Anthony GoertzAccording to Kate Luken Raz, a post-doctoral scholar in psychology at the University of Alberta, children’s concepts of fairness and equality start early.
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) stereotypes for both gender and ethnicity start “as young as three, four, and five years of age,” Luken Raz said. These stereotypes can impact how individuals from different racialized backgrounds and gender minorities choose eventual career paths that may or may not be STEM-related.
Luken Raz’s recent study aims to shed light on STEM stereotypes and how parents and teachers can help promote STEM inclusivity to children.
Competence beliefs are not the only factor that predict career expectations
The study found that girls are more likely to believe their female peers will grow up to be doctors instead of scientists. While these careers are both STEM-related, believing how capable girls and children of diverse backgrounds are is only one factor contributing to career expectations.
It was discovered that STEM competency beliefs only sometimes predicted children’s beliefs about the likelihood of underrepresented minorities entering into STEM fields, while, conversely, these beliefs were a significant predictor for girls entering STEM professions.
“We know there is a difference,” Luken Raz said. Career expectations are also heavily influenced by “feelings of lack of belonging, motivation, and anxieties.” Factors that can prevent gender and ethnic minorities from pursuing careers in STEM.
The overrepresentation of women in the health-care field is another potential element that plays a role in girls entering STEM fields. Seeing women take up care-taking positions such as nursing contributes to the belief that children expect a girl to be more likely to become a doctor than a scientist. However, a confirmation of this would need to be done through a future study, Luken Raz said.
Boys reinforce STEM gender stereotypes more than girls
The difference in frequency between boys and girls reinforcing gender stereotypes in STEM is also prevalent. Boy peer groups negatively evaluate other boys who wish to participate in a female-dominated STEM area such as biology. Luken Raz explained that this is due to the higher rates of stereotype internalization that happens among boys.
They said that children perceive their own gender group as “more complex and more diverse” due to knowing many individuals from that group. This results in girls believing that any girl can become successful in STEM occupations, despite what stereotypes enforce.
Boys on the other hand have less “counterfactual examples as easily available to them,” Luken Raz noted. Therefore, when boys hear STEM stereotypes about girls, they are more likely to internalize them because of their lack of direct experiences seeing girls and women excel in STEM fields.
Caregivers and teachers can help children counter negative beliefs about girls in STEM. First, there needs to be an understanding that by seven years of age, both girls and boys are aware of stereotypes regarding their gender and may already be internalizing them.
Explicitly discussing how anyone can succeed in STEM needs to be readily fostered in classrooms, especially when doing STEM activities, according to Luken Raz. They noted that by seeing scientists and doctors from a wide variety of backgrounds, children’s stereotype beliefs can be challenged.
Luken Raz identified that parents and caretakers play a key role in shaping how children view the world, and that promoting STEM inclusivity is essential in fostering positive beliefs of girls and children of diverse backgrounds. By providing a greater number of assessment types in schools, creativity in classrooms can be fostered and motivation for math and science can be maintained, despite societal stereotypes.
