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Implicit stereotypes, gender identification, and math-related outcomes: A prospective study of female college students. Amy Kiefer and Denise Sekaquaptewa (January, 2007). Psychological Science.

Evidence is accumulating to suggest that even women who are well above average in math ability can be influenced by implicit gender stereotypes about math achievement. Kiefer and Sekaquaptewa tracked the performance of women across a semester of college calculus after asking them questions about their explicit math-gender stereotypes and indirectly measuring their implicit math-gender stereotypes. They found (after taking into account previously demonstrated math skill) that the women’s explicit gender-math stereotypes made no difference to their final exam performance, but those with relatively strong implicit “math=male” stereotypes averaged worse on their final exams.

Interestingly, the achievement benefit of a weaker implicit stereotype was limited (on average) to women who rated the fact of being a woman as relatively less central to their self-concept. Among those rating womanhood as relatively more central to their self-concept, a weak implicit math-gender stereotype did not inoculate them from the same decrement in calculus performance experienced by those with stronger implicit stereotypes.

The take-home message? Women’s math performance, even at a high level, is related to an inter-play of gender self-concept and implicit academic stereotypes beyond awareness and short-term control. Other research points to possibilities for changing implicit stereotypes.