The Effects of Gender Stereotypic and Counter-Stereotypic Textbook Images on Science Performance

Female 9^th and 10^th grade students showed higher comprehension of a chemistry lesson when that lesson included images of women scientists than they did when the lesson included images of male scientists.   

• Female students scored significantly higher on the comprehension test when exposed to counter-stereotypic images of female scientists -- a score of 9.38 correct answers out of a possible 12. When exposed to stereotypic images of male scientists, they scored an average of 7.42 out of 12.  
• Male students showed the opposite results, averaging scores of 9 out of a possible 12 when their lesson included stereotype-confirming images of male scientists and 7.70 when their lesson included counter-stereotypic images of female scientists. This difference is sizable but doesn’t meet the criteria for statistical significance.
• In the mixed-image condition – when students were exposed to images of both male and female scientists – there were no significant differences between male and female students’ comprehension test scores.
• Students’ anxiety levels were not meaningfully correlated with their genders or which types of images appeared in their lesson texts, in contrast to the authors’ expectations.
• Similarly, the degree of interest that students reported in science as an academic subject or future career field did not impact comprehension scores.

In short, stereotype threat can negatively impact female students’ performance in science by means of textbook images that reinforce gender stereotypes. Using pictures of both female and male scientists leads to closing the gender gap in performance between boys and girls.

This study used three different versions of a chemistry lesson on chemical reactions and equations.  The text was taken from a high school chemistry textbook and was identical in all three versions, but the images of scientists in the texts were altered to fit the stereotypic (all male scientists) counter-stereotypic (all female scientists) and mixed (an even mix of male and female scientists) conditions.  The lessons were presented along with a comprehension test, an anxiety inventory, and a survey assessing interest in various academic and career fields, to a group of 81 9th and 10^th grade students (29 male and 52 female, ranging in age from 13-17) who had not previously taken a chemistry course or had any instruction in chemical reactions.  The lesson and test material was distributed in unmarked envelopes by the students’ regular science teachers, and the students were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions based on which envelope they received.  The students read the directions for the study, took the survey on academic and career interests, then read the chemistry lesson.  They then completed the comprehension test, anxiety inventory, and a second survey on academic and career interests.  Finally, they completed a manipulation check, which tested whether they could recall the images that were in their test.