Alexandra Collects Things Online
Moon: With your studies on gender similarities in math performance, has there been an increased awareness among parents and teachers on the stereotype that girls have lesser mathematical ability? How have you or others been getting the word out?
Hyde: We've been doing our best to get the word out. The findings in the 2008 Science article received massive media coverage, including newspapers, online sources, and TV. Journalists in other nations covered it as well. We received many emails from parents and teachers saying how much they appreciated the research. Nonetheless, stereotypes are resistant to change, for reasons documented by social psychologists. Even in the most recent waves of data collection, parents still estimate higher math ability for their sons than their daughters. We have to keep plugging away at getting the science out to the public.
How can it be that girls are still perceived as less talented in math and science than boys? Or even worse: as less capable of learning what is needed for a career as engineer or physicist?
Shouldn't we have overcome this by now?
