stereotypes in the high-threat group: the more positive age stereotypes held by participants, the more they perceived threat, which in turn decreased their memory performance and made them feel mentally older. We hypothesized that age group identity is stronger in people with more positive age stereotypes, which increase perceived threat.     

Gender and height: Developmental patterns in knowledge and use of an accurate stereotype

The belief that men are taller than women is an accurate gender stereotype that is presumably learned through everyday encounters with men and women. It is unlike most gender beliefs that are difficult to quantify and verify, and that may be learned through means other than direct experience. This research makes use of several advantages available when studying an accurate stereotype (e.g., the ability to know the “truth” about judged targets). Subjects from five different age/grade levels (kindergarten, third grade, seventh grade, tenth grade, and college, N=491, 92.26% Caucasian, 7.54% Arabic, 0.2% African American) made judgments of “who is taller” among photographed male—female pairs that had actually been matched in height. Judgments were made of kindergarten, seventh grade, and college photo pairs. In a developmental context, height judgments are particularly interesting because the gender difference in height changes at different ages—specifically, girls are taller than boys around seventh grade. The data indicated that subjects were sensitive to the changing height stereotype—i.e., they judged adult males taller than adult females, but seventh grade females taller than seventh-grade males. However this was most strikingly true among subjects directly faced with this reality in their peer context—seventh graders—and among college students. Height judgments were also sensitive to an ingroup (gender) bias. The data are discussed in reference to the broader literature on stereotyping and base rate influences on judgment.     

Personal and family factors as predictors of pupils' mathematics achievement

This study examined personal and family factors in prediction of mathematics achievement by Kuwaiti fourth graders (395 boys, 501 girls; M age=10.0 yr., SD=8.0 mo.). Personal variables included sex, total achievement, perception of parental involvement, pupil's attitude towards school, and mathematics achievement. Family variables included parental education and parental involvement, views of school, and income. The data had good fit with the suggested model. Analysis showed variables which had significant direct association with mathematics achievement were total achievement and sex. Parental education, pupil's sex, and attitude towards school had significant indirect associations with mathematical achievement. Associations were direct for boys and indirect for girls on mathematics achievement, so sex had minimal total effects on mathematics achievement.     

Gender biases in children's appraisals of injury risk and other children's risk-taking behaviors

Children ages 6, 8, and 10 years were given tasks designed to assess their beliefs about risk of injury from activities. Children were asked to appraise the risk of injury for boys and girls engaging in various play behaviors and to judge the sex of the character in stories about children engaging in activities that result in injuries. Results revealed gender biases in children's appraisals of injury risk: Both boys and girls rated boys as having a lower likelihood of injury than girls even though the boys and girls were engaging in the exact same activities. Children also showed higher accuracy in identifying the sex of the character in stories of boys' injuries than girls' injuries, and accuracy improved with the participant's age. Overall, the results indicate that by the age of 6 years children already have differential beliefs about injury vulnerability for boys and girls. Although boys routinely experience more injuries than girls, children rate girls as having a greater risk of injury than boys. With increasing age, school-age children develop a greater awareness of the ways in which boys and girls differ in risk-taking activities that lead to injury outcomes.     

Stereotypes about children with traditional and nontraditional gender roles

Two studies were done to assess different aspects of gender stereotypes about traditional and nontraditional girls and boys. In Study 1, 81 undergraduates (57 females, 24 males; 88% Caucasian, 12% Asian) rated the typicality and desirability of 25 personality traits and behaviors for boys and girls. Analyses showed that this sample believed that typical girls and boys differ on 24 out of the 25 behaviors and traits. There were fewer differences when they rated the desirability of the characteristics for each sex. In Study 2, 154 undergraduates (97 females, 57 males, 82% Caucasian, 18% Asian) estimated the percentage of occurrence of 26 traits and behaviors in traditional and nontraditional girls and boys (i.e., tomboys and sissies). These estimates were used to determine two aspects of stereotypes: the characteristics that are perceived to occur most often in a group and the characteristics that are particularly distinctive for a group. Again, stereotypes of girls and boys were found to be extensive. Percentage estimates, however, illustrated that stereotypes are probabilistic in that many boys and girls are believed to have both masculine and feminine characteristics. Stereotypes of nontraditional children were compared to stereotypes of traditional children. Analyses showed that tomboys were stereotyped similarly to traditional boys but sissies were not stereotyped similarly to traditional girls. Instead, the sissy stereotype was found to be very narrow. The advantage of using a variety of assessments methods is discussed.     

Preschool Children’s Beliefs about Gender Differences in Academic Skills

Evidence from different Latin American countries shows a gap in the academic achievement of girls and boys. Chilean children’s achievement is a case in point, with the gender gap being especially large for mathematics achievement. These differences can be explained partly from the viewpoint of beliefs and implicit theories. Research in this field has focused mainly on elementary and secondary students, and there is no relevant data on preschool children. This study examines Chilean kindergarten children’s beliefs about differences in the academicals skills of girls and boys. Eighty-one preschool children (34 girls, mean age 5 years and 11 months) were recruited from schools serving a middle SES population from downtown Santiago. An instrument to test children’s implicit beliefs about gender differences in academic ability was adapted from previous research. Results support the hypothesis that boys and girls at the age of 5 already hold stereotypical expectations about boys’ and girls’ academic achievement. When asked about which school subject a character liked more, was better at, and found easier, participants showed no preference between math and language when reasoning about a male character, but they indicated that a female character would find math harder, perform worse at it, and like it less than language. These responses did not differ according to the gender of the participating children. Implications of these findings are addressed and limitations and future research are discussed.