{"id":9079,"date":"2021-11-22T22:04:09","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T22:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1373851"},"modified":"2021-11-22T22:04:09","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T22:04:09","slug":"study-girls-show-more-interest-in-stem-when-theyre-not-fed-harmful-stereotypes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=9079","title":{"rendered":"Study: Girls show more interest in STEM when they\u2019re not fed harmful stereotypes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Researchers at the University of Houston and the University of Washington today published new research indicating gender stereotypes play a huge role in whether children choose to pursue an eventual career in computer science or engineering.<\/p>\n

Up front: <\/b>The researchers conducted a series of studies and experiments involving more than 2,200 children. The team\u2019s goal was to determine how gender stereotypes affected school-aged children in order to glean insights into the ongoing diversity problem in STEM.<\/p>\n

The scope of the study was apparently limited to measuring the interest of \u201cboys\u201d and \u201cgirls,\u201d with no apparent mention of non-binary students.<\/p>\n

Background:<\/b> The team surveyed the kids to learn what they believed when it came to boys\u2019 and girls\u2019 interest in computer science and engineering.<\/p>\n

It should shock nobody to find that the kids beliefs<\/i> aligned with the status quo. <\/span><\/p>\n

Per a press release<\/a> from the University of Washington:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Researchers found that just over half (51%) of children believed girls are less interested than boys in computer science, and nearly two-thirds (63%) said girls are less interested in engineering. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This certainly tracks. For comparison, only 14% of the kids thought girls were more interested in computer science than boys, and less than 10% said the same about engineering.<\/span><\/p>\n

In another experiment, however, the team showed that it may be the stereotype itself that\u2019s causing the gender gap. <\/span><\/p>\n

Per the press release:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Subsequent lab studies provided a smaller sample of children two different activities from which to choose. The results demonstrated that girls were significantly less interested in a computer science activity when they were told boys were more interested in it than girls (35% of girls chose the activity), compared to one they were told boys and girls were equally interested in (65% of girls chose that activity).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This indicates that girls are twice as likely to choose STEM-related activities when they\u2019re not being told that computers are for boys. <\/span><\/p>\n

Quick take:<\/strong> The notion that girls are somehow universally less-interested in STEM than boys is as ridiculous as it is misogynistic. <\/span><\/p>\n

Research like this is important because it demonstrates the truth of the matter: gatekeeping, sexual harassment and assault, and bigotry is what\u2019s keeping women and other minorities out of STEM. <\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers at the University of Houston and the University of Washington today published new research indicating gender stereotypes play a huge role in whether children choose to pursue an eventual career in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9079"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}