Portrait of Male and Female Scientists: An Investigation of Characteristic Differences in Children’s Biographical Storybooks

• In Event: Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Topic - Sex, Gender

Abstract

Throughout adolescence, girls show a pronounced decline in science interest, participation, and perceived ability compared to boys (e.g., Wigfield, Eccles, Simpkins, Roeser, & Schiefele, 2015). This trend may be attributed to stereotypes that scientists are male and possess high levels of innate intelligence (Leslie, Cimpian, Meyer, & Freeland, 2015). By age 7, girls are less likely to associate high intelligence with their gender (Bian, Leslie, & Cimpian, 2017), and the depiction of successful scientists as innately gifted may lead girls to believe that being a scientist is incompatible with their identities (Cheryan, Master, & Meltzoff, 2015). Recent literature has shown that subtle variations in science language affect girls’ engagement (Rhodes, Leslie, Yee, & Saunders, 2019), but scant research has examined how eminent scientists are portrayed in biographies written for children, which may shape children’s future interests in pursuing careers in science.
This study examined how scientists versus non-scientists are described in biographical storybooks for students from Pre-K through high school. Biographies (N=142) published in the last decade were randomly selected and coded for intellectual abilities (e.g., “smart”), effort characteristics (e.g., “dedicated”), and emotional qualities (e.g., “calm”). We predicted that storybooks about scientists (vs. non-scientists) would include more descriptors regarding their intellectual characteristics and fewer descriptors on dedication. Within the scientist biographies, we predicted that male scientists would be described using more intellectual descriptors, and female scientists would be portrayed using dedication and emotion descriptors.
To test our first hypothesis, an ANCOVA by domain on descriptors was performed. Domain included two categories: scientists (e.g. biologists, physicists) and non-scientists (e.g. artists, writers). Page count was included as a covariate. Consistent with our expectation, there was a main effect of domain on intellectual descriptors, F(1, 139) = 5.11, p < .05, such that scientists were described with more intellectual characteristics than non-scientists. Contrary to hypotheses, there was no main effect of domain on dedicational descriptors, F(1, 139) = 1.12, ns.
Next, an ANCOVA was performed within the scientist domain to analyze gender differences in descriptors. Among scientists, there was a significant difference by gender on the use of dedicational and emotional descriptors, F(1, 74) > 5.45, ps < .05, such that females were described with more dedicational and emotional characteristics than males (see Table 1). However, there was no significant difference by gender on the use of intellectual descriptors among scientists, F(1, 74) = 0.003, ns.
A supplementary analysis evaluated the role of the authors’ gender. A 2 (domain) × 2 (author’s gender) ANCOVA revealed a significant interaction between domain and author gender on intellectual descriptors, F(1, 125) = 4.27, p < .05 (see Figure 1). Male authors used more intellectual descriptors for scientists than female authors, while female authors used more intellectual descriptors for non-scientists than male authors. No significant main or interaction effects were found for descriptors regarding dedication or emotion.
Findings reveal differences in how eminent individuals are portrayed in children’s books, which may elucidate the gender disparity in the science field, a trend that becomes prominent during adolescence.

 

 

Authors

• Pamela Sheffler, University of California - Riverside
  Presenting Author

• Yena Kyeong, National University of Singapore
  Non-Presenting Author

• Cecilia Cheung, University of California - Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author