Young Girls’ Implicit “Math = Male” Stereotypes Reflect Societal Disparities Favoring Males

• In Event: Tracing the Source of Gender Disparities in STEM: Children’s Macro- and Micro-level Sociocultural Contexts

Abstract

Children demonstrate implicit biases that link math to boys rather than to girls (math = boy stereotypes) during early elementary school. These implicit biases refer to mental associations that are picked up unconsciously, rapidly triggered, and help form the child’s mental model of the social world. The early emergence of such biases raises questions about their origins. We hypothesize that they grow in part from observed gender disparities favoring males in the surrounding society.

Currently available findings indicate weak (Galdi et al., 2017) or nonsignificant (del Río et al., 2019, 2021) correlations between children’s gender stereotypes and those of their parents. This raises the idea that children’s stereotypes may also have roots in societal sources that lay beyond the family environment itself. The present research investigated whether nation-level math gender gaps in TIMSS Grade 4 math scores (child assessment) and nation-level socioeconomic gender inequality in the Human Development Index (HDI; adult assessment) predict the magnitude of children’s implicit math = boy stereotypes.

We obtained data from 16 child datasets (Mage = 8.01 years) from children across 5 different countries. All of the children were administered both implicit and explicit measures of math–gender stereotypes. Two standard nation-level indicators of gender disparities were obtained from publicly available governmental/international websites: (a) TIMSS Grade-4 math gender gaps and (b) HDI female-to-male ratio. The analytic sample consisted of 2,424 children from 5 diverse countries (Chile, Croatia, Italy, Singapore, United States).

Two novel findings emerged. First, for girls but not boys, implicit math = boy stereotypes were related to nation-level boy advantages in Grade 4 math scores and nation-level men advantages in socioeconomic standing. Specifically, girls from nations with higher levels of gender gap favoring boys in TIMSS math scores exhibited significantly higher stereotype scores, Coeff = 0.079, p < .001 (Figure 1A), and girls from nations with lower levels of socioeconomic gender inequalities favoring men exhibited significantly lower stereotype scores, Coeff = -0.034, p < .05 (Figure 1B). Second, for the implicit measure, math = boy stereotypes became stronger as a function of children’s age. This was true both within, p < .01, and across, p < .001, the 16 samples.

In sum, this cross-cultural study showed that girls from countries with greater measurable societal-level advantages for males (math achievement scores for children and socioeconomic standing for adults) demonstrated stronger implicit stereotypes than boys. We hypothesize that young girls are, at some level, sensitive to the fact that societal structures favor males over females. Children’s acquisition of social knowledge and gender stereotypes is not only shaped by explicit messages and caregiver practices in the immediate social environment, but is also significantly influenced by implicit cues in the sociocultural context at large. In this study, we have begun to specify some of the societal level factors that influence children. In the conference address, we will discuss several theories about the mechanisms by which societal-level inequities begin to impact the lives and implicit mental structures of young children.

Authors

• Dario Cvencek, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth A. Sanders, University of Washington

• Maria Francisca Del Rio

• Ružica Brečić, University of Zagreb

• Carlo Tomasetto, University of Bologna

• Manu Kapur, ETH Zurich

• Andrew N Meltzoff, University of Washington