The unfounded belief that men are successful in academic careers and scientific fields has been on the decline lately. However, this was not always the case. Even in the not so distant past, women still did not have the right to education. There is a serious group that argues that men have made more scientific developments throughout history by ignoring this fact, and therefore they are more ‘bright’ in scientific fields. The exposure of little girls to such stereotypes at the beginning of their education life can have very devastating consequences.
According to a new study on gender stereotypes involving 500,000 students worldwide, published in Science Advances, girls believe more than boys than boys that the reason behind academic failure is ‘incompetence’. Although such gender-based stereotypes have been researched and destroyed many times before, the new research also makes it possible to make cross-country comparisons in terms of covering a very wide area.
Girls believe that when they fail, it is because they are ‘incompetent’
To learn more about 15-year-old students’ knowledge and skills in math, reading and science Based on data from the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey, which is conducted every three years and includes the sentence “When I fail, I fear that I may not have enough talent”. ‘ turned out to be more inclined to tie up. While it was noteworthy that men blamed ‘external factors’ for their failures in the research, the only exception among the countries was Saudi Arabia.
Strangely enough, the research revealed that, contrary to expectations, the countries where this difference was most pronounced were wealthy, developed and ‘egalitarian’ countries. According to the research, 61 percent of girls in rich countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) think that their failures are due to their talents, while this rate is 47 percent for boys with a 14 percent difference. In non-OECD countries, the difference was only 8 percent. On the other hand, one of the remarkable results of the study was that the difference was larger among the higher performing students compared to the students with average performance.
Gender inequality in developing countries is ‘restructuring’ rather than disappearing
This aforementioned gender perception, self-confidence and men’s tendency to study science and mathematics. It has been observed before in matters such as the connection between Stating that they do not have a definitive explanation for this paradox, one of the co-authors of the study, Thomas Breda, from the CNRS and the Paris School of Economics, states that this is proof that as countries develop, gender inequality does not actually disappear, but is only restructured.
One hypothesis is that countries that offer greater freedom of thought provide more opportunities for people to revert to old stereotypes. In addition, the fact that people are more focused on individual success in these countries causes more importance to be given to the concept of talent. In contrast, societies that place a higher value on talent allow people to apply stereotypes less.
The research also reveals a strong correlation between the idea of being less talented and the other three indicators examined as part of the PISA survey. According to this, when girls believe how less talented they are compared to boys, their self-confidence also decreases. As a result, they enjoy less competition, and girls are less willing to work in male-dominated occupations such as information and communication technology. These three indicators are often cited as contributing factors to the existence of the ‘glass ceiling’ that prevents women from reaching the highest positions.
Evaluating the results of the paper, the authors state that the glass ceiling is less likely to disappear as countries develop or more gender equality is achieved. As a solution to this situation, “Stop thinking in terms of innate talent,” Breda noted.
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