Adolescent girls' plans for taking college math drop if they're shown feminine-looking women excelling in technological fields. After 11- to 13-year-old girls heard about women who were successful in science and wore dark-colored clothing, their expectations of taking math averaged 5.57 on a 1-to-7 scale, say Diana Betz and Denise Sekaquaptewa of the University of Michigan. But when girls learned about science-achieving women who wore makeup and pink clothes, their expectations of taking math fell to 4.04. Feminine-looking scientists may seem a rare breed to gender-stereotyping adolescents, and past research suggests that unattainable role models aren't inspiring, they're threatening.
Read more in My Fair Physicist?
Read more in My Fair Physicist?
