High School Girls Are Less Comfortable Expressing Intellectual Humility in Class Than Boys

• In Event: Research on Women and Equity

Abstract

Women are underrepresented in certain science, math, and technology fields, but the processes that contribute to these disparities are not fully understood. We investigated whether gender differences in willingness to express intellectual humility (admit confusion, ignorance, and mistakes) might play a role. High school students (N = 1,380) completed open-ended questions indicating whether they regularly struggled to express intellectual humility in class and why. Girls were more likely than boys to struggle expressing intellectual humility and math was the most common subject in which students struggled. Qualitative analyses revealed differences between boys’ and girls’ barriers to expressing intellectual humility. Classrooms may perpetuate gender disparities by implicitly communicating that girls are less welcome to express their questions and confusion than boys.

Authors

• Krissia Angie Vasquez, New York University

• Tenelle Porter, Ball State University