Published On: February 15th, 2017|

The Denver Post – Valerie Strauss

“Gender stereotypes live on: Research published in the journal Science found that girls starting at the age of 6 are less likely than boys of the same age to believe that girls are “really, really smart.” Four studies – done by Lin Bian of the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Sarah-Jane Leslie of Princeton University and Andrei Cimpian of New York University – looked at children from ages 5 to 7 to understand when girls start to believe this about members of their own gender – even though they know that girls get better grades in school. This research builds on earlier work bearing out the phenomenon, including a 2015 study, led by Leslie, showing that the stereotype that women are not naturally “brilliant” like men could explain their underrepresentation in academia.”(more)