I’ve been trying to work out how to respond to the BBC headline “Girls see physics as for white men only, MPs told” since it was published on their website on the 19th May.  My initial response was anger over the headline which reinforces gender stereotypes, however, after reading the article my feelings changed to those of immense sadness. 

Over the last 30+ years, so many steps forward have been taken to try to reduce the impact of gender on employment possibilities, and I would have hoped that my own experience of being told “Don’t expect to pass, girls can’t do physics” by my male physics teacher who had been employed by an all-girls school in 1987 wouldn’t happen anymore. However, gender stereotypes are still limiting girls' engagement in STEM subjects, with the BBC reporting that in 2021 only 23% of physics A-level entrants were female.

What makes this article worse is that it follows on from an article published by the BBC on the 27th April which reported on government advisor Katharine Birbalsingh’s report to MP’s around increasing diversity in science. During her report, she told MP’s that “physics isn’t something that girls tend to fancy.” And “I just think they don’t like it. There’s a lot of hard maths in there that I think that they would rather not do.”

Whilst Ms Birbalsingh is reporting her own thoughts as to why the number of girls taking physics at A-level, research has shown that children as young as five years old are starting to develop gendered beliefs about which academic subjects they are more likely to be good at. Gender stereotypes regarding academic subjects can have a long-term impact on children’s academic achievement as well as their self-confidence. Research by Rhodes and Baron (2019) identified that primary-aged children start to identify maths as a subject that boys excel in, and that even when a girl is achieving at or above the level of her male peers, she is likely to report that she is not good at maths.  The same can be seen with boys when talking to them about their literacy skills.  Unless children’s beliefs about their academic abilities are challenged when they are young, these stereotyped beliefs can have a long-term impact with children losing motivation in subjects that they feel they aren’t good at.  

Schools are becoming more aware of the impact of gender stereotypes on children’s experiences, however early childhood settings do not seem to have the same level of awareness.  The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage sets out that the EYFS seeks to provide “equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included and supported” (Department for Education, 2021: 5). However, I have had conversations with practitioners who told me that “young children don’t know about gender stereotypes, they are innocent and just don’t see differences”. Where practitioners aren’t aware that pre-school children are already aware of gender and have developed an understanding of some basic gender stereotypes, they won’t be looking out for discriminatory behaviours that children experience from their peers due to their gender.  

Going back to the idea that girls don’t like hard maths (sorry Ms Birbalsingh, I for one enjoyed maths and took it at A-level) we have to look at girls’ early experience of mathematics and the range of skills that they are given the opportunity to develop.  One key aspect of maths that pre-school children have the opportunity to explore on a daily basis are concepts around shape and space. One of the many activities that support children’s shape and space is block play or construction activities. However, the construction area is often one of the very gendered areas of the setting and often girls do not feel welcome and therefore their opportunities to explore shape and space using the construction materials are limited.

On the other hand, gender stereotypes don’t just impact girls, boys are also negatively impacted by academic gender stereotypes. From a young age, boys are exposed to comments about how they are always physically active and at the same time see the practitioners respond positively to the girls sitting at activities.  This reinforces the boys’ belief that girls do sitting down activities, for instance, table-based activities, whilst boys do physical activities.  This belief grows and over time boys begin to believe that these activities are not for them, which means that they lose out on activities that develop their fine motor skills and other early literacy activities which tend to take place inside.

So how do we as practitioners and adults challenge this? We need to give all children the opportunity to be physically active and to engage in literacy activities - by de-emphasising gender children are able to experience a wider variety of opportunities and become less stereotyped in their thoughts and beliefs about gender.

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