MATH, SCIENCE, AND PINK COLLARS: GENDER STEREOTYPING AND ITS EFFECT ON

High school and college are both important institutions in many peoples' lives. These academic institutions are seen as places where identities are forged, friendships are made, important basic lessons are learned, and ideally, plans are made regarding both near and distant futures. High school and college are toted as places where post-pubescent adolescents are supposed to find out what exactly they want to do with their lives – a period of four to eight or more years where the groundwork for the rest of your life out in the â€Å"real world† is laid out. Whether you want to be a social worker, a chemical engineer, or a teacher, high school and college are the places where you can learn about what you are interested in as well as where you can receive a basic education. High school and college are also the places where gender roles and stereotypes, especially in academics, begin to become glaringly obvious. In high school and especially in college, more of the curriculum is geared towards individual interests than in previous schooling environments. These specialized programs allow students to pursue things that they feel genuinely interested in, as well as allowing them to avoid those subjects that don't like. If someone is interested in taking an arts or a social studies class rather than an additional English class, they can usually do so without much trouble. In many cases, during the high school and college years, it is a widespread phenomenon that girls tend to lean more towards the â€Å"softer† subjects, such as English, art and social studies classes, while boys tend to lean toward science and mathematics. How do stereotypical gender stratifications affect the types of classes that members of each gender take? Do these ... ...nce courses. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 13(4), 435-466. Levine, P.B., & Zimmerman, D.J. (1995). The Benefit of additional high-school math and science classes for young men and women. Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, 13(2), 137-149. Kiefer, A.K., & Sekaquaptewa, D. . (2006). Implicit stereotypes and women’s math performance: how implicit gender-math stereotypes influence women’s susceptibility to stereotype threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43(1), 825-832. Good , C., Aronson, J., & Harder, J.A. (2008). Problems in the pipeline: stereotype threat and women's achievement in high-level math courses. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29, 17-28. Steele, J.R., & Ambady, N. (2006). â€Å"math is hard!† the effect of gender priming on women’s attitudes . Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 428-436.