{"id":1269,"date":"2017-02-07T08:00:13","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T14:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=1269"},"modified":"2017-02-06T14:14:35","modified_gmt":"2017-02-06T20:14:35","slug":"gendering-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2017\/02\/07\/gendering-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"Gendering Intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Photo by woodleywonderworks, Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A recent <\/span>study<\/span><\/a> found that by age six, girls perceive themselves as less intelligent than boys. The study consisted of an experiment asking girls and boys if they wanted to play a game for smart kids, then telling them a fictional story about a smart person. At the end of the story, the kids had to decide if the \u201creally, really smart\u201d person in the story was a man or woman. The girls were less likely to identify the character as a woman than boys were to identify the character as a man. Social science research shows that stereotypes and childhood socialization shape a person\u2019s understanding of gender norms.<\/span><\/p>\n

The classic stereotype that boys are better at math and science still persists, even though more women are entering STEM fields. Teachers often perceive that boys are better at math than girls are, which girls and boys both internalize as early as second grade. Students, in turn, stereotype men as smarter than women, as evidenced by student evaluations of college professors. Students refer to male professors as \u201cbrilliant\u201d more often than female and minority professors, and the \u201cbrilliant\u201d professors are more likely to be in fields, such as math and science, with fewer female professors.<\/span><\/h5>\n