The gender gap is present from very early ages. This is demonstrated by a studypublished this Wednesday in Science Advances, in which it is revealed that 15-year-old adolescents are more likely than their peers to attribute their academic failures to a lack of talent. The researchers started from a question from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) of 2018. The sample was made up of more than half a million students from 72 different countries. This stereotype is greater in more developed countries and with a higher level of gender equality and in high-achieving students.
This study is not the first to highlight the gender gap in very young people or even children. In 2017, the magazine Science published a research in which he showed that six-year-old girls are less likely than boys to believe that members of their gender are “very, very smart,” as synonymous with brilliant. In addition, she evidenced that from that age they began to avoid activities that are considered for brilliant people.
The PISA report is produced every three years and it measures the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students in mathematics, reading and science. In 2018 they included for the first time the question “When I am failing, I am afraid that I do not have enough talent”; Students had to indicate the extent to which they agreed. In Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, 47% of adolescents agree or strongly agree with this statement, compared to 61% of them. Thomas Bred, professor at the Paris School of Economics and co-author of the study, explains: “We observed that, faced with failure, boys —although we believe it can be extended to men— tend to think that it is due to bad luck or external factors. Girls tend to believe it happens because they’re not skilled enough, bright enough, or talented enough.” This happened in 71 of the 72 countries studied. All except Saudi Arabia. Breda says he’s not “sure” why the exception was made, but adds: “It’s a country with very traditional gender norms, where the concept of talent may not play an important role, leaving little room for gender differences at this point.” respect”.
On the question that the stereotype is greater in countries with a higher level of gender equality, following the Global Gender Gap Index, the study argues that this is not the first time this has happened. “Here we find ourselves again with something called the paradox of gender equality,” says Breda. Leni Bascones, a researcher at the Materials Science Institute of Madrid (ICMM – CSIC) and one of the founders of the 11F initiative, explains that it could be that there is a perception of false equality. “We have better conditions in many things, but that also makes us believe that we can choose on equal terms when in our day to day reality is that it is not like that,” she defends.
This research also suggests that other gender gaps, such as competitiveness, self-confidence and willingness to work in ICT (information and communication technologies), may be related to the stereotype of lack of talent. “The stereotype makes you believe that girls are less talented than them and when they are, you may be pushed away from competitive environments. You are going to censor yourself and avoid applying for some positions because you will consider that you are not bright enough”, details the researcher. According to a study called Women and digitization: from digital divides to algorithms that collects the Women’s Institutethe percentage of female researchers in the ICT services sector is 23.4%.
Bascones, for his part, highlights that this article explains the perception that adolescents have of themselves, but that this perception “obviously comes from external stimuli they receive.” It also affects the fact that a greater presence of women suffering from the so-called impostor syndrome has been evidenced. According to one research published in 2020 in Frontiers in Psychologist, this syndrome refers to the feeling that some people have that they reached high roles and positions not because of their skills, but because of some carelessness or stroke of luck. In 2021, the KPMG audit made a studywith a sample of 750 executive women, in which they highlighted that 75% of them had suffered from this syndrome at some point throughout their career and that 85% defended that this syndrome is commonly experienced by women workers in American companies.
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