Gender Stereotypes About Intelligence Present in Young Children

According to research, young girls associate brilliance with men more than women, by the age of 6. In other words, six-year-old girls are less likely than boys to consider people of their own gender ‘really smart’.

Leslie et al. (2015) explain that these stereotypes can partially explain why fewer females work in academic disciplines, where innate talent and brilliance are considered the keys to success. These unfortunate stereotypes might put women off pursuing a career because of the effort require to demonstrate that the stereotype is false, or because they don’t wish to be overlooked by male colleagues.

Read: "U. researcher shows gender stereotypes about intelligence present in young children"

This article would provide interesting discussion in the Year 2 Gender Topic, in particular, the idea of sex-role stereotypes.