Girls start believing men are smarter than women as early as 6-years-old

A new study shows that girls as young as 6-years-old can be led to believe that men are inherently smarter than women.

The findings, published in Science journal, aren’t surprising given today’s gender climate. But what is interesting is these stereotypes are affecting girls at such a tender age — slashing their chances of pursuing ambitious careers as adults.

“As a society, we associate a high level of intellectual ability with males more than females, and our research suggests that this association is picked up by children as young 6 and 7,” said Andrei Cimpian, associate professor in the psychology department at New York University. Cimpian coauthored the study, which looked at 400 children ages 5-7.

Here’s how the study was conducted: First, a selection of girls and boys were told a story about someone who is “really, really smart,” a child’s idea of brilliant, then they were asked to identify that person among the photos of two women and two men. The people pictured were well-dressed, looked to be the same age and depicted as equally happy. At age 5, both boys and girls, tended to associate smarts with their own gender — meaning the boys would generally chose the men and girls would chose the women.

But as the groups became older and began at school, they became more likely to endorse the stereotypes. At 6 and 7, girls were “significantly less likely” to pick women over men.

The results were similar when the kids were shown photos of children.

It’s unclear where the stereotypes come from. Teachers, peers, parents and the press are amongst the usual suspects, said Cimpian. Action must be taken so that these biases don’t continue to curve girls’ professional aspirations.

“Instill the idea that success in any line of work is not an innate ability, whatever it is, but rather putting your head down, being passionate about what you are doing,” Cimpian said, adding that exposure to ambitious women who act as role models could help.

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