Stereotypes and their Challenge with Youth
Award winning author Nancy Kress once said “A stereotype may be negative or positive, but even positive stereotypes present two problems: they are clichés, and they present a human being as far more simple and uniform than any human being actually is.” While this is a formidable and accurate quote, Kress does not acknowledge that even positive stereotypes have negative effects on those that the stereotype does not address. Stereotypes are innately powerful by nature because they shape the world around people. Over the last few years, professionals have analyzed the relationship between gender stereotypes and child development and come upon a daunting conclusion as to just how harmful these gender …show more content…
At this age children have a very primitive understanding of gender, but even this basic understanding allows children to begin to recognize how gender is portrayed in the surrounding world. Gender stereotypes start settling in children’s minds at around five years old, and a more rigid set of beliefs settles in by age seven (Aina). This progression makes the ages from three to seven, or the preschool years, very important in children’s development of a gender …show more content…
This leads both boys and girls to believe that they are the inferior sex intellectually, and this inferiority complex can be proven with standardized testing. In a traditional standardized test, the test-takers mark down their gender prior to the exam. In this setting, the mean scores for boys are higher than they are for girls despite the fact that the genders received the “same” education. However, when gender is not emphasized, females perform just as well or even better than their male counterparts on standardized tests. Another study done by AP discovered that having girls report their gender at the end of the exam, rather than at the beginning, resulted in a 6% increase in the number of girls whom passed the calculus test (Aina, Brown). That translates to nearly 5000 more students who earned college credit simply because gender was deemphasized. From this, we can deduce there is a subconscious belief amongst women that when it comes to math, they are the inferior sex, and simply being reminded that they are a woman causes a decrease in confidence levels and in turn
Award winning author Nancy Kress once said “A stereotype may be negative or positive, but even positive stereotypes present two problems: they are clichés, and they present a human being as far more simple and uniform than any human being actually is.” While this is a formidable and accurate quote, Kress does not acknowledge that even positive stereotypes have negative effects on those that the stereotype does not address. Stereotypes are innately powerful by nature because they shape the world around people. Over the last few years, professionals have analyzed the relationship between gender stereotypes and child development and come upon a daunting conclusion as to just how harmful these gender …show more content…
At this age children have a very primitive understanding of gender, but even this basic understanding allows children to begin to recognize how gender is portrayed in the surrounding world. Gender stereotypes start settling in children’s minds at around five years old, and a more rigid set of beliefs settles in by age seven (Aina). This progression makes the ages from three to seven, or the preschool years, very important in children’s development of a gender …show more content…
This leads both boys and girls to believe that they are the inferior sex intellectually, and this inferiority complex can be proven with standardized testing. In a traditional standardized test, the test-takers mark down their gender prior to the exam. In this setting, the mean scores for boys are higher than they are for girls despite the fact that the genders received the “same” education. However, when gender is not emphasized, females perform just as well or even better than their male counterparts on standardized tests. Another study done by AP discovered that having girls report their gender at the end of the exam, rather than at the beginning, resulted in a 6% increase in the number of girls whom passed the calculus test (Aina, Brown). That translates to nearly 5000 more students who earned college credit simply because gender was deemphasized. From this, we can deduce there is a subconscious belief amongst women that when it comes to math, they are the inferior sex, and simply being reminded that they are a woman causes a decrease in confidence levels and in turn