Gender stereotyping in mothers’ and teachers’ perceptions of boys’ and girls’ mathematics performance in Ireland

ABSTRACT

Parents' and teachers’ beliefs and evaluations of young people are important. Using a feminist institutionalist perspective, and drawing on rich data from one in seven nine-year-old children in Ireland, this paper examines mothers’ (who make up the overwhelming majority of primary care-givers) and teachers’ perceptions of boys’ and girls’ mathematics performance. The evidence shows that girls’ mathematics performance is underestimated by both relative to boys’. Mother’s gender bias was evident among high performing children, at all levels of children’s academic self-concept, and among mothers with at least third level education. While the judgements reflect children’s actual performance and engagement, a notable gender gap remains. It is suggested that the results reflect gender stereotypes: overestimating boys’ and underestimating girls’ mathematics achievements. The article indicates the importance of the informal dimension of institutions and the part played by women in the effective devaluation of girls by endorsing gendered stereotypes. Women teachers are less likely to rate children highly in mathematics, taking account of performance: arguably reflecting their own lack of confidence in mathematics assessment. The findings raise concerns for girls’ futures since mathematics is seen as an indicator of intelligence. Given the move towards teacher-assessed grading during COVID-19, understanding, and challenging, gender-stereotyping is pressing.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender stereotypes
• mathematics
• teachers’ perceptions
• mothers’ perceptions
• children’s agency
• academic performance

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Professor Paul Devereux, University College Dublin, and Professors Emer Smyth and Muireann Lynch, Economic and Social Research Institute, for their valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

This paper is based on the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) data. GUI is funded by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY). It is managed by DCEDIY in association with the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. The vast majority (99%) of primary caregivers were mothers, so henceforth we refer to mothers.

2. The substantive results and interpretation of the influence of gender on mathematics ability does not differ when we run nested and un-nested models and so we are confident in presenting the un-nested results in the paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Selina McCoy

Selina McCoy is Associate Research Professor in Social Research and joint education research coordinator at the Economic and Social Research Institute in Ireland, and Adjunct Professor of Sociology at Trinity College Dublin. She has over 25 years of experience with responsibility for research and evaluation projects in the fields of educational inequality, academic achievement and student development. Her recent work has centred particularly on inclusive education and gender differences in education, with publications in the International Journal of Inclusive Education, Oxford Review of Education and European Journal of Special Needs Education. She is Irish expert at the Independent Experts on Education and Training and a member of the Expert Group on Quality Investment in Education and Training, both at the DG Education and Culture, European Commission.

Delma Byrne

Delma Byrne is Associate Professor at Maynooth University Departments of Sociology and Education and Visiting Ass. Professor, Geary Institute, University College Dublin, Ireland. Her research interests focus on social stratification and the sociology of education, and the role of education in shaping life chances over the life-course. This work draws on large-scale survey and administrative data to investigate inequalities relating to gender, social class, race/ethnicity, disability and special educational needs, and cross-cuts comparative education and labour market research.

Pat O’Connor

Pat O’Connor is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Limerick, Ireland and Visiting Professor, Geary Institute, University College Dublin, Ireland. Her roughly 120 publications include eight books, 30 chapters and over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles in a wide range of international journals including Leadership, Critical Studies in Education, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, HERD, EMAL, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, Studies in Higher Education, Gender and Education, Policy Reviews in Higher Education, Work, Employment and Society etc. Her main research focus is on gender inequality. She was a member of the five-person HEA National Review on Gender Equality in Irish Higher Education Institutions (2016). A member of the international consortium WHEM, and of an EU funded project (2012-2017) FESTA, she is currently on the Advisory Boards of three EU projects TARGET, CHANGE and RESET. She has held visiting professorships at London, Aveiro, Linkoping, Deakin and Melbourne. She was editor/co-editor of a number of Special Issues including Creating Change in Higher Education IES (2020); and Gender and Leadership, Educ Sci (2018) and is co-editor of Gender Power and Higher Education in a Globalised World (Palgrave Macmillan 2021).