Gender stereotypes steer girls away from tech starting age six
How to encourage girls' interest in tech — Newsletter No.22
Our regular readers already know that societal stereotypes depict girls as less interested than boys in computer science and engineering.
Let us introduce you to the research that checked whether these stereotypes still exist and, then looked into how they influence participation in these fields.
The authors conducted four studies, with 2,449 subjects in schools across a wide range of ages and racial/ethnic groups, with controlled experiments in the laboratory to investigate the presence, correlations, and causal effects of gender-interest stereotypes.
Main conclusion: The research demonstrated the existence of these stereotypes among children and adolescents from 6 to 18 years old and their potential negative consequences for girls’ subsequent participation in these fields.
What have we all learned?
Children as young as six and adolescents across multiple racial/ethnic and gender intersections (Black, Latinx, Asian, and White girls and boys) endorse stereotypes that girls are less interested than boys in computer science and engineering.
Looking further into the data, we now know that:
The more individual girls endorse these stereotypes, the lower their own interest and sense of belonging in these fields.
The stereotypes regarding interest are stronger than those about abilities. This means that most of the children believe that girls are not interested in computer science and engineering, and not that they are not able to excel in these fields.
Girls might reason that if their group is supposedly not interested, then they are not likely to belong in the field. Not having a sense of belonging is a powerful deterrent for students. The results showed that these gender stereotypes led to girls having a lower sense of belonging in computer science classes and activities, and an opposite effect on the other side. Boys’ greater sense of belonging mediated the positive relationship between the endorsement of gender-interest stereotypes favoring boys and interest in pursuing computer science.
Both girl and boy participants endorsed gender-interest stereotypes favoring boys in computer science. But, boys were significantly more likely than girls to endorse the stereotypes favoring boys in computer science.
Gender-interest stereotypes favoring boys were endorsed by Black, Asian, Latinx, and White girls and boys for both computer science and engineering.
The more boys endorsed gender-interest stereotypes favoring boys, the higher their own interest in pursuing computer science.
Gender-interest stereotypes predicted lower interest in pursuing computer science for Black, Asian, Latina, and White girls and also predicted lower interest in pursuing engineering for Black, Asian, and White girls.
Gender interest stereotypes caused girls to have a lower interest in a novel activity.
To conclude
Girls were significantly less interested in the stereotyped activity than boys. Also, girls were significantly less interested in the stereotyped than the nonstereotyped activity, and there was no statistically significant difference between boys’ interest in the stereotyped and the nonstereotyped activities
This means that when it comes to computer science and engineering, the data clearly shows that the existing gender stereotypes lead to fewer girls choosing the field. And it doesn’t nudge boys towards the field any more than into any other not gender stereotypical field.
In short, the choice is greater for boys, as our prejudices are leading girls out of these fields.
If you want to read the full research and access other materials the authors have created, check it out here.
What can YOU do?
Just keep fighting your own stereotypes.
Invest time in introducing technology in a different light to your daughter(s) and students. You can find lots of inspiration in our newsletter archive (just look for “recommendations”).
Share these insights, and help us all do better.
Sharing this newsletter with other parents will mean a lot to us, but will also help for sure!