Economics and Finance Research Talks

Speaker: Valentina Tonei (University of Southampton)

Topic: Gender Stereotypes in the Family

Abstract: We study how a child’s gender affects parental perceptions of their children’s academic abilities in reading and mathematics. Our findings show a clear gender bias, with parents underestimating girls' mathematical skills and boys' reading abilities. Using exogenous variation in the timing of parental interviews, we demonstrate that providing parents with information on standardised test scores significantly reduces gender bias in mathematics, but not in reading. Finally, we find that these biased beliefs have a lasting impact on children's academic performance, contributing to the widening gender gap in STEM and humanities subjects.

For registeration, please contact: Wenke.Zhang@brunel.ac.uk; Matteo.Pazzona@brunel.ac.uk