When It Comes to Gender Stereotypes, Not All STEM Fields Are the Same

Post by Allison Master (University of Houston), Andrew N. Meltzoff (University of Washington), Daijiazi Tang (University of Michigan), & Sapna Cheryan (University of Washington).

Stories expressing concern about gender stereotypes in math and science are everywhere. Children’s beliefs that boys are better than girls at these subjects may undermine girls’ confidence, contributing to gender gaps in STEM fields.

The surprisingly good news is that girls are actually doing really well in math and science. They score as well on achievement tests as boys, and they often get higher grades.

The bad news is that women are still vastly underrepresented in many science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.

What’s going on? And what can we do to help our children—all of our children?

As researchers, we believe it’s time that we started paying attention to differences between STEM fields. There are still harmful stereotypes about STEM fields out there—but math and science stereotypes may no longer be the problem. Society has changed.

In our peer-reviewed research, published in May 2025 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we found that all STEM stereotypes are not the same. In fact, there is now a big divergence. Children and adolescents’ computer science and engineering stereotypes strongly and consistently favored boys. However, their math and science stereotypes were neutral or slightly favored girls. In fact, only around 20 percent of students reported math and science stereotypes that favored boys.

This divergence between computer science/engineering and math/science was evident in all the students—girls and boys, from different racial/ethnic backgrounds, and across elementary, middle, and high school. We also looked at stereotypes about who is "good at" STEM and who is "interested in" STEM, and we found a similar divergence everywhere. This matters because students’ beliefs about these fields directly influence their interest and behavior in STEM classes, more so than beliefs that are common in broader society. All STEM is not the same, and this has major implications for parents and teachers.

Where Are the Real Gaps?

This pattern makes a lot of sense when you look at the STEM fields in which women are most underrepresented. If we look at who gets college degrees in math, we find that today there are fairly equal numbers of women and men. In some sciences, like biology, women are actually overrepresented. In comparison, only about 1 in 5 college degrees in computer science and engineering go to women. Children build their stereotypes based on what they see in the world around them, and they see differences between computer science/engineering and math/science.

The stereotypes built into children’s minds lead to self-fulfilling prophecies. When girls learn that computer science and engineering are not for them, they are less motivated to enter those fields. Women’s underrepresentation feeds the stereotypes, and these cycles continue.

We found that in our data, too: The stronger a girl’s stereotypes, the bigger the difference in her motivation for those fields. The more that she reported a divergence in stereotypes, the less interested she was in computer science/engineering. The opposite was true for boys: These stereotypes boosted their motivation for computer science/engineering.

We’ve also found that these beliefs can actively cause girls to lose interest in these fields. Stereotypes aren’t just a reflection of what kids see in the world; they also shape how children see themselves and the choices they make. This makes it even more important to focus our efforts where the stereotypes are the strongest.

Where to Focus Our Efforts

Efforts to encourage girls in STEM should be more purposeful. In recent years, the National Science Foundation (NSF) spent $1.07 billion on efforts to broaden participation in STEM generally, with only $83 million specifically for computer science or engineering programs (NSF, 2023). When we searched on Google last year for “gender disparities,” we got the most hits for science (2,030) and STEM (949), and many fewer for computer science (545) and engineering (205).

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Why Do Math and Science Stereotypes Persist Among Some Adults?

If children see girls as interested and capable in math and science, why do stereotypes favoring boys persist in adults? These stereotypes have been around for a long time, and once stereotypes stick in our head, they change what we see and remember. We pay attention when information confirms our beliefs, and we ignore information that doesn’t.

That’s why we want to spread the word about these findings: Some stereotypes are stronger and more pernicious than others. Math and science stereotypes? Not such a problem, at least for the younger generation. Stereotypes about who does computer science and engineering? Big problem.

The Bottom Line

We need stronger efforts to counter these beliefs about computer science and engineering. We need to give girls early, positive experiences with coding, robotics, and tinkering. Parents can play with blocks and Lego bricks with girls and boys, sign up all their children for coding camps, and encourage girls to build and invent things.

Representation also matters, and so we can share stories of women who enjoy and succeed in these fields. We can also spread the word that girls’ interest in computer science is increasing, with more and more taking AP Computer Science every year.

Children are strongly shaped by the messages they hear. Let’s send them the messages that will matter the most. All children can enjoy and succeed in STEM.